The ‘Liber Generationis’ in liturgical manuscripts from the Low Countries: Sources, repertory, and tradition

The Liber generationis is a genre of liturgical chant with the genealogy of Christ as its text. These compositions are included in sources dating from the ninth to the sixteenth century, but the genre has received little study to date. This is also the case for the 47 examples contained in sources from the Low Countries (the medieval dioceses of Utrecht, Liège, Arras, Cambrai and Tournai), one of which includes the region’s earliest example of polyphony. The current study offers a survey and in-depth exploration of Liber generationis compositions from the Low Countries. Comparative analysis, including examples from neighbouring regions, is used to demonstrate the patterns, divergences and unique combinatory variation of these compositions. The study concludes with a summary of the Liber generationis tradition, and offers a theory accounting for the unique variations found in the genre.