Recovery and study of a dismembered musical codex: the San Gaudenzo III manuscript in the Rimini State Archives

locandina evento san Gaudenzo III

Ultimo aggiornamento 5 September 2024

On June 21, 2024 at 11 a.m. at the I, the Conference “Recovery and Study of a Dismembered Musical Codex: the ms. San Gaudenzo III of the State Archives of Rimini” will be held on the just-completed restoration of the manuscript San Gaudenzo vol. III, a canon collection register compiled from 1398 to 1503 preserved at the State Archives of Rimini.

The reasons of interest covered by the artifact touch on several areas: in addition to its intrinsic historical-documentary value, the work represents a valuable testimony on the practices of “repair,” widespread in Europe and Italy from the 16th to the 18th century, which consisted of operations aimed at restoring the functional characteristics of books through the reuse of membranous and sometimes paper fragments – the so-called disiecta membra – obtained from medieval and Renaissance manuscripts that had fallen into disuse or had been modified over time. In the case of the volume under review, in light of the studies conducted by musicologist Francesco Zimei (University of Trento) on the membranous fragments used for its structural consolidation, it was possible to identify large sections of the manuscript of provenance, a musical codex in mensural notation datable between the late 14th and early 15th centuries. The mostly random layering of different textual and graphic types in a single container-book also invests additional cross-cutting interests – codicological, paleographic, liturgical, musical, historical and philological – offering specialists from different fields a wide range of investigative perspectives and research itineraries. From a conservation point of view, the study, direct observation, and documentation of past intervention on the manuscript under study provide an opportunity to complete the historical picture of the cultural asset and to make an important contribution to the evolution of book restoration.

On the occasion, the forthcoming musicological study on the music codex in question, edited by Prof. Zimei himself, will be announced.

June 21, 2024 | 11 a.m. | FREE ENTRANCE UNTIL PLACES ARE FULL
Conference Room “Maria Clara Lilli Di Franco” of the Central Institute for the Pathology of Archives and Books – Via Milano, 76 – 00184 Rome
For info and reservations: ic-pal.comunicazione@cultura.gov.it