Fragment of the Várad („Zalka”) Antiphonal. The host volume is unknown. The detached leaf was transferred to the Hungarian National Archives as part of the archival collection of Miklós Jankovich (1772–1846), one of the most excellent Hungarian historians, art collectors and bibliophiles, and in 1964 to the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. (cf. Kinga Körmendy, „Az ún. Zalka Antiphonale töredékei” [Fragments of the so called Zalka Antiphonal], Zenetudományi Dolgozatok 1988, 35).
The chants transmitted on the fragment provide insight into the repertory of the first days of Holy Week. Of the three recognizable items the antiphon Infirmata est virtus can be regarded – according to its position in Monday’s Vespers – as typical for the Várad Office tradition. The critical edition of the main corpus and the surviving fragments of the Várad antiphonal with essays see in Zsuzsa Czagány, Antiphonale Varadinense saec. XV, vol. I. Proprium de tempore, vol. II. Proprium de sanctis et commune sanctorum, vol. III. Tanulmányok / Essays. Musicalia Danubiana 26/1-3 (Budapest: Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute for Musicology, 2019).
Zsuzsa Czagány