Abstract
One of the most important manuscript witnesses to polyphonic music in the Middle Ages resides in the library of Montpellier’s historic medical school. The so-called Montpellier codex (Bibliothèque interuniversitaire, Bibliothèque universitaire de médecine, H. 196, hereafter Mo) is modest in dimensions,¹ but it contains the largest medieval motet collection in existence,² and is packed with gorgeous gold-leaf illuminations, historiated initials, decorative borders, and exquisite music calligraphy. Unsurprisingly, this comprehensive and beautiful manuscript has long attracted scholarly attention and the details of its production are, in the main, well established and widely accepted. It seems that the earliest layer of the