The Pergaminho Sharrer (; gl, Pergamiño Sharrer {{IPA-gl, peɾɣaˈmiɲʊ ˈʃarɪɾ}; "Sharrer Parchment") is a mediaeval

parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a writing medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins of ...

fragment containing seven songs by King

Denis of Portugal Denis (, ; 9 October 1261 – 7 January 1325 in Santarém), called the Farmer King (''Rei Lavrador'') and the Poet King (''Rei Poeta''), was King of Portugal. The eldest son of Afonso III of Portugal by his second wife, Beatrice of Castile, and ...

, with lyrics in the

Galician-Portuguese Galician-Portuguese ( gl, galego-portugués or ', pt, galego-português or ), also known as Old Portuguese or as Medieval Galician when referring to the history of each modern language, was a West Iberian languages, West Iberian Romance languag ...

language and

musical notation Music notation or musical notation is any system used to visually represent aurally perceived music played with instruments or sung by the human voice through the use of written, printed, or otherwise-produced symbols, including notation fo ...

. The fragment was discovered in 1990 by

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

scholar Harvey L. Sharrer, of

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

. Sharrer was analysing documents in the Torre do Tombo archive in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, when he found the folio in the binding of a 16th-century book. Before Sharrer's discovery, the only known

mediaeval manuscript with love (non-religious) songs and musical notation was the Vindel Parchment, which contains seven songs by

troubadour A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairit ...

Martim Codax. Several songbooks covering the period exist, but all of them lack musical notation except the ''

Cantigas de Santa Maria The ''Cantigas de Santa Maria'' (, ; "Canticles of Holy Mary") are 420 poems with musical notation, written in the medieval Galician-Portuguese language during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile ''El Sabio'' (1221–1284). Traditionally, they ar ...

'', which are religious in tone. The text and musical notation of the Sharrer Parchment are fragmentary, due to damage done to the folio during the centuries; but further damage was inflicted during a disastrous "restoration" by Portuguese authorities. The parchment is written with

Gothic letter Blackletter (sometimes black letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule, or Textura, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be commonly used for the Danish, Norweg ...

s and contains seven love songs (''cantigas de amor''). Even though the name of the author is not given, all songs appear in the same order in other songbooks (''cancioneiros'') of Galician-Portuguese poetry (''

Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional The ''Cancioneiro da Biblioteca Nacional'' (, ; "The National Library Songbook"), commonly called ''Colocci-Brancuti'', is a compilation of Galician-Portuguese lyrics by both troubadours and ''jograes'' (non-noble performers and composers) . The ...

'' and the ''

Cancioneiro da Vaticana The ''Cancioneiro da Vaticana'' (, ; ''Vatican Songbook'') is a compilation of troubadour lyrics in Galician-Portuguese. It was discovered c. 1840 in the holdings of the Vatican Library and was first transcribed by D. Caetano Lopes de Moura in 18 ...

''), where they are attributed to King Dinis I of Portugal (reigned 1279-1325), known for his love for the arts. The folio probably belonged to a larger 14th century songbook that has been lost. The songs of the Sharrer Parchment are: *''Poys que vos Deus, amigo, quer guisar'' *''A tal estado me adusse, senhor'' *''O que vos nunca cuidei a dizer'' *''Que mui grão prazer que eu hei, senhor'' *''Senhor fremosa, no posso eu osmar'' *''Não sei como me salva a minha senhor'' *''Quis bem amigos, e quero e querrei'' Since their discovery, the songs have been recorded by several groups dedicated to

early music Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad musical era for the beginning of Western classical m ...

like the

Theatre of Voices Theatre of Voices is a vocal ensemble founded by baritone Paul Hillier in 1990;www.paulhillier.net
. Retrieved March 9, 2 ...

References

*Harvey L. Sharrer
''The discovery of seven cantigas d'amor by Dom Dinis with musical notation''.
Hispania 74, May 1991. *Manuel Pedro Ferreira. ''Cantus Coronatus: 7 Cantigas d’El Rei Dom Dinis''. Kassel: Reichenberger, 2005.
Visualization
Portuguese music history Galician language Portuguese literature Galician-Portuguese Chansonniers (books)

See also

References