New College Library, Oxford, MS 322, f. 96v

Capturing Sound: The Art of William de Brailes in New College MS 322

Shelley Morwenna Williams
Issue number
(2022): 17

Fabulous and enigmatic marginalia adorn the folios of MS 322, a psalter completed c. 1238–1252 in the workshop of William de Brailes in Oxford. Could the pen flourishes be abstract visualizations of sound, possibly reflecting the shifting nature of musical theory in the thirteenth century?

 

New College Library, Oxford, MS 322, f. 96v

 

New College Library and Archives, Oxford