Identifier

etd-04122007-203010

Degree

Master of Music (MM)

Department

Music

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

The University of Pennsylvania Ms. Codex 436, an Italian manuscript dated 1682, is a handbook containing alphabets, linguistic treatises, a computus for calculating the date of Easter, mathematical tables, and rules for music theory and singing the liturgy. The manuscript's contents make it possible to identify the compiler as a student; the contents, along with their mode of presentation and the manuscript's general appearance, make it possible to situate him within the culture of humanism and more specifically within book culture in the transition from manuscript to print. The contents indicate who the compiler is in terms of his social identity, that is, a student in an ecclesiastical vocation, but the physical features of the manuscript also tell us something about how the compiler saw his identity in relation to the book, namely, that of author. The compiler’s effort to present a document with many print-like features, namely through the vehicle of the title page, demonstrates the confrontation of print and manuscript culture in Penn 436. The compiler drew upon both simultaneously to achieve a final product onto which he put his name, designating it as his work.

Date

2007

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Jan Herlinger

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.3052

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