From the earliest days of musicology, the definition of the so-called ‘simple’ polyphonies, thein geography and position in the general historical development of polyphony, have been matters of dispute. This article aims particularly to describe how and why the geographical extent of the repertory of simple polyphony has always been a contentious subject. After giving a brief historiographical overview of the different geographical definitions, the author especially focuses on the polyphonic mini-corpus of the diocese of Lausanne in Switzerland as a case study proposing a new approach, which attempts to better include the ‘simple’ polyphonies, regionally and through the course of time.
The Strahov Codex (PragP 47) is usually dated as 1480, or between 1460 and 1480 (Census-Catalogue). A more precise dating for the codex’s compilation can be gained by studying the watermarks. The author presents evidence showing that the codex’s fascicles were written at different times around the end of the 1460s and he offers a new perspective on the manuscript in the light of this information. Strahov can now be seen as chronologically (and repertorially) close to the oldest fascicles of the Leopold Codex (MunBS 3154), bridging what has hitherto been a temporal gap between the two ‘youngest’ of the Trent Codices (TrentC 89 and TrentC 91).