For Presentation or for Use? The Munich Alamire Codices and the Early History of the Bavarian Court Chapel

Among the oldest music manuscripts of the nascent Bavarian court chapel of the early sixteenth century are three imported items: codices 6, 7, and 34 from the workshop of Petrus Alamire in Mechelen. The ‘Alamire codices’ are regarded by music historians as the pinnacle of polyphonic music production around and after 1500: unlike contemporary manuscripts for institutional use, which were usually rather plain, many of them were lavishly prepared and served as gifts of state to the most important courts in Europe, where they were potentially not used in religious services at all, but as objects of display. The three Munich codices only partially correspond to the ‘presentation manuscript’ phenotype. To be sure, they are large-format and of a high level of calligraphy, with the heraldic insignia of their destination. However, other characteristics give cause for suspicion: unlike the majority of products from Alamire’s workshop, they are copied on paper and not on parchment; Munich 34 contains Salve Reginas and not the usual masses; the repertoire is less closely focused on the works of the core Burgundian corpus; and the book decoration is also far from the level of, for example, the codices for Frederick the Wise, Henry VIII, or Leo X. As such, they are much closer to other products of the Alamire workshop from the 1520s and early 1530s which were produced on commission rather than as gifts, such as the books for the Brotherhood of Our Lady in ’s-Hertogenbosch or those for the Fuggers in Augsburg. It can therefore be deduced that the manuscripts for the Wittelsbach court were not gifts of state either but made to order. They thus become part of planned repertoire building on the part of the nascent court chapel.