A NEW SOURCE ATTRIBUTED TO JOANNES PARVUS

Abstract

In the course of research on late sixteenth-century Italian music printing, I came across a new manuscript source of sacred polyphony in a private collection.1 It dates from the mid sixteenth century, and contains music of Festa, Palestrina, and Arcadelt, among others. On the basis of paleographical evidence and a signature found in the manuscript, I believe the main body of text to have been copied by Joannes Parvus, principal scribe of the Sistine Chapel from the late 1530s until 1580. This paper will give a brief introduction to the source and its structure; comment, in a general way, on the repertoire; and, in closing, suggest the probable provenance. First, a description of the manuscript. Unlike the vast majority of mid sixteenth-century sacred music sources, the manuscript is divided into partbooks. Originally, it comprised six parts: Cantus, Tenor, Altus, Bassus, Quintus and Sextus. The set of parts under discussion here, which I call New Parvus, has seven. This curious circumstance results from the existence of two copies of the Altus partbook. It seems, in fact, that New Parvus is made up of partbooks from two complete sets, both largely copied by Parvus and another scribe, whom I call Scribe B, within a short time span. This conclusion is based on three separate strands of evidence. The first relates to the bindings. The part books survive in two different contemporary bindings. The Cantus, Bassus and one of the Altus books are bound in brown leather