A Historical Overview of Musical Worship & Culture in Sardinia 443
Anglés were probably inclined to reading neumes,43 but this hypothesis is not
accepted by Louis Brou and Michel Huglo.44
The Veronensis codex is also interesting for the transcription in Visigothic
minuscule of a hymn central to the rites of Good Friday: the Pange lingua glo-
riosi proelium, composed by Venantius Fortunatus (530 approx.-early seventh-
century).45 The Veronensis Pange lingua circulated in Cagliari between 711 and
732, a period in which, apart from rare statements, such as the rhythmic epi-
graph from Sulcis Aula micat, documentation of Latin literature in Sardinia is
scarce.46
An apocryphal testimonium from the first half of the twelfth century relates
to Latin songs and the conversion of Saint Luxorius (Ruxurius/Ruxorius in
the codex Vaticanus).47 The passage describes how the martyr was so struck
by the verse Omnes gentes in Psalm 85 that he hastened to church, where he
heard the singing of another verse, Retribue servo tuo from Psalm 118. Soon
after, the martyr fell to the ground invoking Christ and cursing the useless and
vain simulacra. The texts of Psalms 85 and 118, thanks to which Saint Luxorius
43 Higinio [Hygini] Anglés, “La música medieval en Toledo hasta el siglo XI” (1938), Scripta
Musicologica 1:11 (1975–1976), pp. 231–232, n. 2: “el Orationale de Verona, copiado en
Tarragona y para Tarragona a principios del siglo VIII, contiene neumas musicales al mar-
gen del ms. El P. Suñol es el primero que científicamente se ha fijado en el valor y significado
de tales neumas y no tiene incoveniente en asignarles una tal antigüedad (the Orationale of
Verona was copied in and for Tarragona at the beginning of the eighth century, it contains
musical neumes in the margin of the manuscript. Father Suñol was the first to scientifi-
cally dedicate himself to the value and meaning of such neumes, and finds no problems
in assigning them such an antiquity).” The opinion of Sunyol is taken from the manuscript
of a conference hosted for the Fundación Cambó by the Catalan paleontologist at the
Sorbonne in 1936.
44 Louis Brou, “Notes de paléographie mozarabe. Manuscrits de Tolède en notation du nord,”
Anuario Musical 10 (1955), pp. 34–36; Michel Huglo, “La notation wisigothique est-elle plus
ancienne que les autres notations européennes?” in España en la música de Occidente:
actas del Congreso Internacional celebrado en Salamanca, 29 de octubre–5 de noviembre
de 1985: “Año Europeo de la Música”, eds Emilio Casares Rodicio, Ismael Fernández de la
Cuesta, and José López-Calo (Madrid, 1987), p. 20.
45 Chevalier, Repertorium Hymnologicum, no. 14481; Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi II, no. 40,
44—L 71, no. 66; Stäblein, Hymnen (I), nos. 52, 90, 188, 227, 286, 336, 342, 385, 417, 452;
Mele, “Psalterium-Hymnarium Arborense,” pp. 198–199, no. XXXVIII; p. 264, no. XXXVIIIa
(musical transcription). See also, Mele, Manuale di innologia, p. 186.
46 Theodor Mommsen, ed., Inscriptiones Bruttiorum, Lucaniae, Campaniae, Siciliae,
Sardiniae latinae (Berlin, 1883), no. 7533.
47 Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. lat. 6453, twelfth century, Legendarium,
Pisa, fols. 81r–82r.