Rediscovering Lost Evidence: Little-Known Fragments with English Polyphony in Bologna

Abstract

Two leaves with polyphonic music were identified a few decades ago in San Domenico in Bologna, then disappeared, and only recently have some reproductions resurfaced so that their content can be now discussed in greater detail. Four Latin devotional motets, of which only one is complete, can be reconstructed; two of them are connected to specific feasts, St Thomas of Canterbury and the Assumption. Style, treatment of the texts, and notational peculiarities, together with the script and layout of the source, point to an English origin of the motets in the early part of the fourteenth century. The time when the leaves arrived in Bologna is unknown. However, the possibility that this music may have circulated in the city later in the fourteenth century cannot be ruled out entirely: besides San Domenico, a favourable context may have been the monastery of San Salvatore, known for its long-standing links with the community of English students in the city.