Scripsi et notavi. Scribes, Notators and Calligrapher in the Workshop of the Gaffurius’s Codices,

The four Gaffurius Codices of Milan’s Duomo are among the most significant sources of polyphony c.1500. At the conclusion of the research project ‘Polifonia Sforzesca/Sforza Polyphony: The Motet Cycles in the Milanese Libroni between Liturgy, Devotion, and Ducal Patronage’ (2018–2020, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation) the book Reopening Gaffurius Libroni offers open-access online resources and digital editions, and interacting with interdisciplinary scholars, conservators, restorers, and performers.
A new palaeographic and codicological examination of the four Libroni reveals the presence of at least eleven hands besides Gaffurius. Within the team of copyists roles and responsibilities were diverse. Some copyists wrote substantial sections, featuring in more than one manuscript, whereas other copyists appear only sporadically. Some copied both text and music, others were also involved in the decoration. Some betray an ultramontane origin, others are clearly Italian. The copyists worked in different moments and apparently with a different degree of proximity to Gaffurius. A folio-by-folio and piece-by-piece analysis uncovers the way in which the manuscripts were prepared, illuminates a few decades of musical culture at Milan’s Duomo an determines the different interventions of Gaffurius in them.