Leaf from a Manuscript Book of Offices, which bears the "quaint" Colophon: "Facit Par Moy, Jasques Argant, 1642."
[France: 1642].
Price: $250.00
About the item
4 x 5 inches bifolium. Fine.
Item #51507
Originally affixed to a printed card, which reads at the bottom: "From a manuscript book of offices, which bears the quaint colophon: 'faict par moy, Jacques Argant, 1642.' An excellent example of the persistence of the medieval spirit long after the advent of printing, especially in the Church, which has here found expression in the loving execution of this tiny manuscript. Musicians will observe the four-line staff and the quaint oblong notes."
In fact, this manuscript may not be quaint at all: printing music remained challenging and expensive decades after the problem of moveable type had been solved, and many antiphonals and graduals were executed in manuscript well into the seventeenth century. This little manuscript therefore stands as a charming example of the blurry line between manuscript and print culture, and the persistence of manuscript in certain niches and for certain uses, even nearly 200 years after the advent of the printing press in Germany.
