Collectanea Concerning Music in the Hebrew Manuscript London, British Library, Or. 10878 (Hebrew)

Three fragments of musical theory and of speculations on music, collected by an anonymous Jewish scribe (probably Northern Italy, 15th century), are preserved on fol. 5a of the ms. London, British Library, Or. 10878. They are published here as a supplement (118/Anonymous London [mus. pass. AC]) to Hebrew writings concerning music edited by the author in RISM, series B, vol. IX2. 

A. Hebrew version of a fragment from the Judeo-Arabic commentary by Dunash ibn Tamim (10th century) on the Sefer yezirah ('Book of Creation', written between the 3rd and 6th centuries), a mystical speculation on the 'Act of Creation', Music is linked with the second of the ten sefirot ('numbers'): ruah (the primal element of 'air'). Relating ruah to the acoustical foundations of the production of sounds by musical instruments, the author calls the art of music the foremost among the (four) mathematical sciences. This is probably the earliest mention of music in mediaeval Judeo-Arabic literature dealing with the classification of sciences.

B. Gloss (by Moses ibn Ezra [b. ca 1055, d. after 1135]?), which seems to be a commentary on the preceding fragment of the commentary by Dunash ibn Tamim on the Sefer yezirah. A paraphrase of the sentence asserting the preeminence of music is followed by three 'maxims of the philosophers on music' similar to those found elsewhere in mediaeval Judeo-Arabic literature (cf. RISM, B IX2, text no. 280). This version offers readings useful in elucidating some textual difficulties in the musical passage of Ibn Ezra's maqalat al-hadiqah. (cf. ibid., text no. 310). 

C. Initial fragment of a treatise on musica plana. The text has been identified as an abbreviated version (by a Jewish musician from Catalonia?) of the beginning of the treatise adapted and translated from the Latin by Judah b. Isaac, preserved in Pn, ms. hébr. 1037 (cf. RISM, B IX2, text no. 140). As in the Paris ms., the text is illustrated by the Guidonian hand and the mutation-table. The London ms. has also a table indicating the location of the notes in linea and in spatio, similar to but more developed than - the table given in the Vienna ms. CPV 787 (cf. Smits van Waesberghe, Musikerziehung (Musikgeschichte in Bildern, III,3 [Leipzig, 1969], p. 139-141).