Hidden in Plain Sight: Musical Treasures in the Penn Library Curated by Marjorie Hassen Otto E. Albrecht Music Library University of Pennsylvania

Music Manuscripts: 15th-18th Centuries

Table of Contents Introduction Manuscript Collections: Institutions Manuscript Collections: Individuals Sheet Music Images Conducting Scores Music Manuscripts: 19th & 20th Centuries Landmarks of Music Theory

Collection of French Lyric Poems
Manuscript, ca. 1400
Fr. 15

This volume, compiled around the year 1400, contains 310 complaintes, pastourelles, chants royaux, ballades, virelais, and rondeaux, all of which are unattributed in the manuscript. Among these are 109 lyrics by the fourteenth-century poet and composer Guillaume de Machaut. The opening exhibited here includes six of his works, three rondeaux and three ballades.

Evidence suggests that the manuscript was originally owned by Isabeau of Bavaria, Queen of France, who ruled from 1389 to 1435. Scholars also believe that the Machaut lyrics, which comprise over one third of this volume, derive directly from an earlier manuscript that contains works--both poetry and music--exclusively by Machaut, now in the Bibliothèque National (fonds français 9221).