All Souls Seminars in Medieval and Renaissance Music: Andrew Kirkman (University of Birmingham)
'Made to measure or prêt à chanter? The court of Wilhelm IV and the later Alamire manuscripts'
Presenter: Andrew Kirkman (University of Birmingham)
Title: Made to measure or prêt à chanter? The court of Wilhelm IV and the later Alamire manuscripts
Discussants: Thomas Schmidt (University of Manchester) and Zoe Saunders (Independent scholar)
The Alamire codices have traditionally been seen as diplomatic gifts, or at the very least commissions from magnates and super-rich aficionados. This article argues that for most of the later, paper codices at least, the sequence happened in reverse: in other words they comprised workshop material that was first produced and then sold once buyers could be found. The same conclusion prompts also a review of the construction of some of the more elegant, parchment sources, and the proposal that the 'bespoke' aspects of such codices may have extended no further than their opening-and hence most immediately visible-pages.