Introduction

The website Fragmenta Manuscriptorum Musicalium Hungariae Mediaevalis (Notated Manuscript Fragments from Medieval Hungary) aims to discover, collect, classify and publish notated medieval and early modern manuscript fragments preserved in libraries and archival collections in Hungary and abroad from the territory of the historical Kingdom of Hungary, as well es fragments of foreign origin, survived in today Hungary. The idea of a music-based fragment catalogue with a search engine, containing both images and textual descriptions in an online accessible database was formed as part of the scientific project K 120 643 Codices and Fragments from late Medieval Hungary. Examining, Re-examining and Online Publishing of Notated Manuscripts and Chant Repertories started in 2016 funded by the Hungarian National Research, Development and Innovation Office, and subsequently becoming the main topic of the 2019 established ‘Momentum’ Digital Music Fragmentology research group funded by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.. From 1 January 2024, the research will again enjoy the support of the NRDI Office as the project K 146780 Fragments, chants, notations. Ecosystem of music fragmentology. The research is closely related to the decades-long musical, liturgical and paleographical investigation of sources, repertories, melodic and notation systems of the cantus planus in Hungary and Central Europe carried out at the Early Music Department in the Institute for Musicology of the HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities.

Besides the digital facsimiles of the fragments the database provides information on three levels.

I. BASIC DATA. Bibliographical data, genre and age are summarized on the first level alongside information on the number of pieces and condition of the source(s). Basic codicological parameters (page size, writing space, column size, number of lines and columns, stave height) are also listed here. These are supported by information on the type of writing and musical notation used. The first level is ended with data on the host volume, the bibliographical references or earlier catalogues, and a short indication of the liturgical content of the fragment.

II. CONTENT. The in-depth analysis of the liturgical and musical content is carried out on the second level of the database – all chants in the fragment are identified here. The liturgical content is described by means of three or four parameters (depending on whether it is a fragment from a manuscript for the Mass or Office, or from a temporale or sanctorale part) – the liturgical time (Tempus), the feast (Dies), the hour (Hora), and the Genre – musical identification is provided by the columns Incipit and Mode, as well as the ID numbers CANTUS and MELODIARIUM. In the latter two cases, the ID numbers are functioning as direct links, leading (1) to the CANTUSINDEX database, allowing to place the data transmitted on fragments in the context of Western plainchant, and (2) to the database Melodiarium Hungariae Medii Aevi Digitale, which provides the same opportunity in the context of medieval Hungarian plainchant sources.

III. ANALYTICAL DESCRIPTION. At the third level, the characteristics of the liturgical and musical content, as well as the music notation are explained in a  deeper discursive-analytical way, which predicts the possible monographic processing of the fragment.