Pergaminho Sharrer
Encyclopedia
Parchment
Parchment is a thin material made from calfskin, sheepskin or goatskin, often split. Its most common use was as a material for writing on, for documents, notes, or the pages of a book, codex or manuscript. It is distinct from leather in that parchment is limed but not tanned; therefore, it is very...
fragment containing seven songs by King Dinis I of Portugal, with lyrics in the Galician-Portuguese
Galician-Portuguese
Galician-Portuguese or Old Portuguese was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle Ages, in the northwest area of the Iberian Peninsula. It was first spoken in the area bounded in the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean and the Douro River in the south but it was later extended south...
language and musical notation
Musical notation
Music notation or musical notation is any system that represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written symbols.-History:...
.
The fragment was discovered in 1990 by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
scholar Harvey L. Sharrer, of University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...
. Sharrer was analysing documents in the Torre do Tombo archive in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, when he found the folio in the binding
Bookbinding
Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book from a number of folded or unfolded sheets of paper or other material. It usually involves attaching covers to the resulting text-block.-Origins of the book:...
of a 16th century book. Before Sharrer's discovery, the only known Galician-Portuguese
Galician-Portuguese
Galician-Portuguese or Old Portuguese was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle Ages, in the northwest area of the Iberian Peninsula. It was first spoken in the area bounded in the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean and the Douro River in the south but it was later extended south...
mediaeval manuscript with love (non-religious) songs and musical notation was the Vindel Parchment, which contains seven songs by troubadour
Troubadour
A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....
Martim Codax. Several songbooks covering the period exist, but all of them lack musical notation except the Cantigas de Santa Maria
Cantigas de Santa Maria
The Cantigas de Santa Maria are 420 poems with musical notation, written in Galician-Portuguese during the reign of Alfonso X El Sabio and often attributed to him....
, which are religious in tone.
The text and musical notation of the Sharrer Pachment are fragmentary, due to damage done to the folio during the centuries; but further damage was inflicted during a disastrous "restoration" by Portuguese authorities. The parchment is written with Gothic letters and contains seven love songs (cantigas de amor). Even though the name of the author is not given, all songs appear in the same order in other songbooks (cancioneiros) of Galician-Portuguese poetry (Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional
Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional
The Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional , commonly called Colocci-Brancuti, is a compilation of Galician-Portuguese lyrics by both troubadours and jograes...
and the Cancioneiro da Vaticana
Cancioneiro da Vaticana
The Cancioneiro da Vaticana is a compilation of troubadour lyrics in Galician-Portuguese. It was discovered c. 1840 in the holdings of the Vatican Library and was first transcribed by Ernesto Monaci in 1875....
), where they are attributed to King Dinis I of Portugal (reigned 1279-1325), known for his love for the arts. The folio probably belonged to a larger 14th century songbook that has been lost.
The songs of the Sharrer Parchment are:
- Poys que vos Deus, amigo, quer guisar
- A tal estado me adusse, senhor
- O que vos nunca cuidei a dizer
- Que mui grão prazer que eu hei, senhor
- Senhor fremosa, no posso eu osmar
- Não sei como me salva a minha senhor
- Quis bem amigos, e quero e querrei
Since their discovery, the songs have been recorded by several groups dedicated to early music
Early music
Early music is generally understood as comprising all music from the earliest times up to the Renaissance. However, today this term has come to include "any music for which a historically appropriate style of performance must be reconstructed on the basis of surviving scores, treatises,...
like the Theatre of Voices
Theatre of Voices
Theatre of Voices is a vocal ensemble founded by baritone Paul Hillier in 1992; it focuses on early music and new music.The ensemble was formed by Paul Hillier while he was teaching at the University of California, Davis, as an avenue to performing more contemporary music while his other group, the...
.
See also
- Cancioneiro da Biblioteca NacionalCancioneiro da Biblioteca NacionalThe Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional , commonly called Colocci-Brancuti, is a compilation of Galician-Portuguese lyrics by both troubadours and jograes...
- Cancioneiro da Ajuda
- Cancioneiro da VaticanaCancioneiro da VaticanaThe Cancioneiro da Vaticana is a compilation of troubadour lyrics in Galician-Portuguese. It was discovered c. 1840 in the holdings of the Vatican Library and was first transcribed by Ernesto Monaci in 1875....
- Cantiga de amigoCantiga de amigoThe Cantiga de amigo or Cantiga d'amigo , literally a "song about a boyfriend", is a genre of medieval erotic lyric poetry, apparently rooted in a song tradition native to the northwest quadrant of the Iberian Peninsula. What mainly distinguishes the cantiga de amigo is its focus on a world of...
- Cantigas de Santa MariaCantigas de Santa MariaThe Cantigas de Santa Maria are 420 poems with musical notation, written in Galician-Portuguese during the reign of Alfonso X El Sabio and often attributed to him....
- Portuguese literaturePortuguese literatureThis is a survey of Portuguese literature.The Portuguese language was developed gradually from the Vulgar language spoken in the countries which formed part of the Roman Empire and, both in morphology and syntax, it represents an organic transformation of Latin without the direct intervention of...
- TroubadourTroubadourA troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....