448 Mele
liturgical books were also owned by the Camaldolese cenoby of Saint Nicholas
of Trullas in 1280 according to the Pisan calendar (1279 according to the mod-
ern calendar).61 Further codes and liturgical music are mentioned as belonging
to the Victorines of Marseilles at the priory of Saint Saturninus in Cagliari, in
the year 1338; among them there are two books on the notation of musica men-
surabilis: libros duos nominatos semibreve sive mediebrevis. To this day, these
books are the only treatises on medieval polyphonic music in Sardinia.62
Apart from a series of fragments belonging to a breviary from central Italy
with neumes from the Tuscan area (from the first half of the thirteenth cen-
tury; Fig. 17.1), there are no direct testimonia with musical notes from the elev-
enth and early thirteenth centuries.63 The only exception is a tiny relic with
neumes from central Italy, which was once present in the restoration work-
shop of the monastery of Saint Peter of Sorres.64 The only example from a mo-
nastic environment is the office of Saint Antiochus of Sulcis, mentioned above,
a formulary in Gregorian chant, ascribable to the Victorines of Marseilles.65
Except for a few interesting attestations in Cagliari, Sassari, Alghero, and a
few other places, the codicological documentation of monodic liturgical chants
is mainly preserved in Oristano; this tradition concerns the Franciscan-Roman
other liturgical books, also with neumes)—the following hymns are transcribed without
music: Helisabet genitrix (f. 20r) and Ex Jacobis binis (f. 20r) by Idelberto Cenomanense;
In cruce Petrus obit (f. 20v); Stella maris (f. 20v); and Sic domus ista, for the consecration
of the church of Saint Mary in Cluso (year 1212; f. 20v). The transcription (without music)
in the manuscript of the sequence for Christmas, Splendor patris et figura (f. 22v) by one
of the major Latin poets of the Middle Ages, Adam of Saint Victor, in Paris († 1177 or
1192) is also remarkable. See also Giampaolo Mele, “Sic domus ista. Poesia agiografica e
canto liturgico a Santa Igia (Cagliari, BUC, S.P. 6 bis 4.7, sec. XIII),” in L’agiografia sarda
antica e medievale: testi e contesti: Atti del Convegno di Studi, Cagliari, 4–5 dicembre 2015,
eds Antonio Piras and Danila Artizzu (Cagliari, 2016), pp. 199–237.
61 Those books are: bibiam unam in duobus voluminibus. Item duo homiliaria. Item passonar-
ium. Item antifonaria duo. Item sermonarium unum. Item missale unum. Item epistolarium
unum. Item psalteria duo. Item manualem unum. Mele, “Note storiche e paleografiche,”
p. 155, n. 59.
62 Édouard Baratier, “L’inventaire des biens du prieuré Saint-Saturnin de Cagliari dépen-
dant de l’Abbaye de Marselle,” in Studi storici in onore di Francesco Loddo Canepa, 2 vols
(Florence, 1959), vol. 2, p. 54.
63 Giampaolo Mele, “Note storiche, paleografiche, codicologiche e liturgico-musicali sui ma-
noscritti arborensi,” in “Die ac nocte.” I codici liturgici di Oristano dal Giudicato d’Arborea
all’età spagnola (secoli XI–XVII), ed. Giampaolo Mele (Cagliari, 2009), pp. 47–50.
64 Mele, “Note storiche e paleografiche,” pp. 163–164.
65 Supra, 57.