The Charterhouse Antiphonal Fragment

A fragment of the sole extant English Carthusian antiphonal, and the third extant historiated English antiphonal, has recently been identified (fig. 1). Ghent, University Library, MS BHSL. HS.3020 comprises a collection of parchment leaves that includes a bifolium from an early Tudor Carthusian manu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Manuscript studies (Philadelphia, Pa.) Pa.), 2022-03, Vol.7 (1), p.175-186
Main Authors: Kennedy, Kathleen E, de Bakker, Anna H. H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Artists
Binding
Chants
Concordances
Historical text analysis
Iconography
Middle Ages
Music
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Summary:A fragment of the sole extant English Carthusian antiphonal, and the third extant historiated English antiphonal, has recently been identified (fig. 1). Ghent, University Library, MS BHSL. HS.3020 comprises a collection of parchment leaves that includes a bifolium from an early Tudor Carthusian manuscript, probably made for the London Charterhouse.1 The fragment's later history and the circumstances of its arrival in Ghent remain unknown. The present note describes the leaves and analyzes the chant to identify the Carthusian use. Positioning the bifolium among existing English antiphonals underscores the rarity of such a find. Finally, the art of this fragment is undeniably English and, specifically, metropolitan. Its art situates the fragment within a specific production network, revealing the likelihood that the antiphonal was made in the city for the London Charterhouse between about 1490 and 1520, for which reason it can be known as the Charterhouse Antiphonal Fragment.
ISSN:2381-5329
2380-1190
2381-5329
DOI:10.1353/mns.2022.0004