red ink, void red notation

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Red ink is used for three distinct purposes in the codex: the drawing of the five-line staves, the 'coloration' of specific note heads to indicate rhythmic changes, and 'void red notation' (outlines) in the cantus (p. 447). The use of red ink is linked to the complex proportion systems of the 'Ars subtilior' where 'differently coloured ink' served as a notational device (p. 444).

Evidence

"all three songs also contain additional visual elements, namely coloration (notes in red ink) and proportion signs"

Remarks

The red ink used for the staves provides the physical grid for the subsequent musical notation. Coloration in red was a standard technique in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to modify the value of notes (p. 447). Like the black ink in this manuscript, the red ink required multispectral imaging to be fully deciphered due to the 'undecipherable' state of the majority of the music (p. 447).