Trent Codices

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TrentC 87, folio 197

The Trient Codices ( Trient Music Manuscripts ) are the most extensive collection of polyphonic, mainly sacred music from the 15th century .

The Trient Codices contain 1585 compositions on over 2000 sheets of written paper. These come from many parts of Europe, such as England , the Netherlands , France , Italy , Germany and Poland . These include works by well-known masters such as Guillaume Du Fay , John Dunstable , Antoine Busnoys , Johannes Ockeghem , and Gilles Binchois . Most of the pieces are settings of the Mass Ordinary , but there are also many motets and secular music.

Six volumes were found in the 1880s by Franz Xaver Haberl in the cathedral archive of Trento when he was looking for sources in Italy for his Palestrina complete edition (composer of the 16th century). The six volumes, often referred to as TrentC 87-92, are now in the Museo Provinciale d'Arte in the Castello del Buonconsiglio , Trento. A seventh volume (TrentM 93) was discovered by Rudolf von Ficker in 1920 . It is kept in the Archivio capitolare of Trento.

The origin of the collection has not been fully clarified. It was early suspected that parts of it originated in Vienna , and initially the collection was mainly attributed to the Trento Bishop Johannes Hinderbach . Today it is clear that it was compiled from a wide variety of sources over decades.

From the examination of watermarks it could be concluded that the manuscripts were written between 1439 and 1470. The oldest parts of volumes TrentC 87 and 92 were the first to be written - from 1439 to 1442. Johannes Lupi was identified as their main scribe. Johannes Wiser contributed most of the other, later volumes; he was a priest and schoolmaster at the Cathedral School of Trento when he was working on the collection.

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