A set of large choirbooks now in the Universitätsbibliothek at Erlangen (MSS 473/1-4) preserves a Lutheran repertory, much of which was apparently copied from prints of Georg Rhau, Petreius, Formschneider and others. The original set apparently included at least seven volumes, as MS 473/3 bears the inscription ‘Septimus Tomus’ on its cover The books average c46 × 31 cm; MSS 473/1-3 have original covers of white leather over boards, tooled with allegorical figures, busts and ornaments; MS 473/4 has modern cardboard covers. All were copied between 1538 and 1548, by Johannes Hartung (father-in-law of the composer Caspar Othmayr), at the Cistercian monastery at Heilsbronn (between Nuremberg and Ansbach). The apparent anomaly of a Protestant repertory originating from a Cistercian monastery is explained by the fact that the cloister had gradually been infiltrated by Lutheran ideas during the first decades of the Reformation. Sympathetic to Lutheran ideas, but desiring to retain the monastic principle at the convent, the abbot Johannes Schopper founded a Lateinschule as a means of recruiting and training novices. Included in the curriculum was the performance of liturgical polyphony. The repertory preserved in these MSS is almost certainly the one performed by the Lateinschule of the monastery. The books contain 248, 325, 305 and 237 paper folios respectively; the pieces are arranged approximately in order of the feasts of the liturgical year. Mass Propers and Ordinaries,Magnificat settings, hymns, motets and a few German sacred pieces are included, a total of 128 pieces. Composers represented are Sixt Dietrich, Balthasar Resinarius, Ludwig Senfl, Heinrich Isaac, Josquin, Paminger, Hähnel, Johann Walter and others See F. Krautwurst: ‘Die Heilsbronner Chorbücher der Universitätsbibliothek Erlangen (Ms. 473, 1–4)’, Jb für Fränkische Landesforschung, xxv (1965), 273-324; xxvii (1967), 253-82

Authors: Charles Hamm, Jerry Call in Grove Music Online © Oxford University Press 2006 acc. 5/29/06