A música nos fundos e colecções da Torre do Tombo

Maria de Fátima Ó Ramos (Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo)

In this presentation I will provide an overview on the musical contents of the National Archive ‘Torre do Tombo’ and focus on the contexts of production, musicians and performers mentioned herein. Specifically, I will discuss some musical fragments from the “Fragmentos” collection and others found as part of book bindings; some liturgical books (namely missals, rituals, breviaries, mixed) originally belonging to the library of the Monastery of Lorvão; Gregorian chant books from the “Cabido da Sé do Funchal” and other documents on organs and organists; documentation on tangedores of various instruments in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; and finally the “Música” collection, which includes music sheet, liturgical books, and other documents with information on various compositions, instruments, composers and some interpreters, all dated from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Some of the contents of the Archive are presented here for the first time and I hope this presentation will encourage scholars to study the rich musical repertory currently stored in the National Archive.

This lecture will be delivered in Portuguese.

Singing with light: revisiting the Ajuda Songbook

Graça Videira Lopes (IEM – NOVA University of Lisbon); Maria João Melo, Paula Nabais (Faculty of Sciences and Technology – NOVA University of Lisbon)

A monument to the Galician-Portuguese medieval lyric, the Ajuda Songbook (Cancioneiro da Ajuda) also contains an exceptional series of illuminations. A full examination of the composition of the colour paints used in the Songbook, providing further insight into the circumstances of its production, has been previously discussed in a special number of the Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies. Connecting the materiality of this manuscript to its economic and cultural context, it was possible to support the argument put forward by scholars of mediaeval literature that the Songbook dates to the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century. We also highlight the extraordinary state of conservation of the lapis lazuli paint, and the presence of a pink colour made from brazilwood – the first reported use of this pigment in mediaeval manuscript illumination. Considering the importance of these illuminations and the texts they accompany within their Iberian context (especially in relation to the Cantigas de Santa Maria), we present a description of the previous results of our study, as well as an introduction to the STEMMA project which will allow a comparison with contemporary Occitan and French songbooks and the whereabouts of this manuscript and the other Galician-Portuguese songbooks between the 14th and 19th centuries.

This paper will be presented in english.

Maria de Fátima Ó Ramos: Maria de Fátima Ó Ramos: Técnica superior, Divisão de Tratamento Técnico documental e Aquisições (DTTDA). Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo. Licenciada em História pela Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa e com o Curso de Especialização em Ciências Documentais – opção Arquivo – pela Faculdade de Letras de Lisboa. Desempenha funções como arquivista no Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo, desde 1988, tendo dirigido o Serviço de Leitura e a Divisão de Aquisições e Tratamento Arquivístico. Colaborou em exposições e mostras documentais, participou em seminários e colóquios, é autora de alguns artigos. É consultora do Boletim do Arquivo da Universidade de Coimbra.

Graça Videira Lopes is a professor (now retired) and a researcher at IEM/FCSH-UNL. Her main research field is Galician-Portuguese troubadours’ songs. She was the coordinator of the database «Galician-Portuguese Medieval Songs» and she is now coordinating the new FCT’s project STEMMA on the study of medieval songbooks.

Maria João Melo is Full Professor at the Department of Conservation and Restoration of the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the Nova University in Lisbon and a research scientist at REQUIMTE (Associated Laboratory for Sustainable Chemistry – Clean Processes and Technologies). Her current research subjects are focused on the study of colour of Portuguese Medieval Illuminations and the study of the molecules of colour in Art and Nature.

Paula Nabais is a PhD student at the Department of Conservation and Restoration, on the identification of dyes with microspectrofluorimetry, based on the study of medieval manuscripts from different ambiences. Recently she has also started working on a project funded by FCT, Polyphenols in Art, regarding the identification of the complexes of iron-gall inks and selection of natural sources for yellow dyes in Portugal.

Second series of Interdisciplinary Research Seminars

Manuscritos em Diálogo

The interdisciplinary research seminars Manuscritos em Diálogo are jointly organized by the CESEM and the IEM . These seminars are envisioned as didactic events devoted to spread useful information on how to tackle the study and description of different kinds of medieval manuscripts, mainly Iberian. The seminars aim to create bridges among scholars from different areas and promote dialogue between them.

Scholars gathered together for the first series of seminars Manuscritos em Diálogo in the 2018 spring semester at the FCSH-NOVA University of Lisbon. Papers dealt with issues related to plainchant and manuscript copy, Eastern and Western liturgies, conservation and restoration of medieval manuscripts, and musical iconography.

The new series of seminars will be held monthly from September 2018 to January 2019. Papers will be delivered in Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and English. All events are free and open to the public.

The research seminars Manuscritos em Diálogo are organized by Elsa De Luca and Alicia Miguelez.

DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAMME HERE