Script: Written by one scribe in batarde, usually one line below each staff, but sometimes text written on every other line of the staves.

The style of the Chansonnier's initials points to one of the ateliers active in the service of Ferrante I of Naples, in particular to the shop of Matteo Felice. One 2-line initial (f. 1r) tan, shaded purple and green, with curling floral serifs, blue and puce, filled with curling leaves against burnished gold and blue, with white filigree, against gold ground, framed in blue with white filigree; short, 3-stemmed flowers, gold, with brown hair-spray stems project from upper serif and midpoint; 3 gold dots with hair-spray symmetrically disposed around letter; floral border in outer margin, hair-spray stems with gold and green leaves and flowers, blue, purple, and gold at midpoint and terminals. One-line initials throughout, gold, infilled blue or purple, with white filigree, against irregular grounds, purple or blue, edged in black, with white filigree and two short flowering tendrils, as in border on f. 1v; often with a gold dot with hair-spray adjacent in outer margin.

Binding: 19th-20th centuries. Brown goatskin, blind-stamped, by Henri Marius-Michel of Paris (1846-1925), whose name is stamped inside the front cover. Not in his usual style. Included in the center front and back panels are monograms of Baron Joseph Vitta.

In French.

Record created by Beinecke staff from catalog description by Barbara Shailor.

Faye and Bond, p. 28, no. 91.

Exhibition Catalogue: W. Cahn and J. Marrow, eds., "Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at Yale: A Selection," Yale University Library Gazette 52 (1978), pp. 236-38, no. 62.

M. Bukofzer, "The Mellon Chansonnier," Gazette 15 (1940) pp. 25-28.

Leeman L. Perkins and Howard Garey, eds. The Mellon Chansonnier (1979).

Debra Livant Nakos, "The Chanson Il sera pour vous / L’homme armé," Revue Belge de musicologie / Belgisch tijdschrift voor muziekwetenschap 76 (2002) : 59-80.

Shailor, B. Catalogue of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, MS 91.

Mellon Chansonnier. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Manuscripts, Medieval > Connecticut > New Haven.

Music > 15th century.

Songs, French > Texts.