Traces of Liturgy

Analysing Manuscript Fragments from the Binding of the Riesencodex

Abstract

This paper analyzes two manuscript fragments with musical notation retrieved from the fifteenth- or sixteenth-century binding
of the twelfth-century Riesencodex (Wiesbaden, Hochschul- und Landesbibliothek RheinMain, Hs. 2), the most substantial collection of the works of Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179). We determine through close attention to various aspects of the leaves—liturgy, notation, later additions—that both these fragments originated, and remained, close to Hildegard’s Rupertsberg convent and date from during or just after Hildegard’s lifetime. This analysis not only adds to our understanding of local liturgical context for the nuns at Rupertsberg, it also reveals that Rupertsberg was operating within a broad monastic network well beyond Hildegard’s lifetime. The two fragments, from an antiphoner and a gradual, contextualize the survival of Hildegard’s own musical work in light of the apparent disposability of these contemporary liturgical items.