Non-linear transmission of polyphony in fifteenth-century sources

This chapter clarifies several aspects of the complex filiation of Puyllois’s mass cycle and includes all of its many known sources. Close reading of the sources reveals ways in which scribes responded to the presence of more than one viable exemplar, including exemplars from distinct copying traditions. The three Trent manuscripts which contain Puyllois’s mass (87, 93, and 90) exhibit a broad range of editorial decisions: specific alterations to the musical text include both necessary emendations to erroneously transmitted passages and minor changes that likely reflect scribal and/or performance preferences. Editorial policy plays out at a larger level, too, as scribes created composite readings in which mass sections or parts thereof were drawn from different copying traditions. This is seen both in the creation of a new copy (in Trent 87) and a comprehensive programme of post-scriptum changes in an existing copy (Trent 90). Not only does the transmission of Puyllois’s mass testify to the proficiency of scribes in handling musical materials and to the extent of their personal input; it also makes it clear that scribal decisions were contingent upon the shifting availability of musical sources, which was itself a consequence of the movement of people and sources between scribal centres.