Città del Vaticano Ms Urbinas Latinus 1411

The manuscript here studied is a small, unprepossessing though not unattractive volume. It seems to have been copied in Florence, ca. 1440-1445. Neither a presentation manuscript nor a substantial repertorial collection, Vat. 1411 may be alone survivor of a kind of small, informal assemblage that was meant for private circles of music lovers or that represented a musician’s personal collection, to be shared with his colleagues or to be copied for his patrons or employers.

Several things about Vat. 1411 give it special interest and distinction. Its collection of chansons by Gilles Binchois probably marks the arrival of that composer’s music in Florence and the concurrent establishment there of the courtly, ‘Burgundian’ chanson as the choice of discerning connoisseurs.