We aim to explore, classify, analyze and digitally display online as fully as possible the collection of notated manuscript fragments of medieval Hungary. The fragments – the surviving remnants of liturgical-musical codices with music notation from the 11th to 16th centuries – are an exceedingly important field of research in Hungarian music history, as they help to make unknown sources accessible again, and to make known but fragmentary sources more complete, standing at different stages of virtual and real reconstruction. The number of complete musical sources known today that were produced and/or used in medieval Hungary is very small since the consequences of adverse historical processes have decimated the former book stock to a much greater extent than in other countries of Central Europe. It is unlikely that the number of complete music codices of Hungarian provenance in Hungarian collections or preserved abroad, which currently number around 150, will increase significantly in the future. The more the quantity of codex fragments may increase, and thus the sources they represent (mother codices) may be brought back from oblivion, and partially restorable.
Although the principles of fragmentological research established by László Mezey – that the fragment gives the researcher the knowledge of the complete source – still apply, in fortunate cases two, three, or more fragments make the sources of the past more tactile and more accessible.
Our work involves the in situ study and digitization of hundreds of medieval music codex fragments discovered in the book and archival collections in Hungary and beyond, their analytical mapping, systematization, and online publication on the Fragmenta Manuscriptorum Musicalium Hungariae Mediaevalis website. On the side paths of the main research route, two additional databases were created to support fragment research: the Hungarian Neume Catalogue, which presents the musical writing signs of medieval Hungarian notated sources, and the Melodiarium Hungariae Medii Aevi Digitale, a melodic catalogue of Hungarian liturgical-musical sources, which organizes the chant material by genre in a synoptic way. The digital ecosystem created has become part of international plainchant databases. As a result of the multidisciplinary approach, we can not only partially reconstruct the medieval mother codices of the fragments, but with the philological analysis of the host books and possessor entries, we can also get to know the new unity of the fragment and its carrier, the modern itinerary of this unity and its cultural-historical background.
Fragments – Fragmenta Manuscriptorum Musicalium Hungariae Mediaevalis
The website and the database behind are based on a three-level processing of the notated fragments, along with the presentation of the downloadable and enlargeable digital copies. The first is the ‘fragmentological minimum’, with a summary of the basic codicological and palaeographical characteristics of the fragments, the identification of genre, age and provenance, and bibliographical data of the host book. At the second level, the detailed liturgical and musical content of the fragment is identified: an inventory of the surviving chants on the fragment is made, with appropriate indexes and cross-references to additional auxiliary databases and international online systems. The third level is the stage of in-depth study: it is here that the special features of the fragment’s content are examined, and an analysis is made of the surviving melodies, the liturgical set and the musical notation. An important component of monographic research is the identification of the host book and its owners, names, dates and institutions, and, based on these results, the reconstruction of the joint modern itinerary of the fragment and its carrier.
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Chants – Melodiarium Hungariae Medii Aevi Digitale
The complete set of medieval Hungarian chant melodies for the Mass and Divine Office is brought together in a single large database, arranged by genre in synoptic tables. Its multi-level search system allows you to browse through the entire set or only selected genres, to list melodies belonging to a particular genre, mode, liturgical period, feast, or to display the entire musical material of a given source or a part of it belonging to a particular genre. From the point of view of fragment research, the database is a digital reservoir of melodies, in which the chants or fragments of chants, which have survived on the leaves, can be compared to the melodies of complete antiphoners, graduals and other musical sources originating from medieval Hungary. In this way, fragments can be identified and arranged along specific musical traditions.
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Notations – Hungarian Neume Catalogue
It serves the analysis and comparative study of the musical notation of medieval Hungarian plainchant sources – complete codices and fragments. It enables the mapping, separation and characterization of the medieval Hungarian music notation sub-traditions. Its primary aim is to process all the surviving manuscripts of medieval notation variants from Esztergom or closely related to it, supplemented by bibliographical, codicological and musical palaeographical data on each source. The database outlines the types of medieval Hungarian plainchant notation, provides a picture of their formation and interrelationships, and facilitates the provenance identification of newly discovered fragmentary sources.
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