The third motet of the cycle Ave mundi domina is transmitted only in Librone 1, ff. 128v–129r, by the same hand as in the previous motets (Scribe A) and was thus edited on the basis of this source. Only one semantic variant is present in the text, namely in stanza 3 (in all voices): the substitution of the word ‘lactantium’ (‘of those who are breastfeeding’) for laetantium (‘of those who rejoice’). This misunderstanding is probably due to the Marian topic of the text, in which Mary is praised among other things as mother of Christ, who bore the King of Kings of men (stanza 2: ‘Mater Christi, peperisti / Regem regum hominum’). Relevant phonetic variants are for instance the disregard for double consonants (for instance in ‘vale’ instead of valle, C A T B) and the substitution of x with s, as in ‘consolatris’ for consolatrix (C A T).

In the motet Mary is praised and appealed to for help in equal measure: lines in which she is greeted and praised (as light, salvation of men, hope for sinners, leader of those who are lost and so on) alternate with requests for intercession (Mary is asked to act as intercessor in front of God at the hour of death and as consoler).

A similar text arrangement can be found in only two other manuscript sources,^[1] namely a fourteenth-century manuscript preserved in Bamberg (Staatsbibliothek, lit 155 olim Ed.IV.6) and another one (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 5539) that alongside with various Marian and liturgical material also contains a substantial portion of music theory treatises. This manuscript has been connected to Regensburg.^[2]

Just as Mone suggested with his title (‘Super Salve regina’) and Gasser adopted in his interpretation (also referring to the composition as a ‘hymn’),^[3] it is possible that these pieces were intended as decorative accretions (Tropierungen) to the Salve regina. The last two verses, borrowed from the final verses of the Salve regina, seem to point in this same direction.

^[1] See MONE 2, no. 493, p. 213.

^[2] See Dominicus Mettenleiter, Musikgeschichte der Stadt Regensburg (Regensburg: Bössenecker, 1866), 70–78.

^[3] See Nolan Ira Gasser, ‘The Marian Motet Cycles of the Gaffurius Codices: A Musical and Liturgico-Devotional Study’ (Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 2001), 271.