Letters: A ninth-century document found in Pennsylvania is just one of many examples of the use of this early form of musical notation, writes Arthur Westwell

Ninth-century manuscript for Easter services remained ‘out of sight’ for years in hands of private collector

The library of the Archiepiscopal Chateau in Kroměříž, Czechia preserves a Carolingian manuscript that until now has not sufficiently attracted scholars’ attention. As previous researches in Czech have demonstrated, the manuscript is a Sacramentary of the Gregorian type, copied in the diocese of Reims towards the end of the ninth century, perhaps at the monastery of Saint Pierre d’Hautvillers. The textual version of the manuscript, the pre-Hadrianic version, is particularly rare and attested only in the famous Sacramentary of Trent. Although the compilers of the Kroměříž Sacramentary used parts of the well-known Hucusque Supplement in order to enhance their text, the main body of the Sacramentary still preserves many of the peculiarities of a more ancient recension. Further unique liturgical material in the manuscript is also identified and edited. The presence of prayers for victory over pagan enemies suggests the Viking attacks which overtook Reims in 882 represented a real threat, or a very recent one, at the time the manuscript was copied.