Pergaminho Sharrer

The fragment was discovered in 1990 by American scholar Harvey L. Sharrer, of University of California, Santa Barbara.

Sharrer was analysing documents in the Torre do Tombo archive in Lisbon, when he found the folio in the binding of a 16th-century book.

Several songbooks covering the period exist, but all of them lack musical notation except the Cantigas de Santa Maria, which are religious in tone.

The text and musical notation of the Sharrer Parchment are fragmentary, due to damage done to the folio during the centuries; but further damage was inflicted during a disastrous "restoration" by Portuguese authorities[citation needed].

The parchment is written with Gothic letters and contains seven love songs (cantigas de amor).