Twelfth-century Gradual Fragment

[Gradual. Use of Rome. Fragment].
[Italy, ca. 1100].
Manuscript fragment on parchment.
(BRMS 40)

Previously preserved as binders’ waste (paper or vellum page scraps removed from discarded books and glued into new bindings as structural support) this fragment was originally produced for a twelfth-century Italian gradual, a text comprising chants and hymns performed in the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist. Written in a late Carolingian minuscule script in black and red inks with heighted neumes without staves, this manuscript includes text and music from the Vigil for the Feast of the Ascension with adiastematic neumes, musical notation that provides a sense of melodic movement but without recording exact pitch.