Previous studies (Hesbert,
Beyssac)
have shown that a similarity in the usage and ordering of particular items of
the liturgy in medieval chant manuscripts can be interpreted as an indication
of affinity among sources. The more the manuscripts resemble one another with
respect to the chants they contain and the order in which those chants occur,
the more likely there is to be a common tradition linking them together, whether
that is a particular liturgical centre, a diocese under common practice, a reformed
monastic order, or another circumstance. This interactive database tool can assist
researchers in identifying the degrees of similarity between hundreds of sources
of medieval western chant through comparison of the usage and ordering of chants
in series.
This analysis tool extracts series of chants from the CANTUS database and compares them in several user-directed ways. The "CANTUS Series"
programme allows users to select for comparison any series of chants for any
liturgical occasion (provided that data exists in the database).
Any lengthy series of chants, when compared from manuscript to manuscript, has
research potential. The over 368,000 chants included in the CANTUS database (as
of August 2009), representing the contents of over 130 manuscripts, merge into
a substantial data pool and are an appreciable starting point for comparative
research.
1.2.i CantusIDNumbers
A "chant series" is represented in the database by a string of index numbers;
each number indicates a chant text as referenced by the "CantusIDNumbers"
used in the CANTUS database. These six-digit numbers, based in CAO,
are used to uniquely identify all the chant texts encountered so far in CANTUS.
1.2.ii Manuscripts
The manuscript sources are identified using alphanumeric sigla styled on those
of Raymond
LeRoux. This system of letter codes was selected not only as visual variety
among the many strings of numbers already present in the database, but also
because the letter-coding allows for the identification of a source by its provenance
or usage, an often useful feature in the lengthy listings of results from this
programme. There are alphabetical listings available by
siglum or by city/library.
