__NOTOC__
The Robertsbridge Codex (1360) is a music manuscript of the 14th century. It contains the earliest surviving music written specifically for keyboard.
The term codex is somewhat misleading: the musical section of the source comprises only two leaves, bound together with a larger manuscript from
Robertsbridge
Robertsbridge is a village in the civil parish of Salehurst and Robertsbridge, and the Rother district of East Sussex, England. It is approximately 10 miles (16 km) north of Hastings and 13 miles (21 km) south-east of Royal Tunbridge ...
,
Sussex, England.
It contains six pieces, three of them in the form of the ''
estampie
The estampie (french: estampie, Occitan and ca, estampida, it, istanpitta) is a medieval dance and musical form which was a popular instrumental and vocal form in the 13th and 14th centuries. The name was also applied to poetry.
Musical form
T ...
'', an Italian dance form of the
Trecento
The Trecento (, also , ; short for , "1300") refers to the 14th century in Italian cultural history.
Period Art
Commonly, the Trecento is considered to be the beginning of the Renaissance in art history. Painters of the Trecento included Giotto ...
, as well as three arrangements of
motets. Two of the motets are from the ''
Roman de Fauvel
The ''Roman de Fauvel'' is a 14th-century French allegorical verse romance of satirical bent, generally attributed to , a clerk at the French royal chancery. The original narrative of 3,280 octosyllabics is divided into two books, dated to 131 ...
''. All of the music is anonymous, and all is written in
tablature
Tablature (or tabulature, or tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches.
Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments such as the guitar, lute or vihuela, as well as many fr ...
. Most of the music for the ''estampies'' is for two voices, often in parallel fifths, and also using
hocket
In music, hocket is the rhythmic linear technique using the alternation of notes, pitches, or chords. In medieval practice of hocket, a single melody is shared between two (or occasionally more) voices such that alternately one voice sounds wh ...
technique. Most likely the instrument used to play the pieces in the Codex was the
organ. Formerly the date of the Codex was presumed to be around 1330, but more recent research has suggested a later date, slightly after mid-century.
The manuscript was considered Italian and connected to the main streams of the Italian
trecento
The Trecento (, also , ; short for , "1300") refers to the 14th century in Italian cultural history.
Period Art
Commonly, the Trecento is considered to be the beginning of the Renaissance in art history. Painters of the Trecento included Giotto ...
in its contents and in its clear use of ''puncti divisionis'' (dots of division). However, scholarly consensus now considers the source English.
[John Caldwell, "Sources of keyboard music to 1660: 2. Principal Individual Sources: (vi) British Isles", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed April 21, 2007)]
(subscription access)
The Codex is in the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
(
Add MS 28550).
References
Further reading
*
John Gillespie, ''Five Centuries of Keyboard Music.'' New York, Dover Publications, 1965/1972.
External links
*
Medieval Music Database(La Trobe University)
Sheet music of Robertsbridge Codex estampiesGB-Lbl Add. MS 28550 Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music, University of Oxford
Medieval music manuscript sources
British Library additional manuscripts
Codex
{{medieval-music-stub