Hundreds of musical manuscripts are held in different Portuguese archives and libraries. They have now been identified and digitised thanks to the projects “Levantamento Digital de Património Musical Manuscrito (antes de 1600)” (Digital Survey of Manuscript Musical Heritage (pre-1600)); “Intercâmbios musicais, 1100-1650: A circulação de música antiga na Europa e além-mar em fontes ibéricas ou conexas” (Musical exchanges, 1100-1650: The circulation of early music in Europe and overseas in Iberian or related sources) and “Acervo histórico do Mosteiro de Arouca – Recuperação e catalogação” (Historical Collection of the Monastery of Arouca – Recovery and cataloguing) c

 

carried out at the Centre for the Study of Sociology and Musical Aesthetics, the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, NOVA University (CESEM-NOVA FCSH), under the supervision of different specialists. They together amount to a vast collection of books and fragments of religious music.

As regards the description / cataloguing of monodic sources in Portuguese, there are few works carried out and, in most cases, there is a total lack of standardised criteria, whether musicological, bibliographical or archival. This fact may be justified by the multidisciplinarity involved in the description of these sources and that encompasses areas of expertise such as musicology, palaeography, codicology, liturgy, art history, among others. It is therefore urgent to reflect and present proposals that may establish a reference framework for this field, thus also contributing to fostering consensus among the scientific community.

Biographical note
Zuelma Chaves is a PhD student in Historical Musical Sciences at the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, NOVA University (NOVA FCSH) having obtained a scholarship from the Foundation for Science and Technology. She completed her piano course at the Almada Professional Music Schools and her degree in Music Sciences at NOVA FCSH, spending an Erasmus year at the Complutense University of Madrid where she had the opportunity to work with Professor Cristina Bordas Ibañez in the field of musical organology. She completed her Master’s Degree in Music Science – Historical Musicology at NOVA FCSH, under the supervision of Professor Manuel Pedro Ferreira, defending her thesis on the Ofício de Defuntos (Office of the Dead) in the monodic music sources in Portugal until c. 1700.

Her areas of interest are centred on the field of ancient music (chant, codicology, musical palaeography), musical organology and terminology.

Since 2010, she has collaborated regularly as a research fellow on several projects related to the digital survey, description of sources and treatment of musical collections through CESEM-NOVA FCSH.