This manuscript was likely created for use at the male collegiate church of St. Mary in Aachen, as evidenced by the saints' feasts included in the antiphoner. Of particular note is the inclusion of the office for Adalbert of Prague, Bishop and Martyr (celebrated April 23), also known as the office Ad festa pretiosi. As Jakub Kubieniec writes in his article on the office (see Bibliography), it appears in several manuscripts from Aachen beginning in the twelfth century, as well as in manuscripts from Kraków. Kubieniec challenges an earlier theory that the office originated in Kraków, as evidenced from an antiphoner from the Kraków Cathedral (c. 1320, MS. 52), and argues that the Aachen antiphoner contains an earlier version of the office.
The text of the manuscript is Roman miniscule and Gothic text in black ink, with early and high Gothic initials in blue and red ink with filigree, and plant and animal motifs (e.g., ff. 59v, 44v, 27r). Additions to the manuscript were made in the thirteenth to fifteenth century in various hands (f. 364r-406v).
Differentiae are indexed by their last note and an arbitrarily assigned number. Slight variations are indicated by a lowercase suffix (e.g., D2, D2a).
- De Loos, Ike. "Liturgy and Chant in the Northern Low Countries." Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis 53, no. 1/2 (2003): 9-47.
- Euw, Anton, and Georg Minkenberg. Federstrich: Liturgische Handschriften Der Ehemaligen Stiftsbibliothek : Katalog Der Ausstellung Vom 3.12.2000-25.2.2001. Aachen: DOM Archiv, 2001.
- Hoffmann, Jürgen. "Der Adalbertskult in Aachener Marienstift." Deutsches Archiv Für Erforschung Des Mittelalters 62 (January 2006): 607-617.
- Kubieniec, Jakub."Akwizgrański przekaz Ad festa pretiosi." Muzyka: Kwartalnik Poświęcony Historii I Teorii Muzyki 45, no. 2 (2000): 81-87.