Cathedral Archives Research Articles

Presencia musical en la Catedral de La Seu d'Urgell en la primera mitad del siglo XVIII a través de sus actas capitulares

El objetivo del presente artículo, es colaborar a la recuperación histórica de nuestra música y nuestro patrimonio, por medio de un caso concreto. Se pretende dar a conocer la vida musical —entre 1700 y 1750— de la capilla de música de la catedral de la Seu d'Urgell, un centro de particular relevancia desde época medieval, por ser un importante paso pirenaico entre Francia y España. Sobre los períodos medieval y renacentista existen algunos viejos estudios, que culminan con las publicaciones de Higini Anglés sobre Joan Brudieu. Pero, en cambio, apenas se conocen datos sobre la vida musical en esta ciudad episcopal durante los siglos XVIII al XX Empalmando con el final temporal abarcado por el trabajo de Pedrell-Anglés, el presente trabajo inicia el vaciado sistemático de la información alusiva a la música contenida en la documentación catedralicia. Aunque se tiene la intención de continuar, en esta ocasión, solamente se publican las actas capitulares correspondientes al período 1700-1750, lo que nos permite obtener una visión general de las actividades y repercusión de una de las principales capillas de música de ámbito catalán, y uno de los centros de ámbito hispánico menos estudiados por la Musicología hasta el momento.

Plainchant at Florence's Cathedral in the Late Seicento: Matteo Coferati and Shifting Concepts of Tonal Space

While accounts of modal change in Baroque music have often focused on progressive genres such as opera, more conservative repertories may also reveal important shifts in the conceptualization of tonal space. The presence of "new" elements in a conservative context can provide an index of how deeply new ways of thinking have penetrated. For this reason, the plainchant treatises of Matteo Coferati (1638- 1708), a singer and chaplain at Florence cathedral for nearly 45 years, merit special scrutiny. Coferati's unprecedentedly detailed instructions on the use of unwritten sharps in plainchant present new solutions to old problems while implicitly reflecting the influence of polyphony in general and the alternating organ in particular. The relationship between plainchant and polyphony thus emerges as a reciprocal one. Moreover, the distance between monophonic and polyphonic modal norms turns out to be less than one might conclude by examining notated chants without considering unwritten performance practices. That Coferati's teachings represent practice at the Florence duomo is supported by a contemporaneous manuscript choir book from the cathedral's archives, containing the very sharps he advocates. In addition, new archival findings revise Coferati's long-accepted birth and death dates and provide specific information about his service as a cappellano of Florence's cathedral.

Preparation, Prevention and Practice: attempting to avoid disasters at Canterbury Cathedral Archives

This article describes a number of exercises carried out at Canterbury Cathedral Archives and Library to test different elements of our disaster plans, and the changes made as a result. It features lessons learnt from a major exercise with Kent Fire Brigade and Document SOS (a disaster recovery and restoration firm based in Kent), but also examines the benefitsof testing call-out lists, practising salvage from a smoke-filled room and the pros and cons of evacuation shelves.

John Bargrave and the Jesuits

I. An English Exile During the Civil War In May, 1645,John Bargrave (c. 1610-1680), a member of a prominent Protestant family from Kent and a former fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, crossed the Channel to begin, like many other royalist emigres of the period, an extended peregrination through France and Italy.1 As a Cambridge student, Bargrave had matriculated from St. Peter's College (Peterhouse) in July, 1629, and had proceeded to B.A. (1633) and M.A. (1636) degrees before being elected a fellow in 1637.2 In 1643, however, as a firm opponent of Archbishop Laud's liturgical reforms, he had fallen foul of both the University and college authorities, resulting in the loss of his fellowship. The likelihood of John Bargrave gaining any other form of employment commensurate with his abilities and qualifications was also significantly hampered by his being the nephew of the Dean of Canterbury Cathedral, Isaac Bargrave (1586-1643). Dean Bargrave (who had served as King Charles I's personal chaplain before his coronation in 1625) was a vociferous supporter of the King and had been hounded out of his deanery by the notorious Parliamentarian, Colonel Edwin Sandys, resulting in a brief incarceration in the Fleet Prison and an early death in January, 1643.3 It seems likely that John Bargrave's decision to spend an extended period of time traveling abroad was simply the resuit of no other viable employment options then being available to him. During these travels John Bargrave acted as a tutor-governor to three Kentish youths,Alexander Chapman and John Richards (or Rycaut), and his own nephew, John Raymond, who were probably being sent abroad by their families primarily to avoid the aftermath of the Kentish Rebellion of 1643. Both Raymond and Rycaut belonged to prominent Protestant royalist families and Chapman was either the son or nephew of Alexander Chapman (d. 1629), formerly a prebendary of Canterbury Cathedral.4 When Bargrave's small party arrived at Paris, one of his first concerns was to ensure that there would be adequate provision for their spiritual welfare and regular worship, as he recorded in his diary:5 On Sunday I went to Sir Richard Browns lodgings whoe was Agent for his Majesty of England, where wee had read the English liturgie, and an English sermon by Mr Crowder, chaplaine to the Lord Germie Earle of Yarmouth; which being ended, wee received the sacrament in the forme appointed by the Church of England. On this day I mett with Dr Cosins att the Loover (or Court) whoe is Master of the same Coll: whereof I am a [member deleted] fellow. viz. St Pet Coll Cantabrig.6 In view of this clearly stated commitment to the Church of England, it is interesting to learn from numerous other entries in Bargrave's diary just how extensive his contacts were with French Catholicism, especially through the Society of Jesus. His hitherto unexamined autograph diary, which has recently surfaced in Canterbury Cathedral Archives (U11/8), covers the period May, 1645, until February, 1646, and is crammed with his incidental observations, jottings, sketches, and reminiscences. Although many of the surviving records of English travelers in France and Italy during the 1640's and 1650's-both Protestant and Catholic alike-- reveal a passing interest in the religious practices and church architecture of these countries, John Bargrave's diary is notable for its detailed record of the Society of Jesus at Bourges. Unlike most of the other surviving English travel accounts from the period, which usually satisfy themselves with a cursory description of the buildings and/or educational practices of the various Jesuit colleges visited (or merely passed by), John Bargrave's diary records detailed descriptions of the academic pursuits of the college at Bourges (which, as far as I am aware, does not figure in any other of the surviving diaries compiled by seventeenth-century English travelers).7 Secondly, the subject matter and argumentative tactics of Bargrave's frequent debates with three student members of the Jesuit order-two Scottish men, named by Bargrave as Father Sprowd (Robert Spreule) and Father Browne (James Browne), and one English man,Father Carew (Thomas Cary)-are fully documented in his diary. …

Lingua e escritura na Compostela do século XV

Late medieval Galicia is basically a diglossic society where Galician is the commonly used idiom and some authorities and cultural and religious persons and institutions implement Latin and Spanish; Portuguese (or the southern Galegoportugues spoken and writen in Portugal) should be added to them in certain regions and environments. The possible connection between language and paleographical variants is briefly studied, taking as an example Santiago de Compostela cathedral archives, where writings were made and used in all these four languages.

GPR survey to confirm the location of ancient structures under the Valencian Cathedral (Spain)

This paper describes the ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey performed inside the Cathedral of Valencia, Spain. It is part of historical studies performed in the Cathedral in order to add information to old maps and documents in the Cathedral Archives and also to analyze the extent and importance of potentially destructive moisture areas that were appearing on the floor. The construction of the Cathedral of Valencia occurred in three stages, all of which are well-documented in the Cathedral Archives with detailed drawings, maps, and charts. The radar data were successful in locating crypts, ossuaries, sepulchers, and graves, and the location of ancient walls that existed before the final Cathedral expansion. Three cultural layers corresponding to the three periods of construction were also identified corresponding to the Roman, Arabian and Middle Age Epochs. Measurements of relative sub-floor moisture were obtained by comparing dielectric permittivity changes and radar velocity differences between materials in humid and non-humid areas.

The Altars in York Minster in the Early Sixteenth Century

Good God! what a pomp of silk vestments was there, of golden candlesticks.’ The dismissive satire of Erasmus’s pilgrim on looking down on Canterbury Cathedral not only brought traditional piety into disrepute among significant sectors of the educated, both clerical and lay, in early sixteenth-century England, but has also helped to colour the views of historians of the later medieval Church until recently. The work on parochial, diocesan, and cathedral archives since the 1960s, undertaken and inspired by the publication of A. G. Dickens’ The English Reformation, has refined that view, which saw traditional piety as something of a clerical confidence trick designed to impoverish a credulous laity, and recovered the reputation of the early sixteenth-century Church. The most recent, and most eloquent, account of the strength of traditional piety among the people is that by Eamon Duffy. His work has concentrated on the parochial context, where he has shown how intercessory prayer, through gilds, obits, and chantries, remained at the centre of a liturgical tradition which commanded great loyalty from the laity up to and, in some cases, beyond the dissolution of those institutional expressions of that devotion in 1547. The place of such devotion within a cathedral context has largely been ignored, despite the recently published histories, and this paper sets out to fill that gap a little by looking at the minor altars of York Minster and the clergy which served them.

Interactive Slave Operations: Muslim-Christian Jewish Contracts in Thirteenth-Century Barcelona

AbstractMedieval Mediterranean Spain saw routine interaction between all three ethnoreligious populations, most of it random and undocumented. Slave purchases constituted one such tri-ethnic situation, as exemplified in the four charters transcribed and contextualized here, from the cathedral archives of Barcelona in 1252, 1275, 1286, and 1290. Each operation moved a slave from one public and private cultural ambience to another; each involved women; each was a local, short-term transaction; and each illustrates the generalities available in our slave data base. Family, social class, economic framework, and legal context can be clarified for each transaction in turn. As corsairs scoured the seas, especially for women slaves to service the century's new patrician life-style, a Muslim slave community populated perhaps 21 percent of Barcelona households, part of a mass population interchange between Islam and Christendom, facilitated by Jewish entrepreneurs whose Hebrew signatures are on each of these early and therefore rare slave parchments.

Stift und Stadt. Das Heiliggrabpriorat von Santa Anna und das Regularkanonikerstift Santa Eulàlia del Camp im mittelalterlichen Barcelona (1145-1423)

Stift und Stadt. Das Heiliggrabpriorat von Santa Anna und das Regular kanonikerstift Santa Eulalia del Camp im mittelalterlichen Barcelona (1145-1423). By Nikolas Jaspert. [Berliner Historische Studien, Band 24. Ordernsstudien, X.] (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot. 1996. Pp. 575; 21 maps, 5 tables and graphs. DM 138.00 paperback.) This substantial work, initially Nikolas Jaspert's doctoral dissertation directed by Professor Kaspar Elm and defended in 1994 at the Freie Universitat in Berlin, matured well beyond this stage to be placed by Professor Joachim Ehlers into the Berliner Historische Studien series as the tenth volume about religious orders in the Middle Ages. Rather than a traditional institutional history of one house or the other, this study aims at an histoire totale in the ethnographical style of New Cultural History, integrating the entwined histories of both houses, the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre Priory of Sta. Anna and the Canons Regular convent of Sta. Eulalia, into the fabric of medieval Barcelonan daily life and vibrant civic culture. It is this combination of detail and intricate locality with broader contextualization of the Mediterranean world of the Crusades that is this study's strength. Despite the uniformity attributed by themselves and others to religious and military orders and their official identity, the Canons, Knights, their patrons and beneficiaries, formed intricate communities larger than their houses. These were not artificial, esoteric pre-organized coherent religious movements imported from some far-off inspirational centers, but were spontaneous and self-organizing, indigenous and semi-autonomous, brotherhoods that through affiliation grew into multi-type organizations and far-flung corporations that were highly influential in urban affairs and those of state for more than two centuries. In his introductory chapter and tabular form in his appended source references,Jaspert lays out the archival fonds of Sta. Anna from the Arxiu Diocesa de Barcelona (ADB) which begin in the early 1140's during the resurgence of the crusade against the Muslim Ebro fortress kingdoms of Ilerda and Tortosa and subsequent major expansion of Arago-Catalunya and during the continuing struggle in the Holy Land. These records double in annual production after the 1220's and the Crown's expansion toward Valencia, reaching a crescendo in the 1330-1340's before the decline of the archives in 1350 and the end of the series in 1423 with the union of the priories and Sta. Anna and Sta. Eulalia-the terminus of Jaspert's study. In all, 3,181 originals and 688 transumpts or official copies from the Sta. Anna archives are analyzed in thirty-five diplomatic categories. Their data are augmented by gleanings from twenty other archives, especially the parchment series of the Royal Chancery in the Arxiu Corona d'Arago (ACA) for political context, the see of Barcelona's grand cartulary or Libri Antiquitatum in the cathedral archives, and the ADB's Registra Communium. Jaspert also relied on the more than one hundred published collections of transcribed documents that exist for this region. Jaspert supplies an extensive but not exhaustive fifty-page bibliography of the pertinent secondary literature which admirably crosses all language and political barriers (including contributions from the flourishing American school of medievalists too often ignored by peninsular historians). A larger bibliography exists, of course, for the Canons Regular, the new military and reformed monastic orders, and other religious movements in southern France and northeastern Spain, that could provide even more breadth for this local and regional study. One might have expected its findings to have been related to established generalizations in such institutional surveys for the peninsula as those by Luis G. de Valdeavellano or more regionally by J. M. Font i Rius, or the economic perspectives by J. Vicens Vives. The bibliography itself is presented in a vademecum style, a hybrid Social Science and Humanities system of its own, with short author-title-page references to the full citations in the bibliography. …

El beato de Liébana

Four months after the Codex of Liebena was stolen from the Dioceses Museum of Seu d'Urgell on September 29th, 1996, the Director of the Guardia Civil delivered this marvelous miniature work to the bishop Monsignor Juan Marti Alanis in the romantic setting of the cathedral on February 14th, 1997. The speedy recuperation by the Guardia Civil of this prized work of the cathedral archives spoke well of the efficiency of this cops. Once this valuable manuscript was recuperated, it was publicly exhibited in the palace of the Generalidad de Cataluna on the day of St. George, Wednesday, April 23rd, 1997, giving the Barcelona populace a chance to admire this precious work and to celebrate its recuperation.

Redating the Arca Santa of Oviedo

The reliquary known as the Arca Santa of Oviedo has traditionally been dated to 1075 on the basis of its dedicatory inscription and events described in Document 72 of Oviedo Cathedral's archives. The authenticity of this document, which describes a ceremonial opening of the casket by King Alfonso VI of Leon-Castile, has recently been questioned. This article proposes an alternative date in the twelfth century which sets the reliquary's production in the context of rivalries between Oviedo, Toledo, and Santiago de Compostela, and takes into account certain of its stylistic and iconographic features.

Origin and Development of Archival Record-Keeping in the Crown of Castile-Leon

Summary Archives were the byproducts of scribal bureaucracies which developed in the Iberian peninsula especially in the twelfth century. In the heartland Crown of Castile-Leon, the beginning of systematic record keeping can be traced as a development parallel to the growth of the monarchy from a traveling court to a network of regional capitals and coordination by the royal chanceries. The kinds of records and their formats are surveyed in this essay, with special attention to edited and published records for the study of Castile-Leon in the Middle Ages. The main foci are on the royal chancery, monastic and cathedral archives, records of the military orders, municipal archives, and the origin of royal archives. Legal sources documenting more conscientious record keeping are important, as are registers attesting actual practices. Finally, the main archival depositories of Spain are discussed, especially regarding their holdings of medieval and early modern records.

Aportaciones documentales sobre la técnica de la pintura hispalense a fines de la Edad Media

This article reviews the painting techniques, materials and procedures employed at the end of the medieval period within the geographical ambit of Christian Andalusia, using references and data from various sources, principally the Seville Cathedral archives. This documentary evidence testifies to the presence, in this early period, of products and practices which were to be suitably developed from the Renaissance onwards.

THE RESTORATION OF DECORATED PAVING STONES FROM ‘LA SEO’ CATHEDRAL, ZARAGOZA

In the last 10 years there has been a marked increase in interest in the conservation of historic buildings in Spain. There is still much to be done, but r~scue work has now begun on endangered buildings and those structures considered to be of greatest architectural significance. In the region of Aragon, one of the largest conservation projects is the restoration of' La Seo' Cathedral in Zaragoza. The architect responsible for the work, D. Ignacio Gracia Bernal, required the collaboration of our research team to help put together a proposal for the restoration of the paved floor of the cathedral. This stone pavement was laid in the last quarter of the eighteenth century using a geometric design of large flowers and stars in a variety of stones of different colour. When part of this pavement was lifted, many of the surviving stones were found to be in a poor state. The floor was eroded and broken, with much loss of decorative detail. The primary aim of the project was to identify the lithology of the original stone so that the surviving paving stones could be restored and the floor accurately repaired with appropriate materials. The team began by studying all relevant documentary evidence relating to the laying of the floor. The two principal archives consuited were the Cathedral Archives and the Archive of Protocol of Zaragoza; these contain the original site construction notebooks and journals (dated 1777, 1783 and 1795) listing the names of the stonemasons who carried out the work and the salaries they received. In addition, there are details of the preparation and the laying of the floo'r. Finally, in the Afios Artisticos de Zaragoza (1782-83) there is a description of the original position of the pavement but sadly no information on the source of stone used. The sampling procedure was determined by two distinct objectives: firstly, the identification of the lithology of the stone used in the pavement and, secondly, the discovery of the geologic~l source from which the stones were quarried. Sampling took into consideration physical characteristics such as texture, colour and state of preservation. Fifty-eight samples were taken from those areas illustrated and included material from the high altar (zones A, B& C), the transept (zones D to G), section V (zones H to P), section IV. (zones Q & R) and lastly section III (zones S, T & U) ..Sections I and II have no evidence of eighteenthcentury pavement. Once the sampling was complete the petrological study was undertaken, beginning with the macroscopic description of colour, texture and grain size. This was followed by. petrographic analysis using a polarising microscope in which the characterization and differentiation was based on mineralogical composition and texture. Photomicrographs were taken of each thin-section to facilitate comparison between samples. To determine the source of the stone the fragments were compared with an extensive collection of rock samples from a wide variety of quarries. in Spain known to have been used in the past. This collection also includes samples of marbles, breccias, limestones and other ornamental stones from other countries (Portugal, Italy, France, Belgium, North Africa, Greece, Turkey, amongst others). The materials used in the pavement of 'La Seo' Cathedral are stones laid in geometric designs based on patterns with specific colours: black, yellow, white and red. The lithogical types determined by petrological study are listed in the following table.

Catalogo del Archivo de Musica De la Catedral de Granada

Abstract The present volumes are the first in a projected collection which appears under the imposing generic title of La Müsica en las Catedrales Andaluzas. Predicated on the unquestionable importance of the enormous number of musical sources held in Spanish cathedrals, the collection is organized by the Andalucian Centre of Musical Documentation and will comprise four series: (I) catalogues, (II) documentation, (III) musical editions and (IV) studies. This visionary project enjoys the support of the autonomous government of Andalucia through its Cultural and Environmental Council which in 1988 signed an agreement with the ecclesiastical authorities of Andalucia allowing the thorough cataloguing of the Cathedral archives of the region. As a result, the entire musical holdings of the Cathedrals of Córdoba, Cádiz, Jaén and Seville have been microfilmed; catalogues of the musical holdings of the cathedrals of Seville, Jaén, Córdoba, Granada and Guadix-Baza are close to completion and transcriptions of documents of musical significance from the cathedrals of Jaén, Córdoba, Málaga and Guadix- Baza are in their final stages. Such a vast project promises a great deal and there can be no doubt that these first three volumes abundantly fulfil all expectations.

The Reformation of Cathedrals: Cathedrals in English Society, 1485-1603.

Stanford Lehmberg, a noted authority on the Tudor period, examines the impact of the Reformation on the cathedrals of England and Wales. Based largely on manuscript materials from the cathedral archives themselves, this book is the first attempt to draw together information for all twenty-nine of the cathedrals that existed in the Tudor period. The author scrutinizes the major changes that took place during this era in the institutional structure, personnel, endowments, liturgy, and music of the cathedral and shows how the cathedrals, unlike the monasteries that were dissolved by Henry VIII, succeeded in adapting successfully to the Reformation. Forty-two illustrations depict sixteenth-century changes in cathedral buildings. Narrative chapters trace the changes that occurred during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Bloody Mary, and Elizabeth I. Analytical sections are devoted to cathedral finance and cathedral music. The changing lives of cathedral musicians are described in some detail, and even greater attention is paid to the cathedral clergy, whose living conditions changed markedly when they were allowed to marry. Using a variety of sources, including such physical remains as tombs and monuments, the concluding chapter discusses the role of cathedrals in English society. Originally published in 1989. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The administration of cathedral archives∗

(1990). The administration of cathedral archives. Journal of the Society of Archivists: Vol. 11, No. 4, pp. 123-137.

Iz glasbenega dela Valentina Lechnerja

Iz glasbenega dela Valentina Lechnerja

THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY POLL TAX RETURNS FOR WORCESTER

AbstractIt has been difficult for historians to recapture the character and quality of life of the medieval city of Worcester. The cathedral archives are rich, but few records survive from the government of the medieval city and, apart from the account compiled by the late Sir Frank Stenton, and published in the Victoria County History in 1924, the history of medieval Worcester remains still to be written.

Trial of an Inquisitor: the dismissal of Diego Rodríguez Lucero, inquisitor of Córdoba, in 1508

Between 1 June and 1 August 1508, the newly refounded tribunal, known to history as the Spanish Inquisition, was subjected tojudicial investigation by a ‘General Congregation’ at Burgos, in Old Castile. The process resulted from the activities of Diego Rodriguez Lucero. As inquisitor of Córdoba, he was accused of making false charges of ‘judaising’ against conversos, or converts from Judaism and/or their descendants, and ‘Old Christians’ alike. During the Congregation's examination of his work, many of the tensions and difficulties which had arisen in Spanish society as a result of the Inquisition's work were exposed. To date, the only detailed consideration in English of Lucero's rise and fall - published in 1897-has been that of the great liberal Protestant historian of the Inquisition, H. C. Lea. As ever, his work was solidly based on the best early printed sources, but also on documents from the Castilian national archives at Simancas and the cathedral archives in Cordoba itself, as well as other places. In recent years, however, many more documents have come to light, which make possible a more profound and thorough investigation of the Lucero affair. Progress towards increased knowledge has not, however, been uninterrupted. Many of the manuscript sources in the Cordoba Cathedral archives to which Lea refers are no longer traceable, having, in some cases, been torn from their bindings; others have simply vanished. Such, it appears, is the degree of passion which the name of Lucero still inspires.