An Unknown Fragment of the Late Medieval Chełmno Gradual L 2 from the Diocesan Library in Pelplin Discovered in the Antiphoner Akc. 7889 from the Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences
An Unknown Fragment of the Late Medieval Chełmno Gradual L 2 from the Diocesan Library in Pelplin Discovered in the Antiphoner Akc. 7889 from the Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences

Summary/Abstract: This article is the result of research into the manuscript and musical legacy of medi- eval Prussia. The analysis it contains allowed us to show that the first part of Manuscript Akc. 7889, a Premonstratensian antiphoner from Witów, held in the Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences, is actually a fragment of Gradual L 2 from the Jan Bernard Szlaga Diocesan Library in Pelplin. Included in the article are a brief source description of Codex Akc. 7889 and analysis of the opening 22 leaves, containing mass chants: a charac- terisation of the decoration, a list of the additions that appear there, and considerations re- lating to the liturgical calendar. The contents of the fragment from Gdańsk were compared with other sources stemming from the Teutonic Order’s tradition and with printed gradu- als from the seventeenth century. The analysis confirmed that the codex from Chełmno was produced at the beginning of the fifteenth century. The current state of research allows us to specify that between the end of the seventeenth century and 1962, it became depleted, and a fragment of it was merged with the Premonstratensian antiphoner. The identification of the leaves of the gradual in Manuscript Akc. 7889 is a significant discovery. The Proper of Saints, which comprises formularies from July to November, is one of the three significant collections of this repertoire, linked to the liturgical tradition of the Teutonic Order. The ana- lysed fragment allows us to observe the changes that occurred in the Teutonic Order’s liturgy during the Middle Ages, to pose new questions concerning that tradition and to follow the adaptations that were made as part of the post-Trent reform in the Diocese of Chełmno.

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