El Cançoner trobadoresc de Sant Joan de les Abadesses: estat de la qüestió, història arxivística i context de producció

Abstract

Abstract: In 1917, Josep Masdeu, the monastery archivist of Sant Joan de les Abadesses, identified four songs written down in some blank spaces of a paper-based notarial book of the village. In 1935, Higini Anglès, a musicologist of recognized prestige, made them public and since then, they comprise the songbook of Sant Joan de les Abadesses, the unique troubadour catalogue in Catalonia including both the text of the songs and their equivalent musical notation to be performed. From that moment on, the manuscript has been studied in many occasions from a linguistic and musical point of view. The manuscript, currently preserved at the National Library of Catalonia, includes some other text passages of legal topics which we analyse in depth because they delimit the exact chronological period of the song writings. Our study, therefore, has been focused on three main purposes. In the first place, we revise the contributions made so far regarding the description of the document. Next, we build up the archivistic history of the manuscript, from the moment it was discovered until it was deposited in the library mentioned above. Finally, we frame the overall context of the songbook production based on the extraliterary and extramusical texts.Keywords: Troubadour songs, Medieval manuscripts, Medieval songbook, Sant Joan de les Abadesses Archive, Court books, Notarial -History.