The Angevin Struggle for the Kingdom of Naples (c.1378–1411) and Politics of Repertoire in Mod A: New Hypotheses
The inner gatherings of the music manuscript Modena, Biblioteca Estense, MS. α.M.5.24 (Mod A II-IV ) contain a tangle of politically-charged songs, mostly in French, referring to the tumultuous Great Schism of the Western Church (1378–1417) and the prowess of several princes of ascendant Italian states during the same period. Some scholars have connected the repertoire of Mod A II-IV with Petros Filargos, sometime Archbishop of Milan and then the short-lived conciliar pope Alexander V. Yet art-historical evidence now strongly suggests that Mod A II-IV was completed during the pontificate of Alexander’s successor, John XXIII, between September 1410 and March 1411 in Bologna. During the first two years of John’s pontificate the influential and wealthy prince of France, Louis II of Anjou, prosecuted his claim for title of the Kingdom of Naples in Italy, simultaneously supporting John XXIII’s military campaign to reclaim Rome. This article explores a new hypothesis that part of the repertoire of Mod A II-IV —and possibly the manuscript’s very structure—reflects the presence of the Angevin prince at the court of John XXIII in Bologna in the second half of 1410. It considers how other political threads running through this manuscript render it an unlikely candidate for a source connected with the pro-Visconti Alexander V.
Arms, A Saint and Inperial sedendo fra più stelle: The Illuminator of Mod A
Scholars have proposed Milan, Pisa and/or Bologna as possible locations for the copying of the inner gatherings (II–IV) of the manuscript Modena, Biblioteca Estense Universitaria, α.M.5.24 (Mod A) and have argued that some of the compositions might have originated in the circle of Archbishop of Milan Pietro Filargo. Yet evidence based on Mod A9s repertory and the scant biographies of its composers is insufficient for determining the manuscript’s origin. To solve this problem, I look at Mod A as a cultural artifact, attributing its illumination to the Master of 1411, an illuminator active in Bologna from 1404 to 1411, or to his assistant, both associated with the manuscript workshop of the Olivetan abbey of San Michele in Bosco, on the outskirts of medieval Bologna. The Master of 1411 might have been Giacomo da Padova, an illuminator documented there between 1407 and 1409. Iconographical analysis shows that the illuminator of Mod A possessed considerable knowledge of Paduan culture before the fall of the ruling Carrara family in 1405. This knowledge is apparent in his use of an astrological allusion to Carrara heraldry in his decoration of the song Inperial sedendo . His illumination of a Gloria by Egardus with the figure of Saint Anthony of Padua implies a familiarity with Padua9s musical institutions. Mod A may have been illuminated when the papal entourage of John XXIII visited San Michele in Bosco in the fall of 1410, although further compositions were added after the illuminator had finished his work. This conclusion invites scholars to consider afresh the social context that might have fostered the compilation of the repertory in the inner gatherings of Mod A.
John Erghome and the Vaticinium Roberti Bridlington
THOMAS WRIGHT, in volume I of Political Poems and Songs relating to English History, published under the name "John of Bridlington" a "prophecy" in verse together with a commentary on it.1 The "prophecy," couched in very symbolic terms, is actually a fourteenth-century political satire on contemporary events by a partisan of the Black Prince, alienated at the time from the court of Edward III; the commentary furnishes an explication set forth in full scholastic style. The Vaticinium, which lacks a heading of its own, begins with the line: Febribus infectus, requies fuerat mihi lectus and ends Ad mortem tendo, morti mea carmina pendo; the verses have no colophon. Discussing the problem of authorship in his introduction, Wright pointed out that the older bibliographers had ascribed the poem to John of Bridlington (d. 1379), the saintly prior of the Austin Canons of Bridlington in Yorkshire, and the commentary to his contemporary John Erghome, an Austin friar of York. Wright himself did not believe either of these attributions to be accurate; he thought that both vaticinium and commentary were the work of a single, anonymous author writing about the year 1375 under the penname "John of Bridlington."2 He was furthermore of the opinion that in the course of time the vaticinium became separated from its commentary and in this independent form obtained a wide popularity and circulation, thus explaining how many of the surviving manuscripts contained the poem alone. The next writer to tackle the question of authorship was M. R. James, in the preface to his edition of the library Catalogue of the Austin friars of York.3 John Erghome had been a member of this religious community and upon his death a list of his books was added to the friary's catalogue. One of the volumes recorded among the libri magistri Johannis Erghome contained among other items: versus cuiusdam canonici de actubus anglie [sic] and also a prophetia canonici ffebribus. Another of Erghome's volumes included an Expositio versuum "ffebribus infectus." James had little difficulty in proving that Erghome was the real author of the commentary published by Wright and that the latter's hesitations on this point rested on a confusion of dates.4 James, however, accepted Wright's assumption