This article uses multiple witnesses of the chants from four offices of the Sanctorale, transcribed from twelve manuscripts and an early printed antiphonal, in order to assess the stability of chants in late medieval sources associated with the liturgical ‘Use of Sarum’. Whilst there is usually a ‘main’ melodic reading or version for each chant, a considerable degree of variation exists among the readings from various witnesses. The data which support this argument allow manuscripts to be linked by networks of shared melodic material, both through melodic readings identical and present in multiple sources, and through divergences from such main versions. These observations help to illuminate something of the diversity of the written melodic tradition, raising wider questions about the relationship between written witness and performed reality, and about the fixity of ‘Sarum Use’, at least as far as it was transmitted in written form.

The exposition of an analytical method that reveals the simple basis of the melodic structure of Western liturgical chants belonging to the two general categories of responsory and antiphon. Included are historical observations meant to explain the origin and evolution of chant-melody in the period from the seventh to the thirteenth century.

The singular Office of St Columba in the Inchcolm Antiphoner, a unique relic celebrated for its distinct Scottish chant, was composed in the late thirteenth century amidst a battle for the claim of Scotland's patron saint. Previous studies of the office have suggested that unique chants reflect a pre-Norman tradition of Celtic chant. This article demonstrates that the office was not only composed much later, and severely edited in the fifteenth century, but also almost entirely composed of contrafacta. Some of these engage directly with the cult of St Andrew, the other saint with a major claim to the patronage of Scottish royalty. Three chants in the office connect the celebration of St Columba at Inchcolm Abbey to music from St Andrews Cathedral as recorded in a St Andrews antiphoner and W1. The office thus bears witness to the authority of music for St Andrew and the association of W1 with his cathedral in the early fourteenth century. The music of the office is not distinctly Scottish, but the office constructed for St Columba reflects the competition between the cults of St Andrew and St Columba in the construction of Scottish identity.

In PMM 26/2 (October 2017), the title of the first book, reviewed by Margaret Bent, was wrongly printed. The correct heading should be as follows:

John Nádas and Andreas Janke (eds.), The San Lorenzo Palimpsest: Florence, Archivio del Capitolo di San Lorenzo, Ms. 2211, vol. 1: Introductory Study; vol. 2: Multispectral Images, Ars Nova, n.s. 4 (Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana, 2016). xiii pp.+ 123 fols (135 fols including blanks). €300. ISBN 978 88 7096 852 1.

This error has now been rectified in the online version of the article.