Tag Archives: fragment

Donation adds to Latin hymn fragments: “He himself shall come and shall make us saved.”

02 Saturday Mar 2019

Posted by in Donations

≈ Comments Off on Donation adds to Latin hymn fragments: “He himself shall come and shall make us saved.”

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


(ip)se veniet et salvos no-
s faciet. Co. ecce virgo
concipiet et pariet fili-
um et vocabitur no-
men eius hemanuel.
Off(ertoriu)m prope
es tu domine et omnes

He himself shall come and shall
make us saved. Behold a virgin
shall conceive and bear a son
and his name shall be
called Emmanuel. You are near, O Lord, and all

This page made of vellum (prepared calfskin, sheepskin or goatskin) was produced in the late Middle Ages, probably between the 13th and 15th centuries in Italy or Spain. It was purchased in New York City in 1974 for $25 by Professor James Svendsen, who donated it to the University of Utah Marriott Library in 2018. Dr. Svendsen provided the transcription, translation and commentary.

“The texts from the Old Testament are written in the Latin of the 14th c. Vulgate attributed to St. Jerome. They utilize the musical notation of Gregorian Chant with two clefs (fa/do), rests, custos, neumes etc. The most frequent neumes (names of notes sung on a single syllable) are the punctum, melisma, qualism, climacus etc. The five-line staff & custos (the Latin word for “guard” and a small note at the end of a line indicating the next note) are products of 13th century Italy, replacing the earlier four-line staff, and provide a terminus post quem for the manuscript. There are four illuminated letters (E, P, B, O) at the beginning of initial words. The abbreviations CO. (for collectum) and OFFM. (for offertorium) indicate when the hymns would be sung during the mass: the collect before the readings and the offertory when gifts are brought to the altar.

These particular hymns were sung during the mass on the 4th Sunday of Advent and on March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The first two relate the prophecy of Isaiah and thus emphasize the main theme of Advent, a time preparing for the birth of the Christ child, who is called Emmanuel meaning “God with us” in Hebrew. The prophecy in Isaiah 7, 14 is fulfilled in the New Testament when the angel of the Lord appears to Joseph and explains that Mary has conceived and will bear a son (Matthew 1, 21-23).”

We are grateful to Dr. Svenson for this wonderful gift.


Viae tuae veritas
initio cogno-
vi te de testimoniis
tuis quia in eternum tu
es. V(ersus). beati immacula-
ti in via qui ambulant in lege
domini r(esponsum). Osten-
de nobis domine (misericordiam tuam)

your ways are truth.
From the beginning I knew
you from your testimonies
that you are eternal. Blessed are the immaculate
on the way who walk in the law
of the Lord. Show
us, O Lord, (your mercy)…

Medieval Latin Hymn Fragment, Part D: “…of the holy found rest through him.”

31 Thursday Jan 2019

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Medieval Latin Hymn Fragment, Part D: “…of the holy found rest through him.”

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


(san)ctoru(m) requieverunt per
eu(m). Ps. D(omi)ne… V. Dispersit, dedit pauperibus
R. lustitia…
Dispersit, dedit pau-
peribus
iustitia ma-
net in seculu(m) seculi.

of the holy found rest through
him. PS O Lord V. He distributed, he gave to the poor…
R. His justice…
He distributed, he gave to the
poor; his justice
remains forever.


Cum invocarum… Petrus
ordinis nostri pater ex
operibus iustificatus est
offernes seipsum in rede(me)p-
tione(m) captivoru(m). Ps.

When I was calling upon… Peter,
the father of our order, was justified by his works,
offering himself for the ransoming of captives. Psalm.


Verb… m… A(men) Pergebat
ad o(m)nes qui in captivi-
tate erant et monita sa-
lutis dabat eis. Ps. D(omi)ne (in vertute tua…)
V. Salvavit eos de (manu odientium)
R. Et redemit eos (de manu inimici)

In tertio Noc(urno) A(men) Captivorum

He proceeded
to all who were in captivity
and gave to them counsels
about salvation. Psalm O Lord, in your power…
Verse. He saved them from the hand of those hating them…
Response. And he redeemed them from the hand of the enemy
Sung at the third Nocturn Captives


miserat(us) aerumnas pro e-
oru(m) miseratione Domi-
num lugiter exorabat.
Ps. D(omi)ne… Visita-
vit vinctos in mendici(tate
et ferro et vincula eorum disrupit.)

Having taken pity on the
hardships of the captives,
with compassion for them
he continually prayed to the Lord.
Psalm. O Lord… He visited
those bound in beggary
(and by the sword and he shattered their bonds.)

These hymns celebrate the life of St. Peter of Nolasco and are usually sung — with local variation — on January 28 or 31. St. Peter Nolasco, with St. Raymond of Penafort, was the founder of the Order of Mercedarians, the religious community which sent members as ransom for Christian prisoners in the hands of the Saracens. Details of his life are uncertain, but he was probably a native of Languedoc. After taking part in the crusade against the heretic Albigensians of Southern France, he became a tutor of King James I of Aragon and then settled at Barcelona. There he became friends with St. Raymond of Penafort, and in 1218, with the support of James I, they laid the foundation for the Mercedarians. Twice Peter went to Africa to serve as a captive, and it was reported that during one journey to Granada and Valencia he won the release from Moorish jails of some four hundred captive Christians. He was canonized by Pope Urban VIII in 1628. For the most part these texts are derived from the Mercedarian Breviary and were the antiphons and hymns sung at lauds in the morning and at vespers in the evening on the Feast of Saint Peter Nolasco.

~Transcription, translation, and commentary by James T. Svendsen, associate professor emeritus, World Languages and Cultures, The University of Utah

Parchment leaves from an Antiphonal, 16th c Italy/Florence/Sienna. Eleven parchment leaves from the Proper of Saints, Feast of the Blessed Peter of Sienna (16 Mar), Vespers/Matins.
“Text and music on thick, stiff parchment is continuous throughout the fragment. The feasts as written here celebrate the virtuous deeds of one Peter who showed a profound devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He was honored for giving alms to the poor and was commanded by the Virgin to free captives. Thus, the feast may be linked to the Franciscan Piettro Pettinari (d. 1289), who attained the rank of Blessed (Beatus) in the Christian church and was renowned for these very activities. A local vigorous cult resulted in religious songs composed to him in the vernacular, and he even rated a mention in Dante’s Purgatorio.

~Description by Elizabeth Peterson, associate professor, Dept. of Art & Art History, The University of Utah, from Paging Through Medieval Lives, a catalog for an exhibition held November 2, 1997 through January 4, 1998 at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.

Editor’s note: The commentary by Dr. Svendsen and the description by Dr. Peterson differ, each identifying “Peter” as different people, Peter Nolasco and Piettro (Peter) Pettinari (of Sienna). Dr. Svendsen, shown Dr. Peterson’s assessment, was politely firm about his identification. This is a perfect, lovely example of the different ways two scholars in two fields can approach an object, coming up with different results. In the case here, an esteemed Classicist and an esteemed art historian disagree, although the suspected dates of their protagonists have only about fifty years between them; one from Southern France, the other from Northern Italy — not so far apart.

Medieval Latin Hymn Fragment, Part C: “…at his right hand bees miraculously erected a honeycomb of honey.”

30 Wednesday Jan 2019

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Medieval Latin Hymn Fragment, Part C: “…at his right hand bees miraculously erected a honeycomb of honey.”

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


dextera eius apes favu(m)
mellis mirabiliter ex-
truxerunt. Ps(almus) Beat(us) vir qui non abiit…
Dirupisiti Domine
vincula eoru(m) et proie-

at his right hand bees
miraculously erected a honeycomb
of honey. Psalm. Blessed (is the man who has not departed)…
O Lord, you have shattered
their bonds and you have cast


cisti ab eis iugu(m) ipso(rum)
Gaudium magnu(m) ha-
beamus et consolatione(m)
in charitate beati patris
nostri quia viscera san-ctoru(m)

off their yoke from them.
Let us have great joy
and consolation
in the charity of our blessed father
because the remains of the holy

~Transcription and translation by James T. Svendsen, associate professor emeritus, World Languages and Cultures, The University of Utah

MS chant frag. 5 — Parchment leaves from the Proper of Saints, Feast of the Blessed Peter of Siena (16 March), Vespers/Matins.

~Description by Elizabeth Peterson, associate professor, Dept. of Art & Art History, The University of Utah, from Paging Through Medieval Lives, a catalog for an exhibition held November 2, 1997 through January 4, 1998 at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.

Medieval Latin Hymn Fragment, Part A: “I shall give thanks…”

28 Monday Jan 2019

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Medieval Latin Hymn Fragment, Part A: “I shall give thanks…”

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


(ab infantia mea crevit miseratio et ab utero)
…egressa est mecu(m).
Ps(al)lm. Confitebor…(tibi, Domine)
Pecunias suas
no(n) dedit ad usuram
sed pro captiuis

…came out with me.
Psalm. I shall give thanks (to you, O Lord)…
He did not give his money for usuary
but for captives…


ipse commutauit
Ps(alm). Beatus (vir qui timet Dominum)
Magno charitatis exe(m)plo
anima(m) sua(m) pro fidelib(us)
liberandis Domino co(n)secrauit

he himself exchanged it.
Psalm. Blessed (is the man who fears the Lord)
With his great example of charity
he consecrated his spirit to
the Lord for the freeing of the faithful


-fecerant
Liberauit pauperu(m)
a potente et inopem
cui non erat adiutor
Petre

…they had made…
He freed the poor
from the powerful and the poor man
for whom there was no helper.
O Peter,


qui iussu genetricis al-
m(a)e eripis dura domi-
tos catena liberans
plebe(m) prope seruiente(m)
moribu(us) atris. Hoc apis quo(n)-

you who by the order of the kind mother,
freeing from the harsh bond (of slavery), you
rescue people almost enslaved by dark/black customs


dam docuit futurum
insidens quando ma-
nib(us) tenellis, melle fe-
fucu(n)dat pueru(m)-
que sacro nec-
tare complet.
Te pa-
tre(m) nati veneremur om-
es supplices et te pre-
cib(us) vocam(us) ut tuus

A bee settling once taught that
this would be when tender hands
it fructifies/fertilizes and fills
the boy with honey and holy nectar.
We all beseech you as suppliants, Father of the Son,
and we call upon you with prayers so that your…


nostris gemin(us) novetur
cordibus ardor. Vinci vesan(ae)
Sygis et latentes demones
technas animis repelle
ne tuos caeco maculis
subactos carcere claudant.
Qui dedit
vires iter inchoandi, Ad…

Two fold love may revive/alter
our souls. Repel the bonds of the mad/wild
Styx and the hidden tricks of the devil
lest they enclose your servants subject to faults/sins
with the blind prison (of hell).


(Ad)sit ingressis Pater at-
que Patre adsit e-
ternum Geniitus nec
absit Spiritus almus.
Amen. V. Ora pro nobis
Pater Noster Sancte Petre
Mag(nificat) (Hos)an(n)a

Let the Father be present to those entering
and with the Father let the Begotten Son be present eternally
nor let the nourishing Holy Spirit be absent. Amen.
V. Our Father Holy Peter Magnificat Hosanna


Maiorem chari-
tatem nemo habe
ut animam suam po-nat quis pro ami-
cis suis. Ca(n)t. Mag(nifica)t

No one has greater charity/love
than the some one lay down
his life for his friends. Song. Magnificat

~Transcription and translation by James T. Svendsen, associate professor emeritus, World Languages and Cultures, The University of Utah

MS chant frag. 5 — Parchment leaves from the Proper of Saints, Feast of the Blessed Peter of Siena (16 March), Vespers/Matins.

~Description by Elizabeth Peterson, associate professor, Dept. of Art & Art History, The University of Utah, from Paging Through Medieval Lives, a catalog for an exhibition held November 2, 1997 through January 4, 1998 at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts.

 

 

 

We recommend — Appendices Pulled from a Study on Light

24 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by in Recommended Reading

≈ Comments Off on We recommend — Appendices Pulled from a Study on Light

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


“a trace unnameable — place
holding the child
to the first frost,
the street lamp, the pasture — ”

Appendices Pulled from a Study on Light
Geoffrey Babbitt
New York City: Spuyten Duyvil, 2018
PS3602 A224 A6 2018 (General Collection, Level 2)

“This is Geoffrey Babbitt’s first book. His poems and essays have appeared in North American Review, Pleiades, Colorado Review, DIAGRAM, Notre Dame Review, TYPO, Tarpaulin Sky, The Collagist, Interim, Western Humanities Review, and elsewhere. Raised in Boise, Idaho, he studied at Connecticut College and earned his Ph.D. in creative writing at the University of Utah. Geoffrey currently coedits Seneca Review and teaches at Hobart & William Smith Colleges in the Finger Lakes region of New York, where he lives with poet Kathryn Cowles and their three daughters.”

Geoffrey acknowledges the help of many friends, colleagues and faculty from the University of Utah including Luise Poulton, Karen Brennan, Craig Dworkin, Julie Gonnering Lein, Cami Nelson, Paisley Rekdal, Jerry Root, Tom Stillinger, Shira Dentz, Elizabeth Peterson, and others.

Congratulations, Geoffrey!


MS Fragment: 4 — Date: ca. 1375 — Origin: France (possibly northeastern) — current location: Marriott Library, University of Utah, Special Collections, Rare Book Division — Materials: Ink, and burnished gold on vellum — Illustration: Detail — Size: 7 1/8 in. x 5 7/16 in. — Section: Anglo-Norman Litany of Saints — Script: littera gothica textualis formata

“vines scritched, chrysalis
onto vellum leaf–all
lost color, stolen thunder
–spiritual curl
of the vine tending
ultimately toward–tattered edge
curling from the gutters…”


MS Fragment: 8 — Date: ca. 1425-1450 — Origin: France (possibly Paris) — Current Location: Marriott Library, University of Utah, Special Collections, Rare Books Division — Materials: Ink, and burnished gold on vellum — Size: 7 1/4 in. x 5 3/16 in. — Illustration: Detail, border — section: Office of the Dead, Vespers — Script: littera gothica textualis

“lit border
buoys — acanthus
place setting
scribe sets — rinceaux
sprays, gilded ivy leaf,
bryony tendrils, gold pavé
fleur-de-lis — heliotropic
buoyancy — motor cells in
the pulvinus synthesize
bouncing light, con-
vert eye movement, displace
page’s gravitropic
polar auxin transport —
downwarding becomes lift”

April is National Poetry Month.

Article on Utah Arabic Paper fragment added to Academia.edu

13 Thursday Jul 2017

Posted by in Journal Articles

≈ Comments Off on Article on Utah Arabic Paper fragment added to Academia.edu

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

1383-Front
“But in the end it was the eunuch Kāfūr, the slave of their father, who held the strongest political hand over the country.”

P. Utah Inv. 1383
Cairo, abt 954 CE
paper

Arabic papyrologist Naïm Vanthieghem has added a paper to Academia.edu, publishing an Arabic paper fragment held in the Rare Books Department’s Arabic Papyrus, Parchment and Paper Collection. The paper is titled “Une contribution pour la table d’un prince ikhchidide. Édition de P. Utah Inv. 1383” and may be downloaded here.

Naïm Vanthieghem has identified this piece as being written in Cairo about 954. The fragment concerns business with Abū al-Ḥasan Alī b. Muḥammad al-Iḫšīd, “the third and last sovereign Ikhchidid,” about whom little is known.

“His father Muḥammad b. Tuġǧ al-Iḫšīd, a Turkish mercenary, founded the Ikhchicid dynasty in 935. The dynasty ruled in Egypt on behalf of the Abbasid caliphs. Upon his death, his two sons Unūǧūr (946-961) and Alī (961-966) succeeded him….But in the end it was the eunuch Kāfūr, the slave of their father, who held the strongest political hand over the country. At the disappearance of Alī, in 966, Kāfūr evicted Aḥmad, son of Unūǧū…and exercised power directly until his death in 968. The unfortunate Aḥmad briefly inherited the throne, before the Fatimids toppled it in 969. The reign of Alī was marked by many shortages and economic crises that weakened the power of the Ikhchidids and thus favored the advent of the Fatimid caliphs.”

In the past, Naïm Vanthieghem has contributed descriptive terms to many pieces from the Utah Arabic Papyrus, Parchment and Paper Collection and published several pieces in international academic journals. Read about some of his other articles here.

Thank you, Naïm! We look forward to seeing more of your work with our collection.