The winter harvest of publications from the Institute of Musicology continues with a monograph on the oldest comprehensive collection of strophic sacred songs (cantiones) from pre-Hussite Bohemia, known as the Vyšší Brod Cantionale / Hohenfurter Liederhandschrift (manuscript no. 42 from the monastery library in Vyšší Brod) from 1410. This book is the result of the project Expro Old Myths, New Facts project (smnf.cz).
Vyšší Brod 42: A Unique Music Source from Pre-Hussite Bohemia, edited by Hana Vlhová-Wörner, with contributions by Jan Ciglbauer, Hana Vlhová-Wörner, and Lenka Hlávková with Pavel Kodýtek. Prague Medieval Studies 5 (Prague: Karolinum, 2025).
https://karolinum.cz/knihy/vlhova-worner-vyssi-brod-42-32540
The book is conceived as three comprehensive case studies with different focus. Jan Ciglbauer’s (FF UK) contribution focuses on the codicological and paleographic aspects of the manuscript, as well as on the main compiler of the collection, monk Přibík, and finally outlines how the repertoire recorded in manuscript no. 42 could have been used in the musical life of the pre-Hussite Cistercian monastery, which consisted not only of the liturgy celebrated in the convent church, but also in other places within the monastery complex. The study by Hana Vlhová-Wörner (MÚA CAS CZ) analyzes the chant section of the manuscript, in which the scribes made a remarkable distinction between the standard Cistercian repertoire (“nostri ordinis”) and songs marked as “secundum morem secularem” (according to secular use in the sense of secular church institutions – cathedrals, parish churches). The study by Lenka Hlávková and Pavel Kodýtek reflects on the Vyšší Brod 42 manuscript as a song source, whose repertoire forms the basis of the later Utraquist tradition. The nature of the tradition is illustrated through a case study of the song Cedit hiems eminus, which underwent several adaptations in the 15th century.
1. The Scribe(s), Genesis, and Use of the Manuscript Vyšší Brod 42
Jan Ciglbauer
2. Secundum morem nostrum and secundum morem secularem: the Liturgical Repertory in the Manuscript Vyšší Brod 42
Hana Vlhová-Wörner
3. Manuscript Vyšší Brod 42: a New Perspective on the Tradition of Late Medieval Cantiones
Lenka Hlávková – Pavel Kodýtek
