Click to view high resolution image
This page comes from the Codex Gisle, a gradual used for chants to celebrate Mass throughout the year. This particular piece, Puer natus est nobis (a boy is born to us) was an antiphon sung at the third Mass on Christmas Day. The page itself is vividly colored and illuminated, with scarcely any of the normal black ink and more austere requirements of the Cistercians. The song itself begins with an enormous historiated initial “P,” decorated and surrounded by gold border with concave edging (a reverse-scalloped border). The music shows the melody, and even the notes are embellished. The musical notations and background to the lyrics alternate by line and color between red and blue, both vibrant; the text of the song is printed in gold against the red or the blue. (The bars of the musical staff are in thin red.) The beginnings of musical notations are reflected here.