First facsimile of one of the complete-works’ manuscripts of Machaut     √ Winner of the 2015 Claude Palisca Prize presented by the AMS Ferrell-Vogüé Machaut Manuscript Facsimile [private coll. James E. & Elizabeth J. Ferrell,  temp. loan Parker Library, Corpus Christi, Cambridge]             Diamm Facsimiles, 5. Oxford, 2014. 2 vols, 225, 789 pp. Full color facsimile of the 14th-c manuscript ‘Vg’—one of the most important sources for the works of Guillaume de Machaut (the basis of Ludwig's critical ed.) and possibly the earliest of the complete manuscripts. Formerly owned by the Marquis de Vogüé, it is now in the private collection of James E. and Elizabeth J. Ferrell, currently on loan to the Parker Library, Corpus Christi, Cambridge. Thanks to the generosity of its owners, Vg has gone from being the most secretive and enigmatic of the Machaut sources to the most accessible, and is the first to be produced in facsimile.                The long and short poems w/o music occupy the first part of the ms then follows the music: 2 lays, 23 motets, 38 ballades, 15 rondeaux, 6 virelais, the Mass and the hocket. The primary discovery announced with the commentary is the identity of the original owner, Jean, the duke of Berry (1340-1416). A newly discovered letter of 18 November 1388 from Violant de Bar, queen of Aragon, to Gaston Fébus, count of Foix, eagerly expresses her desire to borrow the manuscript that her uncle the duke of  Berry has just given to the count. Jean de Berry's purpose in surrendering such a precious object was to assist negotiations in progress with Fébus to obtain the hand of Jeanne de Boulogne, the count's young ward, whom Jean de Berry would marry in June of 1389. 2 volumes, buckram with slipcase. $750 (view other medieval music facsimiles)                                                distributed by: OMI - Old Manuscripts & Incunabula PO Box 6019 FDR Station, New York NY 10150 tel/fax 212/ 758-1946 • www.omifacsimiles.com • immels@earthlink.net