Medieval Latin Hymn Fragment: “…bone now from my bones…”

08 Saturday Dec 2018

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Adam, alphabet, antiphonal, bone, Cain, call and response, Christ, creation, Divine Office, Ecclesiasticus, Elizabeth Peterson, Eve, Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Genesis 2, Hebrew, hymns, James T Svendsen, Jerusalem Bible, Jesus, Latin, leaf, matins, parchment, Plainchant, Portugal, prayer, Proverbs 31, Psalm 21, Spain, The University of Utah, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Wisdom, Word of God

V. Os nu(n)c de ossibus
meis et caro de carn(e)
mea. R. Fortitudo
et decor indume(n)tum
eius: byssus et purpura…

V. (You are) bone now from my bones
and flesh from my flesh.
Strength
and beauty (are her clothing:
silken linen and purple…

vestis illius D(o)m(in)e
In sole posuit tab-
ernaculu(m) R.V. Liberasti me Do(min)e
ex ore leomis all’a= Alleluia
R. E. a cornibus
unicorniu(m) humi-
littem mea(m) all’a=Alleluia
Ego ex ore (Altisimi prodivi)

are her vestment O Lord
In the sun (on high) he has placed
his tabernacle [or, tent] V. You have freed me, Lord
from the mouth of the lion Alleluia
R. And my humility from the horns
of the unicorns Alleluia
(I came forth) from the mouth (of the Most High)

These hymns were sung at matins on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary…celebrated on December 8. Many people believe that the feast celebrates Jesus’ conception, but in fact it celebrates Mary’s Immaculate Conception; the fact that Mary was, from the very first moment of her existence (her conception), without sin, and chosen to be the Mother of Jesus. The verses are in antiphonal Plainchant, a pattern of verse and response much like hymns sung today with “call and response.” At matins, a…part of the Divine Office sung early in the morning, a priest or cantor would sing the verse and the choir would respond. The first verse “Os nunc de ossibus” comes from Genesis (2, 23) where Adam exclaims upon the creation of Eve: “This at last is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh” (Jerusalem Bible). Mary is in some ways a counter-Eve, immaculately conceived and the mother of Christ rather than the mother of Cain and cause of expulsion from the garden. The response “Fortitudo et decor” comes from the last chapter of Proverbs (31, 25) which is the “Alphabetic Poem on the Perfect Wife,” a chapter in which each verse begins with a consecutive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. This verse begins with the Hebrew letter “ain.” The verse “Ex ore prodivi” comes from chapter 24 of Ecclesiasticus and the Discourse or Eulogy of Wisdom, the pivotal chapter in the book. Here personified Wisdom speaks of her own creation, and she is identified with the Word of God hovering over the abyss in Genesis. The verse “Liberasti me” is a variation of prayer for aid and salvation from “the virtuous man” of Psalm 21 (22) where he prays in the imperative “Salva me ex ore leonis.”

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

MS chant frag. 4 — Parchment leaf from an Antiphonal, 16th c Spain/Portugal

~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 Arts.

Medieval Latin Hymn Fragment: “Who is this who comes forth arising like morning…”

15 Wednesday Aug 2018

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antiphon, antiphonal, Apocalypse, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, benedictus, bifolia, Blessed Virgin Mary, Book of Esther, chant, Elizabeth Peterson, Esth .2:17, Esther, God, Holy Scripture, Israel, James T. Svensen, Jerusalem Bible, Latin, lauds, medieval, Old Testament, Portugal, Song of Songs, Spain, The University of Utah, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Vashi, wine, Yahweh

(Guttur tuum sicut vinum optimum)
Dignu(m) dilecto meo ad pota(n)dum
Q(ua)e est ista q(uae) progreditur
q(ua)si aurora consurge(n)s
pulchra ut luna e-(lecta)

(and your mouth like an exquisite wine)
worthy for drinking (may it go) to my beloved…
Who is this who comes forth rising like
morning, beautiful like the moon,

lecta ut sol terribilis ut castroru(m) acies
ordinata Cantan Ps(almum)
Et ideo amavit eam(,m) rex plusq(ua)m (omnes mulieres)

resplendent
like the sun, terrible like an army arrayed for battle?
And therefore he loved her more than (all the other women)

This folio, like several others in the collection, is devoted to the celebration of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on August 15th. It was the antiphon sung at the Benedictus for lauds early in the morning and urged the faithful to rejoice: “gaudete et exultate…qui hodie Maria Virgo cum Christo regnat per eternum. Alleluja” (“Rejoice and exult…because today the Virgin Mary reigns with Christ in heaven forever. Alleluia!”) The first selection on the recto is from the Song of Songs, a series of love poems in which lover and beloved, bridegroom and bride, are united, divided and united again. Often the series is interpreted allegorically: the relationship signifies a true human relationship sanctified by marriage or it signifies the relationship between Yahweh and Israel. In the text the bridegroom introduces the metaphor of wine, and the bride responds with similarly: “your speaking, superlative wine/wine flowing straight to my Beloved” (Jerusalem Bible). The text continues with the Bridegroom’s question: “Why is this arising like the dawn, fair as the moon, resplendent as the sun, terrible as an army with banners?” (Jerusalem Bible). Here more specifically the relationship seems to be the relationship between God and the Blessed Virgin Mary with God questioning who she is as she is assumed into heaven. Note that the simile “quasi aurora consugens” is highly appropriate, and some other later texts emend “progreditur” to “ascendit” to heighten the upward momentum for the “rising” Mary. Thus the bride of the allegory is not only Israel, the Church or individual soul but also the Blessed Virgin Mary as queen of heaven and arrayed for the battle against evil, perhaps even as the woman of the Apocalypse. This is the reason Holy Scripture refers to Our Lady as “terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata,” as terrible as an army set in battle array.” The Church also says that it is she alone who smashes all heresies. To celebrate this fact, in statues of the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady is crushing the head of the evil serpent.

At the bottom of the verso the text alludes to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the context of the Old Testament and the Book of Esther: “And the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she found favor and kindness with him more than all the women, and she found favor and kindness with him more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti” (Esth.2:17). In a figural reading the king’s love for Esther is a type prefiguring God’s love for Mary above all others. It also prefigures her immaculate conception as virgin and establishes her place as queen of heaven, a fitting allusion on the Feast of the Assumption.

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

MS chant frag. 4 — Part of a parchment bifolia from an Antiphonal, 16th c. Spain/Portugal.

Book of the Week — Clavis Historia Thuanae

07 Monday May 2018

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archivists, curia, Edict of Nantes, Edward Gibbon, England, French Enlightenment, French Revolution, Geneva, Germany, heresy, humanism, Index of Prohibited Books, Jac, Jacques Auguste de Thou, Jacques Dupuy, Keeper of the Royal Library, librarians, Parlement, philosophes, Portugal, Protestant, rare books, Roman Catholic, scholars, Spain, vellum, Voltaire, William Pitt

Clavis historiae thuanae: id est, nomenclature…
Jacques Dupuy (1591-1656)
Ratisponae: Sumtibus J. Z. Seidelii, 1696
Editio altera
D228 T552

Originally published in Geneva in 1634, this revised edition includes the word “Clavis” as the beginning of its title. The title translated into English reads: Nomenclature of Proper Names in the Historical Work of Jacques Auguste de Thou. Thou (1553-1617) was a historian whose fame and acclaim lasted well into the nineteenth century. His “History of His Own Time” (Historiarum sui temporis libri CXXXVIII) was added to the Index of Prohibited Books in 1609 for its humanist bent.

In spite of the ban and the humanism, his work received praise across the Roman Catholic/Protestant spectrum from Spain and Portugal to England and Germany. It was read by the curia it condemned and was a favorite of the Philosophes of the French Enlightenment. Voltaire referred to the “truthful eloquence” of Thou several times in his works. William Pitt quoted Thou, “the great historian of France,” in the early years of the French Revolution, and historian Edward Gibbon referred to Thou as the “authority of my masters.”

Thou was a leading member of Parlement. A Roman Catholic, he nonetheless counted many Protestants as his friends and helped negotiate the Edict of Nantes. He was appointed the Keeper of the Royal Library. His own library contained nearly 6,000 volumes, vast even by the standards of a private library-owning upper class. His “History” appeared in parts between 1604 and 1610. But the work was considered heresy in that it failed to condemn all Protestants outright. For this he fell from royal and papal favor.

The other indexer of Thou’s history was Jacques Dupuy, one of the many archivists and librarians who organized meetings of scholars at Thou’s home and, here, organized his book.

Rare Books copy bound in vellum, using loose leaves from another work. Pages are in double column format.

Banned! — Historia del descubrimiento y conquista de la India por los Portugueses

25 Monday Sep 2017

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Anvers, archivist, Asia, Brazil, Castilian, East Indies, English, European, Fernão Lopes de Castanheda, French, German, Goa, India, Martin Nucio, Pedro Alvares Cabral, Portugal, Portuguese, scribe, South America, University of Coimbra, Vasco de Gama, Western European

“He who writes histories must make the efforts that I made and see the land that he is to write about, as I saw it, for so was it done by ancient and modern historians…Very supernatural must be the talented man who will know how to write about things that he never did.” — Fernão Castanheda

Historia del descubrimiento y conquista de la India por los Portugueses
Fernão Lopes de Castanheda (d. 1559)
En Anvers: En casa de Martin Nucio, MDLIIII (1554)
Second edition

Fernão Lopes de Castanheda’s History of the Portuguese Discovery and Conquest of India is one of the earliest Western European chronicles of Portuguese expansion into Asia. Castanheda left Portugal in 1528 to serve as a scribe in Goa. He traveled Asia extensively. After returning home ten years later, he became administrative officer at the University of Coimbra, acting as archivist. In that capacity he gathered his personal experiences along with other eye-witness accounts, interviews and library documents.

Castanheda wrote the history of the Portuguese in Asia beginning with the travels of Vasco de Gama and focusing on the East Indies and India but also including the Portuguese conquest of Brazil by Pedro Alvares Cabral (c. 1467-c. 1520) in 1500. Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the Northeast coast of South America. Catanheda’s painstaking work took him twenty years to complete.

This work is divided into eight books covering roughly five years each. The first book was printed in parts in Coimbra between 1551 and 1561.

The first edition is extremely rare. Castanheda was forced, shortly after its publication, to withdraw the work from circulation because it wounded the sensibilities of some people holding high position. The Portuguese Crown sought to keep secret the nautical details about the voyage to India, but Portuguese printed histories were soon translated in whole or part in other European languages, including French, Castilian (1554), German and English (1582).

Book of the Week – Organum

13 Monday Jan 2014

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Aristotle, Coimbra, Greek, Nicolas de Gouchy, Organum, Portugal

Organum, Sive Logicae Tractationes Omnes
Aristotle
Francofurti, Excudebat A. Wechelus, sibi & T. Guarino, 1577
PA389 O7 1577

Of all the classical Greek scholars, the most influential was Aristotle. He defined for the first time basic fields of inquiry: logic, physics, political science, economics, psychology, rhetoric, and ethics. In the process, Aristotle also established a method of study, based upon deductive reasoning, which profoundly influenced scholarship for nearly two thousand years.

The Organum is a collection of four Aristotelian treatises on inductive and especially deductive reasoning. This edition is a new and corrected version of the famous edition done by the learned French humanist Nicolas de Gouchy (ca. 1520-1572) in Portugal, where he was teaching Greek at Coimbra.

Greek text. Title also in Greek. Widely scattered underscoring or brief neat annotations in an early hand.

OPEN BOOK

~ News from the Rare Books Department of Special Collections at the J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah

Tag Archives: Portugal

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