oa The Palatini Partbooks Revisited

Dedicated to Anna, queen of Bohemia and Hungary between 1528 and 1534, the partbooks Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Mss. Palatini Latini 1976-79 have received relatively little attention among the Alamire complex of manuscripts. A survey of the structure of the motet collection as well as study of scribal interventions and diplomatic peculiarities of select works are outlined. Moreover, the essay reopens inquiry into the sponsor of the partbooks, while also attempting to narrow the date of the collection. Herbert Kellman has proposed Mary of Hungary as the commissioner of the partbooks, but Margaret of Austria, who kept an eye on the Austrian branch of the Habsburgs, may be a stronger candidate for the sponsor of the compilation. Select motets seem to point to Archduke Ferdinand’s coronation as King of the Romans in 1531 as an impetus for the compilation, but new light is brought to the question of how other circumstances of the Habsburg nobility might also be suggested in the partbooks.