Hermann Pötzlinger's Music Book

A study of one of the most significant medieval manuscripts containing music, and its owner, sheds light on many aspects of contemporary culture.

Hermann Pötzlinger (+ 1469), the university-educated schoolmaster of the monastery of St Emmeram, Regensburg, was the creator of one of the largest and most intriguing collections of late-medieval polyphonic music to have survivedfrom Central Europe. His music book, the so-called 'St Emmeram Codex' (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 14274), was compiled in the years immediately following his graduation from Vienna University in 1439. It contains aunique cross-section of polyphonic vocal music not only from the West but also from Central and Eastern Europe; moreover, it is only one among more than a hundred scholarly manuscripts that he copied or acquired during his career.

This volume presents an in-depth study of the manuscript and of the professional networks and academic culture within which it was compiled; its context as part of one of the largest surviving personal libraries of its time is also explored. It will appeal to all those interested in early music and other aspects of late-medieval life and culture.

Dr IAN RUMBOLD is an independent scholar; PETER WRIGHT is Professor of Music at the University of Nottingham.