On Westphalian Woodworms and Rhenish Missionaries: The Soest Conductus Fragments and their Afterlife

Examining the Soest conductus fragments, of which five single leaves have so far been rediscovered, this article analyses the different layers of use and reuse that can be deduced. First, a detailed account of the circumstances under which these manuscript fragments travelled with (or without) their respective host volumes is given. The music manuscript must have been discarded by the fifteenth century, as a bookbinder from the Dominican convent of Soest in Westphalia reused various leaves of it in a series of autographs written by Jacob of Soest, who died in 1438. After the dissolution of the convent's library in the course of nineteenth-century secularization, further contexts of reuse and dismemberment pertaining to the fragments can be demonstrated. Secondly, the remnants of the original music manuscript are analysed. The use of the two-part conductus O crux ave spes unica (H4) as the opening piece of a fascicle can be connected to the dedication of the Soest Dominican house to the Holy Cross. In comparison to other fragmentary sources that made their way to the German-speaking area, as well as the long-known codices F, W1, and W2, the Soest music manuscript seems closest to W2. While, however, these two codices show significant parallels in terms of mise-en-page and copying process, the choice of repertory might have deliberately differed. This points to production in the same workshop, but for different commissioners.