The Weitra Fragment: A Central European Source of Late Medieval Polyphony

This article investigates a little-known fifteenth-century polyphonic fragment in the parish archive of Weitra, a small town in Lower Austria. It provides a detailed account of the physical make-up of the source and its contents, which comprise four works, three previously known from other sources: an Introit, a Kyrie (here identified as by Du Fay), and two settings of a hymn for the dedication of a church. A copying date of c.1440–50 is proposed and a possible relationship between the fragment and events that occurred in Weitra around this time (notably the dedication of the parish church and two chapels) is explored. Both fragment and host manuscript (the latter apparently belonged to Andreas de Weytra, rector of Vienna University in the 1430s) are examined in the context of the close political and intellectual relations that existed between Weitra and Vienna at the time of Albrecht V(II) and Friedrich III.