Melodic Corrections

Folios 159v and 213r both contain pasteovers notated by the same hand. On fol. 159v, the last few neumes of "Attende celum" for the vigil of Pentecost are identical to the first few neumes of the addition in the upper left corner, which suggests that the pasteover completes the melody (see detail). On fol. 213r, a pasteover in the lower right corner that completes the melody of "Qui seminant," the tract for the Feast of Saints Fabian and Sebastian when it falls in Septuagesima. 

Tracts are highly formulaic chants. Consultation of Emma Hornby's book, Gregorian and Old Roman Eighth-Mode Tracts (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002), revealed that the alterations made to the melodies on both folios conform to Gregorian versions of the chants, extant since the early middle ages. This suggests that the original scribe of Western MS 97 may have been working from a faulty exemplar. In both cases, the pastedown supplies the missing conclusion of the tract melody.

These melodic additions illustrate changes made to the manuscript after it was copied, but do not lead us closer to our questions about its date or place of origin.