Beschreibung:

GREEK HYMNAL BY JOANNES KOUKOUZELES, in Byzantine round musical notation, MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER [Southeastern Europe, late 17th or early 18th century] 160x110mm, 537 leaves, mostly in gatherings of 8 leaves, with irregular signatures, apparently partly misbound, 10/11 lines of musical notation with text on each page, written in black ink, rubrics in red, 2- to 3-line initial letters in margins in red ink, headpiece vignette coloured in ink of two angels holding a crown over the all-seeing eye, on f.1. (very minor waterstaining of last few leaves). Late 17th or early 18th-century dark red morocco gilt, over wooden boards, the sides decorated with a roll-border of stylized flowers, rosettes and corner-pieces of leafy tools in gilt and blind, large central gilt-stamped ornament on upper cover showing the Resurrection, Christ risen carrying a banner, soldiers and mourners beneath the tomb; on lower cover a now oxidized silver-stamped ornament of the Crucifixion captioned in Greek, original leather clasps and brass hasps, spine decorated in blind and gilt, edges blue stained and marbled (first quire loose in stitching). IN FINE CONDITION A hymnal for use in liturgical services, the music was written by Joannes Koukouzeles, the foremost composer of church music in 14th century Byzantium. The notation is still entirely Byzantine in a highly elaborate style of composition, the long chants involving melismas, must have demanded extraordinary skill from the performers. This manuscript must have been written in a Greek-speaking area of Southeastern Europe or in the Ionian Islands. This very unusual example of a fine morocco binding of that period from Southeastern Europe shows some Italianate influence, though the stamps are almost certainly Greek