Trent Codices

The Trent Codices ( Tridentine musical manuscripts ) are the most extensive collection of polyphonic, mainly sacred music of the 15th century.

The Trent codices containing over 2000 recorded sheets 1585 compositions. These come from many parts of Europe, such as from England, Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany and Poland. Including works by renowned artists such as Guillaume you Fay, John Dunstable, Antoine Busnoys, Johannes Ockeghem, and Gilles Binchois. Most of the pieces are settings of the Mass Ordinary, but there are also many motets, and secular music.

Six volumes were found in the 1880s by Franz Xaver Haberl in the cathedral archives Trent, as he sought in Italy for sources for his Palestrina Complete Edition ( composer of the 16th century). The six volumes, often referred to as TrentC 87-92, are now in the Museo Provinciale d' Arte in Buonconsiglio, Trento. A seventh band ( TrentM 93) was discovered in 1920 by Rudolf von Ficker. It is kept in the Archivio Capitolare of Trent.

The emergence of the collection is not fully understood. Breakfast was suspected that parts of it originated in Vienna, and initially, the collection was mainly attributed to the Tridentine Bishop John Hinderbach. Today it is clear that it has been collected over decades from various sources.

From the investigation of watermark could be concluded that the manuscripts were written 1439-1470. The oldest parts of the volumes TrentC 87 and 92 emerged as the first -. 1439-1442 Johannes Lupi was identified as their leading scorer. John Wiser contributed the largest part to the other, later books in; he was a priest and schoolmaster at the cathedral school of Trent, as he worked on the collection.