Draft:Cervera Manuscript
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The Cervera Manuscript is the oldest choreographic document in Europe that uses a unique system of abstract choreograms.[2] The manuscript consists of two sheets with eleven annotated and written dances. It is preserved in the Regional Archive of la Segarra.
The Cervera Manuscript was found in a notarial manual from 1468 in the Archive of Cervera. Although this dance letter is not explicitly dated, it is considered a document from 1496 since, on the reverse of the first folio, a letter from the Reverend Antonio Porta dating from that year is preserved.[3]
The manuscript's significance lies in its distinction from choreographic notation documents of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, in that it does not utilise the letter system to notate basse dances. The letter code, present, for example, in the Burgundy Manuscript (1460) - considered one of the oldest documents of choreographic notation in Europe - employs the letters "R", "s", "d", "b", i "r" to indicate the five fundamental steps of basse dances. In contrast, the Cervera Manuscript employs a series of abstract symbols to denote these steps. However, these symbols are not arbitrary, since their graphics are closely linked to the spatial movement, directionality and length of the steps they represent.[4] The choreography must be read vertically and ascending, and, in the case of more than one column, from left to right.
The Cervera Manuscript definitively proves the continuous tradition of choreographic notation in Catalonia, as evidenced by the Hospital Manuscript or Tarragó Manuscript, found at the beginning of the 20th century. This latter manuscript uses the same choreographic system to notate 16th-century dances. The Tarragó Manuscript, which is a single folio, survived as a book cover. Several specialists date it to 1580..[3][4]
References
[edit]- ^ "Le manuscrit dit des Basses Danses de la Bibliothèque de Bourgogne". Library of Congress. Retrieved 15 March 2025.
- ^ Hutchinson Guest, Ann (1984). Dance Notation. The process of recording movement on paper. Londres: Dance Books Ltd. p. 45.
- ^ a b Nocilli, Cecilia (2013). El manuscrito de Cervera. Música y danza palaciega catalana del siglo XV. Barcelona: Tritó Edicions. p. 31.
- ^ a b Mas García, Carles (1988). "La baixa dansa al regne de Catalunya i Aragó el segle XV". Nassarre: revista aragonesa de musicología: 145-160.