The fragment of the Pauline Library has recently been reunited with four codex leaves kept in different collections. The analysis of the notation suggests that the former parent codex was a 15th century Transylvanian antiphoner (probably from Szeklerland), the leaves of which were bound with books owned by Franciscans. Its Hungarian provenance is not contradicted by the liturgical content of the fragment, since the historia of Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury of which the Lauds’ Benedictus antiphon on the fragment’s recto has survived, spread rapidly in Hungarian liturgical sources after the martyrdom of Thomas in 1170. The chant melodies of the fragment show a closer connection with the so-called Istanbul Antiphonal (Istanbul, Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi, Deissmann 42, facsimile edition of Janka Szendrei et al., The Istanbul Antiphonal (about 1360). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1999, for an inventory see https://cantus.uwaterloo.ca/source/123706).
Library signs and locations of the other four fragments: 1. Turócszentmárton/Martin (olim Szakolca/Skalica, Franciscan monastery), Literárny archív Slovenskej národnej knižnice, cover of MSBaFrSk 02845/02745; 2. same place, cover of MSBaFrSk 25757; 3. Gyöngyös, Franciscan monastery, cover of Ant. 674; 4. Csíkszereda/Miercurea Ciuc (olim Csíksomlyó/Şumuleu Ciuc, Franciscan monastery), Csíki Szekler Museum, Cz. Fr. 10 (Sign. Inv. 1766-69).
For more information on the contents of the fragments, its Transylvanian chant notation and the host volumes, see the bibliography.
Gabriella Gilányi