P-Cug MM 036

Updated on 30/10/2024
Full reference
Portugal, Coimbra, Biblioteca Geral da Universidade, MM 36
Short description
Choirbook, almost entirely holographic by Pedro de Cristo, from the Monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra, late 1570s or early 1580s, with additions up to the 1610s
Digital reproduction
External references
Notes

The second front flyleaf bears the title “Obras Do Padre Dom Pedro Conego Regular” (Works of Father Dom Pedro, Canon Regular) written in the composer’s own hand, suggesting that all sixty-one works contained in the manuscript are his. However, only one has an individual ascription — the psalm Dixit Dominus, copied on ff. 56v-57r, with the heading “Primejro tom. D. Pedro” (First tone. D. Pedro). Another work, the motet Dicebat Jesus turbis Judaeorum, copied on ff. 34v-35r, is attributed in concordant sources to António Carreira. Still another work, the Alleluia included on ff. 70v-71r, is by Manuel Mendes, as confirmed by the many sources that also transmit it. This latter piece was copied by a second scribe, who also entered the music for the first Benedicamus Domino on ff. 12v-13r and the motet Quaeramus cum pastoribus on ff. 55v-56r (with the corresponding texts added by Pedro de Cristo). A number of other pieces, although copied by the composer, cannot be attributed to him with any reasonable certainty. Such is the case with the setting of the Lamentations on ff. 26v-27r, as they use the text prior to the Breviary of Pius V (1568); the motet In monte Oliveti dixit Jesus, copied right after the motet Dicebat Jesus turbis Judaeorum on ff. 34v-35r, whose stylistic features point to the authorship of António Carreira, who is the composer of the latter piece; and the Alleluia on ff. 61v-62r, which has a concordance in a choirbook of Benedictine origin dated to c.1590, MM 40 of the Public Library of Porto (P-Pm MM 40). The correspondences between this manuscript and the manuscripts of Santa Cruz mainly concern either Spanish repertory (Cristóbal de Morales, Ortiz) or works from the circle of the Royal Chapel (Bartolomeu Trosilho, António Carreira). Other pieces are too brief or do not reveal clear stylistic markers. This category includes the textless piece on f. 1r, the Alleluia on ff. 27v-28r and the responses to the Preface of the Mass added on the same pages, the fabordões copied on the last page of the volume, f. 71v, and the second verse of the Compline hymn Te lucis ante terminum, found on ff. 68v-69r.

Bibliography
Rees, Owen, Polyphony in Portugal c.1530-c.1620: Sources from the Monastery of Santa Cruz, Coimbra, Outstanding Dissertations in Music from British Universities (New York & London: Garland, 1995), pp. 247-53
Rees, Owen, “Newly Identified Holograph Manuscripts from Late-Renaissance Portugal”, Early Music, 22 (1994), 261-77