MCE 03-08 Virginis Mariae laudes

Edition

Motet

T1 and T2, mm. 1–21, ‘Virginis Mariae laudes...Peccatores’, quote the corresponding verses from the sequence Virginis Mariae laudes (Cantus ID 850309).

Text (ed. by Eva Ferro)

Edition

English translation

Virginis Mariae laudes
Intonent christiani.

Let all Christians intone
the praises of the Virgin Mary.

Eva tristis abstulit
Et Maria protulit
Natumque redemit
Peccatores.

Sorrowful Eve took away
and Mary bore her Son
and redeemed
the sinners.

Ave, caelorum regina,
Ave, morum disciplina,
Via vitae, lux divina,
Virgo, mater, filia.

Hail, queen of the heavens,
hail, discipline of good conduct,
path of life, divine light,
virgin, mother, and daughter.

Ave, templum sanctum dei,
Fons salutis, porta spei,
Ad te currunt omnes rei
Plena cum fiducia.

Hail, holy temple of God,
source of salvation, gate of hope,
to you all sinners run
with complete faith.

Sancta parens,
Refove gentes,
Quae corde precantur.
Labe carens,
Remove mentes,
Quae[1] sorde ligantur.

Holy parent,
strengthen your people
who implore with all their hearts.
Lacking any stain,
you free the souls
that are bound by uncleanliness.

Mater misericordiae,
O Maria,
Spes salutis et veniae,
Maria mater gratiae,
Succurre nobis hodie,
O Maria,
In hac valle miseriae,
O Maria,
Exaudi nos,
O Maria.

Mother of mercy,
O Mary,
hope of salvation and forgiveness,
Mary, mother of grace.
Come to our aid today,
O Mary,
in this valley of misery,
O Mary,
hear us,
O Mary.


[1] quae] qua Librone 3, C T1

This edition is based on Librone 3, ff. 133v–135r, where it was written by Scribe I. Only one mistake can be found in this text, namely the erroneous ‘qua’ instead of quae in C and T1.
This motet is the last of the Galeazescha cycle and, as the loco rubric suggests, it was sung to the closing part of Mass, namely the Deo gratias.
The topic is once again Marian devotion and the text type that was mostly used as a text source, that of the Marian sequence. Verses 1 and 2 were taken from the sequence Virgini Mariae laudes (AH 54, no. 18, pp. 27–29), verses 3 and 4 from the sequence Ave caelorum regina (AH 54, no. 275, p. 416). A model for verse 5 can be found in the prayer Iesu parens, attested in mid fifteenth-century England.[1] The model for verse 6 remains unidentified, but it has been connected with Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza for the emphasis on the word Maria and the appearance of the so-called Galeazzo verset (‘Maria mater gratiae, mater misericordiae’).[2]


[1] See an inscription from 1451 in Julian M. Luxford, The Art and Architecture of English Benedictine Monasteries, 1300–1540: A Patronage History (Rochester, NY: Boydell Press, 2012), 88.

[2] See Patrick P. Macey, ‘Galeazzo Maria Sforza and Musical Patronage in Milan: Compère, Weerbeke and Josquin’, Early Music History, 15 (1996), 147–212 at 164–66 and 175–80, later qualified by Nolan Gasser, ‘“Beata et venerabilis Virgo” : Music and Devotion in Renaissance Milan’, in Sally McKee (ed.), Crossing Boundaries: Issues of Cultural and Individual Identities in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Turnhout: Brepols, 1999), 203–38 at 215–22.

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Measure Voice Source Category Comment Image
I-Mfd3 designation of voices –, Altus, Tenor primus, Tenor secundus, Bassus
I-Mfd3 clefs original clefs: c1, c4, c4, c4, f4
37-40 2 5 I-Mfd3 text underlay the ms. underlays Ad te currunt omnes rei to the notes corresponding to mm. 39-40
40-41 I-Mfd3 rubrics and verbal directions ‘Verte cito’ direction at the bottom of ff. 133v–134r, pointing to the conclusion of the piece on the following opening, and corresponding to the passage between mm. 40 and 41 in the edition
72 I-Mfd3 mensuration and proportion signs in consideration also of the de facto non-strictly-mensural character of the closing passage with fermatas, this measure has been enlarged to accommodate the pre-final Br and leave the final Lo to more neatly show in m. 73
Text
Edition English translation

Virginis Mariae laudes
Intonent christiani.

Let all Christians intone
the praises of the Virgin Mary.

Eva tristis abstulit
Et Maria protulit
Natumque redemit
Peccatores.

Sorrowful Eve took away
and Mary bore her Son
and redeemed
the sinners.

Ave, caelorum regina,
Ave, morum disciplina,
Via vitae, lux divina,
Virgo, mater, filia.

Hail, queen of the heavens,
hail, discipline of good conduct,
path of life, divine light,
virgin, mother, and daughter.

Ave, templum sanctum dei,
Fons salutis, porta spei,
Ad te currunt omnes rei
Plena cum fiducia.

Hail, holy temple of God,
source of salvation, gate of hope,
to you all sinners run
with complete faith.

Sancta parens,
Refove gentes,
Quae corde precantur.
Labe carens,
Remove mentes,
Quae sorde ligantur.

Holy parent,
strengthen your people
who implore with all their hearts.
Lacking any stain,
you free the souls
that are bound by uncleanliness.

Mater misericordiae,
O Maria,
Spes salutis et veniae,
Maria mater gratiae,
Succurre nobis hodie,
O Maria,
In hac valle miseriae,
O Maria,
Exaudi nos,
O Maria.

Mother of mercy,
O Mary,
hope of salvation and forgiveness,
Mary, mother of grace.
Come to our aid today,
O Mary,
in this valley of misery,
O Mary,
hear us,
O Mary.