bavarikon4UDescription
The Pernner Codex is considered one of the most important German manuscript collections of early 16th century polyphonic sacred and secular music. It is named after a previous owner called Petrus Pernner. After him, the choir book came into the possession of the Old Chapel in Regensburg and from there finally into the collection of the Regensburg canon Carl Proske (1794-1861).
The codex consists of two parts. The first part was probably created between 1518 and 1519 in the Innsbruck court chancellery of Emperor Maximilian I. The second was written in Augsburg in 1521. The main scribe was Lucas Wagenrieder, who worked as a copyist for the imperial court singer and composer Ludwig Senfl (c. 1486-1542/43). Shortly it was written, both parts of the manuscript were probably bound together in Augsburg.
The manuscript contains numerous unique works by Heinrich Isaac, Ludwig Senfl and Pierre de la Rue, among others. In addition, the manuscript is the earliest German source to contain compositions by some composers of Senfl’s generation who were active in Italy (Costanzo Festa, Adrian Willaert). The choir book is one of the relatively few surviving handwritten remains from Emperor Maximilian’s court chapel and offers the most important tradition of Senfl’s early sacred works. It includes 99 compositions: predominantly masses and mass movements, motets, German sacred and secular song movements and French chansons.