FROM OLD HISPANIC TO AQUITANIAN NOTATION: MUSIC WRITING IN MEDIEVAL IBERIA

This article focuses on the peculiarities of the Old Hispanic and Aquitanian musical notations, as found in Iberian liturgical manuscripts from the 10th to the mid-16th centuries, and it proposes some reconsiderations of previous scholarship on Iberian music palaeography. Specifically, this palaeographical survey engages with two changes that occurred in music writing in the Peninsula in the period under consideration. Firstly, the Old Hispanic notation was replaced by Aquitanian notation at the end of the 11th century. Subsequently, the graphical appearance of Aquitanian notation changed due to the influence of the Gothic script. These two changes developed in quite different ways: the first was swift and rapid whereas the second was slow and gradual. In this overview, I present some previously neglected sources as illustrative examples of Aquitanian notation. These sources have been studied for the first time recently and are now available for consultation in the "Portuguese Early Music Database".