Magister Nicolaus Leopold
The manuscript D-Mbs Mus. Ms. 3154 is named after the schoolmaster Nicolaus Leopold of Innsbruck, whose autograph exlibris appears on the first page of three of the gatherings (fols 264r, 370r and 444r; » Abb. Magister Nicolaus Leopold’s exlibris).
Abb. Magister Nicolaus Leopold’s exlibris (c. 1511)
Leopold probably owned at least those gatherings of the manuscript (gatherings 27, 37 and 47) in which he wrote his name (no other exlibris is found in the codex), and it is possible that he was also responsible for collecting the rest of the material and for having it bound together as a book. This could not have happened before about 1508. As Ewald Fässler has shown, Nicolaus was the son of the Innsbruck citizen, innkeeper and later town councillor Heinrich Leopold, who had moved from Münchberg (Upper Franconia) to Innsbruck, where he married in 1487 or 1488; even if Nicolaus was Heinrich’s first-born son, he cannot have been older than about 20 by 1508.[9] Yet by 1511 he was already the schoolmaster of St Jacob’s church and is recorded in the accounts of the Tyrolian government as follows:
Maister Niclasn Leopold, Schuolmaister hir, geben am XII. tag October für procession, begrebnus, bestattung, sybenden und dreyßigsten weyland meiner allergenedigisten frauwn der Romischen Kayserin gehalten. Laut Seiner quittung VI gulden.[10]
(Given to Magister Nicolaus Leopold, schoolmaster here, on 12 October [1511] for procession, requiem service, funeral, seventh and thirtieth [days?] of my most gracious lady deceased, the Roman Empress. According to his receipt, 6 fl.)
Empress Bianca Maria had died on 31 December 1510 and was buried in the Cistercian abbey of Stams. This belated payment to schoolmaster Leopold may include commemoration services on the seventh and thirtieth days after her death. The task of directing the music for courtly funeral and memorial services was traditionally entrusted to musicians of St Jacob’s. Wolfgang Unterstetter, schoolmaster 1465-1478 (or until 1485, see Kap. Institutions, scribes and patrons), and Nicolaus Krombsdorfer, who in 1463-1470 was organist, then court chaplain and finally parish priest (d. 1488),[11] were regularly rewarded in the context of such services (» D. Hofmusik. Innsbruck). The income of these school and court musicians was, as in similar establishments elsewhere, a patchwork of regular or casual payments from the court, church benefices, income from special endowments for ceremonies and funerals (Jahrtage), and teaching fees.
In view of Leopold’s young age, it is not surprising that no earlier documents mention him in the role of schoolmaster at Innsbruck.[12] He had obtained the university degree of magister by 1511, as was presumably required for his position. By 1515, Leopold even possessed a doctorate in law and was accepted for a canonry at the cathedral of Brixen/Bressanone. In 1518, having also taken lower ecclesiastic orders, he was admitted as canon there.
A number of school and university teachers in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries owned compilations of polyphonic music, at least partly for use as teaching aids. Hermann Pötzlinger, whose large library included the ‘St Emmeram codex’ (» D-Mbs Clm 14724), was schoolmaster at the abbey of St Emmeram at Regensburg from 1448 to his death in 1469 (» G. Hermann Poetzlinger); Johannes Wiser, who copied most of the Trent codices 90, 88, 89 and 91 (» I-TRbc 90, I-TRbc 88, 89, 91), was schoolmaster of Trent cathedral 1458-1465. Other schoolmasters who copied or owned music collections that are still extant were H. Battre (Ciney nr. Namur, 1430s), Peter Schrott (Trent, 1460s and 70s) and Johannes Greis (Benediktbeuren abbey, 1495).[13] Nikolaus Apel, owner of the codex » D-LEu Ms. 1494 (Leipzig, c.1490-1510), was at some time rector of Leipzig university.
How Leopold and his predecessors may have used the manuscript is not precisely known. Singers performing under their direction would have had difficulties in reading directly from these copies, either before or after the 48 gatherings had been bound together (» Kap. Page layouts in the Leopold codex). There are signs (especially in the second section of the manuscript) that this collection should primarily be regarded as a set of archival or teaching copies.
[9] Fässler 1975.
[10] Fässler 1975, 32, from Tiroler Landesarchiv (TLA) Innsbruck, Raitbücher der tirolischen Kammer, 1511, vol 56, fol 77v, vol 56, fol 290v.
[11] » G. Kap. Geistliche Laufbahn.
[12] The city archives of Innsbruck (Stadtarchiv, Register, p. 43), mention a ‘Veit schulmaister’ in 1498.
[1] Colour images of the manuscript are available at https://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/0005/bsb00059604/images/.
[2] Some 34 hands can be distinguished in the second section of the manuscript alone; one of these (hand ‘Y’, fols 370r– 379v) also occurs in the manuscript D-B Mus. Ms. 40021 (fols 253r–254v).
[3] Noblitt 1987-96, I, viii; synopsis of foliations in IV, 313-14.
[5] Noblitt 1968, 1974, 1987, 1997 (etc.). For other recent research, see Strohm 1993, 516-23; Rifkin 2003, Rumbold 2018.
[6] See, for example, Josquin Desprez, Missa Fortuna desperata (fols 172r-178r), recorded in 2001 by the Clerks’ Group, dir. Edward Wickham (ASV label, catalogue no. GAU 220); in 2009 by the Tallis Scholars, dir. Peter Phillips (Gimell label, catalogue no. 42); and in 2018 by Biscantor! Métamorphoses (Ar-Re-Se label, catalogue no. AR 20181). The second Agnus Dei of Isaac’s Missa Wol auff gesell/Comment peult avoir joye (fols 179r-196r and 456v-463v) was recorded by Capella Alamire and the Alamire Consort, dir. Peter Urqhuart, CD Music of Pierrequin de Thérache (Centaur label, catalogue no. CRC3282), track 10. Kyrie of the anonymous Missa O Österreich (fols 205v-213r): Ensemble Rosarum Flores, CD Global Player Maximilian: Musikalisches Networking um 1500 (Musikmuseum label, catalogue no. 13042), track 1. Obrecht’s Missa Si dedero (fols 449v-456r): ANS Chorus, dir. János Bali (Hungaroton label, catalogue no. HCD 31946). The anonymous motets Ave mundi spes/Gottes namen (fols 29v-30r) and O propugnator miserorum (fols 148v-150r): Stimmwerck, SACD Flos virginum: Motets of the 15th Century (CPO label, catalogue no. 7779372), tracks 8 and 6, respectively. Isaac’s motet Argentum et aurum (fols 72v-73r) and the German songs So stee ich hie auff diser erd, Ich sachs ains mals, Gespile, liebe gespile gut, Es sassen höld in ainer stuben (fols 51v-53r): Ensemble Leones, CD Argentum et aurum: Musical Treasures from the Early Habsburg Renaissance (Naxos label, catalogue no. 8.573346), tracks 1, 16, 22, 20 and 21, respectively.
[7] It is not to be confused with the Hofkirche, adjacent to the Hofburg, which was completed in 1553 and contains Maximilian’s cenotaph.
[8] » I. Music and ceremony in Maximilian’s Innsbruck (Helen Coffey).
[9] Fässler 1975.
[10] Fässler 1975, 32, from Tiroler Landesarchiv (TLA) Innsbruck, Raitbücher der tirolischen Kammer, 1511, vol 56, fol 77v, vol 56, fol 290v.
[12] The city archives of Innsbruck (Stadtarchiv, Register, p. 43), mention a ‘Veit schulmaister’ in 1498.
[16] Dèzes 1927; see also Noblitt 1987-96, IV, 369.
[17] The work is later anonymously transmitted in Librone 1 of the Gaffurius-Codices of Milan (I-MD 2269). Rifkin 2003, 255, thinks that it might be by Antoine Busnoys.
[18] Rumbold 2018, 319-22 describes the copy of the Sanctus and Agnus Dei in detail, with facsimile.
[19] For the distribution of the music in the manuscript see Rumbold 2018, with a full inventory.
[20] For details, see Rumbold 2018.
[21] No. 55, for example, is a textless piece written on the two inner sides of a bifolio (fol. 75/84), which was then wrapped round an existing gathering (8), so that the two sides could no longer be read simultaneously. See Noblitt 1987-96, IV, 344, where the last sentence must read ‘so daß eine Aufführung aus dem Ms. unwahrscheinlich ist’.
[23] Noblitt 1968, Rifkin 2003. The actual ‘motetti missales’ of Milan (1470s and later) are not copied here.
[24] » Hörbsp. ♫ for all five songs.
[25] ‘Tannhauser, ihr seid mir lieb’ (Venus addressing Tannhäuser) is a stanza of the ‘Tannhäuserlied’ (Nun will ich aber heben an), printed in Nuremberg, 1515; the Leopold codex is its earliest known source.
[26] See » A. Kap. Der Prozessionshymnus (Stefan Engels): » J. Kap. Passions- und Osterfeierlichkeiten (Andrea Horz); » Notenbsp. O du armer Judas.
[27] On this work, see Staehelin 1977, 148-50, 205.
[28] Noblitt 1992 calls this a Missa in tempore belli; see also » D. SL O Österreich. Page layout of the Agnus Dei described in Rumbold 2018, 322-23.
[29] Steinegger 1954. Further on traditions of the church, see » D. Hofmusik. Innsbruck.
[30] Page layout described in Rumbold 2018, 329-34.
[32] » D. Hofmusik. Innsbruck; » I. Instrumentalkünstler (Martin Kirnbauer).
[34] See Noblitt 1974 (with table of watermarks, p. 39); Noblitt 1987-96, IV, 315-40.
[35] On the methodology, see also Strohm 1983, Rifkin 2003. Watermark dating along these lines has also been applied to the Trent codices (» K. Kap. Die Datierung) and the St Emmeram codex (Strohm 1983, Rumbold-Wright 2006, 14-19).
[36] WM 4, 9 and 10 deviate from the chronology, but these papers are only individual bifolios (26-27, 75/84, 85/98), added to already existing gatherings. Gathering 8 randomly assembles papers datable between 1477 and 1482, but it was not originally meant to be arranged in this order nor perhaps to be placed here: see Noblitt 1974, 42-43.
[37] On gatherings 14-17 (WM 6 with embedded papers WM 16/17, 1476-78), see Noblitt 1974, 41.
[38] Rifkin 2003, 285-6 and 300-1. Ave Maria…virgo serena is placed near the end of gathering 15 (WM 17: 1476-78); it is followed there only by an even later addition (in a different hand), the anonymous motet O propugnator miserorum, addressing Margrave Leopold III of Austria (canonised 1485), on which see » F. SL Die Motette O propugnator miserorum. The position of the motet in Josquin’s oeuvre and the possibility of its having been written outside Milan is discussed in Fallows 2009, 60-61 and 118-19.
[39] Thus Noblitt 1974, 45.
[40] Staehelin 1977, II, 19.
[41] See » I. Kap. Three early motets (David Burn), and Strohm 1997.
[42] For Rifkin 2003, 300 and 301 n. 124, these copies belong to a later stage of the main scribal hand, but the paleographical evidence seems overstated.
[43] Strohm 1997 suggests that Isaac did have contact with ‘Germanic’ idioms as they appear in these works before 1484, but that he also disseminated these idioms to other central European musicians.
[44] See the concordance table in Noblitt 1987-96, IV, 308-11.
[45] » F. Kap. The Strahov codex (Lenka Hlávková).
[46] See the description in Gancarczyk 2011.
[47] The concordances with Strahov and Trent 90 include, predictably, some of the oldest music in Leopold, for example the English motet Anima mea liquefacta est (no. 2), doubtfully ascribed in modern research to John Forest, and the Agnus dei secundum of the Mass cycle by Jean Pullois (no. 7), both composed before 1450.
[48] » J. SL In gottes namen faren wir; » Hörbsp. ♫ Ave mundi spes/Gottes namen. On both works, see also Strohm 1993, 532-3.
[49] » F. Kap. The Speciálník codex (Lenka Hlávková).
[50] There was no Holy Roman Emperor in 1493-1508.
[51] See » D. Hofmusik. Albrecht II und Friedrich III. The composer abbreviation ‘Ar. fer.’ on no. 64 (gathering 11: 1483-84) could refer to Emperor Friedrich’s chaplain Arnold Fleron: it so happens that an ‘Arnold’, probably Fleron, is recorded at Innsbruck as ‘componist’ in both 1483 and 1484: see Strohm 1993, 518 and 531 n. 478
[52] Further on the organisation of the courtly music, see » D. Hofmusik. Innsbruck; Senn 1954.
[53] Rifkin 2003, 285 n. 103, rejects the identification of scribe ‘A’ with Krombsdorfer because of the ‘Italianate’ features of a letter he sent in 1472 to Duke Ercole d’Este (» G. Kap. Ferrara): but this calligraphy was surely chosen for the benefit of the addressee.
[54] Wolfgang Unterstetter, suffering from podagra, received from the court a weekly measure of salt: HHSt Wien (A-Whh), Kopialbuch H. Nr. 7, 1485, fol. 170v-171r.
[55] See » Abb. Synopsis, and Noblitt 1987-96, IV, 341-57; Rumbold 2018, 287-89.
[56] » I. Music and Ceremony in Maximilian’s Innsbruck (Helen Coffey)
Empfohlene Zitierweise:
Ian Rumbold and Reinhard Strohm: “The Codex of Magister Nicolaus Leopold”, in: Musikleben des Spätmittelalters in der Region Österreich <https://musical-life.net/essays/codex-magister-nicolaus-leopold-0> (2021).