History of the Lugo Codex

Galicia, in northwest Spain, conserves only two complete medieval music codices: the Codex Calixtinus and the Lugo Codex. The former has been well documented, and its music has often been performed; it remains one of the best sources of the early Franco-Iberian polyphonic tradition. The Lugo Codex, on the other hand, has been largely ignored by scholars and performers, despite assertions of its importance by Spanish and international musicologists.

Also known as the Lugo Missal or Lugo Breviary, the Lugo Codex is a bound manuscript conserved in the Cathedral of Saint Mary in Lugo, Spain. It is not a Missal in the technical sense of a complete book for celebrating the mass; rather, it is a guide to the cantorial activities for the hours of the Divine Office. As such, it bears the inscription “Incipit Breviar[i]us de omnibus san[c]tis” and might more accurately be called a breviary. The manuscript contains an abundance of notated antiphons, most elements for a number of Propers for several masses, and collects for numerous saints who do not have individual Offices.