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Alamire
Foundation
IDEM
Integrated Database for Early music
IDEM – Integrated Database for Early Music

IDEM is an interdisciplinary and multifaceted database of manuscripts and printed books that are relevant to the Alamire Foundation's research and activities. It therefore especially focuses on the musical heritage of the Low Countries from the early Middle Ages until 1800.

IDEM contains digital images of manuscripts and prints digitized by the Alamire Digital Lab, the high-technology photography centre of the Alamire Foundation (KU Leuven – Musicology Research Unit). Its state-of-the-art equipment allows musical sources to be photographed following the strictest standards and quality requirements.

The core database is complemented by interrelated sub-databases that enable the consultation and study of manuscript and printed sources from multiple perspectives. IDEM will eventually contain information about every aspect of the manuscripts and books concerned, including their physical characteristics, their content and illumination, as well as recordings, editions and so-called 'fake-similes' (adapted versions of the original images, facilitating performance from the original notation).

IDEM is thus designed to be an online, freely accessible platform and tool for the preservation, study, and valorisation of the music heritage of the Low Countries.

April 2024 - In the spotlight: Montserrat Ms. 766

The Integrated Database for Early Music has recently been complemented with the digital images of a sixteenth-century choirbook from the workshop of Petrus Alamire, currently kept in the monastic library of Montserrat, Spain. Examining the quire structure of manuscript 766, we see that the codex was presumably produced in different stages and by different scribes. The unusual arrangement immediately catches the eye: the manuscript consists almost entirely of paper sheets, except for the parchment folios of Forestier's Missa Baises moy. It strongly suggests that this mass originally belonged to another source and was only later integrated into Ms. 766. The Agnus Dei of Pierre de La Rue's Missa de Feria, which can be found on the recto side of the Missa Baises moy, thus ended up in this Montserrat codex rather by accident. 

But why was this mass by Forestier added to the choirbook? Was it of special significance to the recipient of this source? The answer remains today a hypothetical one, but the selected repertoire initially suggests that the manuscript was intended for Charles V. Moreover, Ms. 766 was included in the inventory of books belonging to Charles' son, Philip II, who inherited his father's library. It is therefore possible that the choirbook was used by the singers of Charles's chapel in Spain. La Rue's Kyrie for Easter opens the manuscript, followed by nine five-part masses by, among others, the French composer Mathurin Forestier, and the two Antwerp composers Jacobus Barbireau and Matthaeus Pipelare. As the image above illustrates, Ms. 766 has unfortunately been considerably vandalized over the years: several illuminations, which may have contained more information about the owner, have been cut out. A few beautifully worked-out initials remain, demonstrating the care and attention to detail with which this choirbook was produced.

View the source:   Ms. 766