Janka Szendrei has identified the fragments as five excerpts from the (old) leaf CCXIV, excised from the 1st volume of the „Bakócz” Gradual. The folio was no longer part of the volume when the new folio numbering of the manuscript was done.
Fragm. 1 – the largest of all – is about a third of a folio. Fragm. 2–5 are all smaller strips with a single line of music – except for the fifth, which is from the edge (presumably the lower half) of the codex and has neither music nor text. The height of the stave on the larger piece does not match the height of the comma on the strips, but the identical text writing and notation, the four red lines of the stave, the clefs and custodes and the 11 mm space between the two bounding lines that close the written width confirm that they belong together. The liturgical content also suggests that the pieces were once part of the same folio. The difference in the size of the first fragment is explained by the shrinkage and creasing of the parchment.
The five fragments are organically connected to the content of f. CCXV in vol. 1 of the Gradual: the two syllables and only three notes are missing for complete continuity (the piece is cut off before the end of the musical line). The fragments contain the chants of the Mass of the Dedicatio ecclesiae, the order of which was established by Szendrei (see bibliography above). On the recto of the first fragment, the verse of Grad. Locus iste (Deus cui adstant) can be identified, followed by the All. Vox exsultationis and the first half of the verse All. Benedic Domine on the verso. Szendrei’s musical transcription reveals the complete correspondence of the musical material transmitted on the fragment with the relevant chants of the 14th-century Missale Notatum Strigoniense (Štátny archív v Bratislave, EC Lad. 3, http://cantus.sk/source/16685), while at the same time pointing out minor variations in comparison with the Graduale Francisci de Futhak (Istanbul, Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi, 68, facsimile edition with commentary by Andrea Kovács, Graduale Francisci de Futhak 1463. Musica Sacra Hungarica 4/1. Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi – Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Egyetem Egyházzenei Kutatócsoport İstanbul – Budapest 2019).
(after Janka Szendrei) Gabriella Gilányi