444 Mele
was converted, do not belong to the Vulgata of Saint Jerome, which merged
into the Gallican Psalter, but date back to the recensio of the Roman Psalter.
Although in the Carolingian period the Gallican Psalter had supplanted the
Roman Psalter in the main European circuits—with exceptions such as the
Vatican basilica of Saint Peter and that of Saint Mark (Venice)48—the Roman
Psalter was known (and still sung) on the island in liturgical traditions, where
it was well-rooted.49
In the iconographic field, a fragment of a slab from the basilica of
Sant’Antioco at the dawn of the age of the giudicati (the early decades of the
eleventh century) stands out. It depicts a figure, who has been interpreted as
a pilgrim following a procession, playing a bicalamo, a double-reed instru-
ment, sometimes called a tibicino.50 Another contemporary, but mutilated
slab from Sant’Antioco—now belonging to a private collection—also portrays
a bicalamo player.51 There is no doubt that musicians and instruments were
present in the religious and civil magnificence of Sardinia in the Byzantine era
through the high age of the giudicati.
5 The Age of the Giudicati
In the second half of the eleventh century, Sardinia—divided into four giudi-
cati (Arborea, Calari, Torres, Gallura)—received a massive wave of Benedictine
monks: Cassinese, Victorines from Marseilles, and, later in the twelfth cen-
tury, Camaldolese, Cistercians, and Vallombrosians, who finally established
the Roman liturgy with its songs.52 The passiones of the Sardinian national
48 Giulio Cattin, Musica e liturgia a San Marco. Testi e melodie per la liturgia delle ore dal XII al
XVII secolo. Dal Graduale tropato del Duecento ai Graduali cinquecenteschi, 3 vols (Venice,
1990), vol. 1, pp. 55–59.
49 Giampaolo Mele, “San Lussorio nella storia: culto e canti. Origini, Medio Evo, Età
Spagnola,” in Santu Lussurgiu dalle Origini alla Grande Guerra, ed. Giampaolo Mele, 2 vols
(Nuoro, 2005), vol. 2, pp. 7–8, n. 14.
50 Coroneo, Scultura medio bizantina, pp. 204–206; Coroneo, Arte in Sardegna, p. 469,
fig. 833; Cannas, “Le lastre marmoree,” pp. 90–91.
51 Coroneo, Scultura medio bizantina, pp. 136, 243–244 (cats. 13, 14; fig. 89); Coroneo, Arte in
Sardegna, p. 469, fig. 835; Cannas, “Le lastre marmoree,” pp. 92–94.
52 Turtas, Storia della Chiesa, pp. 188–245. See also, Agostino Saba, Montecassino e la Sardegna
medioevale. Note storiche e codice diplomatico sardo-cassinese (Badia di Montecassino,
1927); Alberto Boscolo, L’Abbazia di San Vittore, Pisa e la Sardegna (Padua, 1958); Ginevra
Zanetti, “I Cistercensi in Sardegna,” Rendiconti dell’Istitu to Lombardo. Classe di lettere e
scienze morali e storiche 93 (1959), pp. 59–76; Ginevra Zanetti, I Vallombrosani in Sardegna