A Historical Overview of Musical Worship & Culture in Sardinia 453
punctum quadratum seems to recall the “short-long” scan of the acataletic iam-
bic dimeter.80
It is interesting to note that on 19 April 1368, Marianus IV (Eleonora’s father)
granted the monastery of Saint Clare substantial fees on the condicio sine qua
non that the nuns should sing, without omissions, the Divine Office.81
6 Musical Life after the Giudicati and into the Iberian Age
In the second half of the thirteenth century, three of the four giudicati dis-
appeared: Cagliari in 1258, Torres in 1259, and Gallura in 1288. The giudicato
of Arborea survived, initially as an ally of the Aragonese (who landed on the
island in 1323). Soon after, the kingdom of Oristano was engaged in a long war
against the Crown of Aragon, which ended tragically with the Battle of Sanluri
(1409).82 The war between the giudicato of Arborea and the Crown of Aragon
in the second half of the fourteenth century proved to be a dramatic backdrop
for liturgical and musical experiences. The Aragonese king John I (1387–1396),
alternatively called the Hunter or the Musician, commissioned an exquisite
ballad for three voices, En seumeillant, following the polyphonic style of the
Ars subtilior, to publicize his planned military expedition to Sardinia which,
however, never took place.83
no. 30, 38; Stäblein, Hymnen (I), nos. 214, 363; Mele, “Psalterium-Hymnarium Arborense,”
p. 187, no. XXIII—258, no. XXIIIa: music).
80 Mele, “Note storiche, paleografiche, codicologiche e liturgico-musicali,” p. 39.
81 Mele, “Note storiche, paleografiche, codicologiche e liturgico-musicali,” p. 57.
82 On Sardinia of the giudicati and the Catalan-Aragonese periods, see Besta, La Sardegna
medioevale; Alberto Boscolo, La Sardegna dei Giudicati (Cagliari, 1979); Rafael Conde y
Delgado de Molina, “La Sardegna Aragonese,” in Storia dei Sardi e della Sardegna, ed.
Massimo Guidetti, 4 vols (Milan, 1988–1990), vol. 2, pp. 251–278; Gian Giacomo Ortu,
La Sardegna dei giudici (Nuoro, 2005). On diplomatic preparations for the invasion by
Aragon, see Rafael Conde y Delgado de Molina, Codice diplomatico di Guido Cattaneo /
Diplomatario aragonés de Guido Cattaneo, Arzobispo de Arborea y Tiro, Inquisidor de
Cerdeña, Consejero de Ugone II de Arborea y de Alfonso IV de Aragón (1312–1339), eds Carlos
López Rodriguez, Giampaolo Mele, and Alberto Torra Pérez, trans. Antonio Piras and
Mauro Badas (Oristano, 2012).
83 Chantilly, Musée Condé, MS 564 (olim 1047), fol. 21v (ballad En seumeillant, of Johan
Robert a.k.a. Trebor); María del Carmen Gómez Muntané, La música medieval en España
(Kassel, 2001), pp. 240–241; Mele, “La musica catalana,” p. 188; Giampaolo Mele, “Giovanni
I d’Aragona il Musico, tra cultura ‘cortese’, Scisma d’Occidente e la progettata sped-
izione contro gli Arborea,” in Giudicato d’Arborea e Marchesato di Oristano: proiezioni
mediterranee e aspetti di storia locale, ed. Giampaolo Mele, 2 vols (Oristano, 2000), vol. 1,