My annotated transcriptions from the Florence Codex offered here grew over many years. They originated out of my own curiosity in assessing and interpreting the contents of this most extensive of all the manuscript sources of 'Notre Dame' music. In their present state they are intended primarily as a set of resources for scholars and performers.
I have attempted here to present the music as compactly and in as visually pleasing a fashion as I could muster. Of course, these examples do not come close to including the same range of information as in the complete critical edition of the Magnus Liber Organi published by L’Oiseau-Lyre, or the conductus edition of Gordon A. Anderson offered by the Institute of Mediaeval Music. Nevertheless, despite the fact that these transcriptions and editions engage with the main content of the first five volumes of both the MLO series and Anderson’s publication, I would hope that users may find these documents worthwhile in terms of portraying the differing ways editors might respond to the material at hand.
Please acknowledge any re-use or reproduction of the work included in these files.
Full Introduction (updated 17 June 2024)
Symbols and Abbreviations (updated 17 June 2024)
Fascicle 1: Organa, Conductus a4, Clausulae a4 and a3 (updated 3 June 2024)
Fascicle 2: Organa, Clausulae a3 (updated 8 June 2024)
Fascicle 3: MLO: Office, Processional, Benedicamus Domino Organa, Clausulae a2
Fascicle 4: MLO: Mass Organa a2
Fascicle 6: First conductus fascicle (updated 8 June 2024)
Fascicle 7: Second Conductus fascicle (NEW 20 June 2024)
In addition to the musical transcriptions, fascicles 6 and 7 include the newly edited texts of the pieces, presented separately with translations and extensive commentaries, as well as some reports on variants with the main sources used for the transcriptions. These are therefore more of an “edition” than my transcriptions of fascicles 1-5, but does not include complete critical reports of sources unless they were missing or unknown from Gordon Anderson’s conductus edition.
Most of the symbols and abbreviations used in this document are the same as those encountered in the first 5 fascicles. New bibliography and MS sources are given full citations and shelfmarks for at least their first instances.