Insights into the chronology and reception of Philippe de Vitry’s Ars Nova theory: revisiting the mensural treatise of Barcelona Cathedral

Abstract

Barcelona Cathedral preserves a 14th-century manuscript whose only contents are a treatise on mensural notation traditionally dated c.1350. This article argues that many details in the text rather point towards the 1330s, and suggest a possible Parisian influence. This revised dating highlights the treatise’s historical significance as a witness of the development of Ars Nova theory during the first half of the 14th century. Specifically, the Barcelona treatise appears to be one of the earliest compendia that report the systematization of the ‘four prolations’, a mensural system that was developed in music theory during the 1330s and remained the foundation of musical notation for centuries to come.