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An Echo of the Servius Commentary in a Christmas Song around 1400

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Joseph Szövérffy
Joseph Szövérffy*
Affiliation:
State University of New York at Albany
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Extract

While searching for traces of Virgilian echoes in medieval Latin poetry, I came upon the following unusual Christmas song from Bohemia, recorded between ca. 1410 and 1420 in a manuscript of the Abbey of Hohenfurth:

1. En aetas iam aurea incipit vigere Regnaque saturnea revolvuntur vere,

2. Parvulus dum nascitur ex intemerata Virgine, quae pariens mansit illibata.

3. Sibyllinis versibus hic fuit praedictus, Quod Maro commemorat, nec est sermo fictus.

4. Utrique ergo psallite, Matri, nato canite pie resonantes.

5. Tibi Deus pater grates, Qui in figura per vates filium spopondisti;

6. Atque tibi sacrum flamen, Qui nobis consolamen obumbrando contulisti.

7. R° Narrando poetice, Intelligendo mystice, is est Saloninus, Vera sapientia, filius divinus.

Type
Miscellany
Information
Traditio , Volume 27 , 1971 , pp. 491 - 494
Copyright
Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 Dreves, G. M., AH vol. I: Cantiones Bohemicae (Leipzig 1886) 107. On the manuscript (No. 22 in the Hohenfurth Abbey library; paper), see p. 20f. [Hohenfurth = VyśŠi Brod, Czechoslovakia.]Google Scholar

2 On the Fourth Eclogue: Günther Jachmann, Die Vierte Ekloge (Köln 1953); T. Creizenach, Die Aeneis, die Vierte Ekloge und die Pharsalia im Mittelalter (Frankfurt 1864); and also the edition of C. Hosius (Bonn 1915) esp. 22-26.Google Scholar

3 Strecker, Strecker, ‘Jam nova progenies caelo demittitur alto,’ Studi medievali N.S. 5 (1932) [= Virgilio nel medio evo] 167-86.Google Scholar

4 Young, K., The Drama of the Medieval Church (2nd ed. Oxford 1951) II 125-71. The Pseudo-Augustinian work is the Contra Iudaeos, Paganos et Arianos sermo de symbolo (PL 42.1117) now ascribed to Quodvultdeus.Google Scholar

5 See Szövérffy, J., ‘Virgil and a Latin Christmas Carol,’ Medium Aevum 26 (1957-58), 111-113, and ‘Virgile, les Sibylles et la légende de l'Ara coeli dans les hymnes,’ Filologia e letteratura 8 (1962) 274–86.Google Scholar

6 Courcelle, P., ‘Les exégèses chrétiennes de la quatrième églogue,’ Revue des études anciennes 59 (1957) 294–319; D. Comparetti, Vergil in the Middle Ages, tr. by E. F. Benecke (London 1908) passim. Older literature: J. M. Pfättisch, ‘Der prophetische Charakter der IV. Ekloge Vergils bis Dante,’ Historisch-politische Blätter für das kathol. Deutschland 139 (1907) 734-51; E. Bourne, ‘The Messianic Prophecy in Vergil's Fourth Eclogue,’ Classical Journal 11 (1915-16) 390-400; T. W. Valentine, ‘The Medieval Church and Vergil,’ Classical Weekly 25 (1931) 66-67; E. Kamnitzer, ‘Vergil und die römische Kirche,’ Katholischer Gedanke 4 (1931) 179-91; V. Ussani, ‘In margine al Comparetti,’ Studi medievali N.S. 5.1-42. On the background: J. Carcopino, Virgile et le mystère de la I Ve Églogue (Paris 1943 and subsequent editions).Google Scholar

7 Both edited together by Thilo and Hagen: Servii Grammatici qui feruntur in Vergilii carmina commentarii, rec. G. Thilo and H. Hagen, III, fasc. 1 and 2 (Leipzig 1902; reprint: Hildesheim 1961); fasc. 1 contains Servius, fasc. 2 (among other works) Junii Philargyrii Grammatici explanatio in Bucolica Vergilii. Google Scholar

8 On Philargyrius: Funaioli, G., Esegesi virgiliana antica: Prolegomeni alla edizione del commento di Giunio Filargirio e di Tito Gallo (Milan 1930).Google Scholar

9 Against this assumption is Gagé, Gagé, ‘Saloninus “Falerius” et l 'enfant de la quatrième Églogue,’ Revue des études latines 32 (1954) 66–69; for the identification of Saloninus with the child of the Fourth Eclogue: Carcopino, Virgile (cit. supra n. 6) 193.Google Scholar

10 Scattered references on Servius in the Middle Ages: Max Manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters I-III (reprint: München 1959): esp. I 56, 63, 64, 68, 74, 117, 137, 160, 195, 204, 218, 336, 349, 412, 457, 473f., 477, 488, 492, 494, 499, 503, 507, 509f., 522, 526, 528, 533, 551, 573, 580, 651f.; II 411, 438, 505, 510, 553, 562, 639, 659, 662f., 668, 708ff, 801, etc.; III 118, 206, 209, 238, 303, 317, 338, 394, 635f., 734, 849, 923. See also: Stephen Gaselee, ‘A Renaissance Scholar's Copy of the 1475 Servius,’ Studi medievali 5.101.Google Scholar

11 Is it possible that, as my friend M. Peebles, B. suggests, ‘Salomon’ is half-heard in ‘Saloninus? Salomon was wise indeed, but here there is ‘vera sapientia.’ — In Blume's text the initial s of ‘Saloninus’ is lower-case, possibly through inadvertence.Google Scholar

12 Text: AH 54.5 with numerous manuscript references; Szövérffy, Szövérffy, Annalen der lateinischen Hymnendichtung (Berlin 1964) I 413f. On the ‘Laetabundus’ and the Ordo Prophetarum (and the Pseudo-Augustinian sermon): Strecker, cit. supra n. 172f. op. cit. (supra n. 3).Google Scholar

13 The Early English Carols, ed. by Leighton Greene, Richard (Oxford 1935) lxxviii-lxxxiv; also: Chansons satiriques et bachiques du XIIe siècle, ed. by Jeanroy, A. and Langfors, A. (Paris 1921), 78, 84 etc. German: Das deutsche Kirchenlied, ed. by Wackernagel, Ph. (Leipzig 1864) II 586.Google Scholar

14 Jammers, E., art. ‘Cantio,’ in F. Blume (ed.), Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart 2 (1952) 778.Google Scholar

15 Stäblein, Stäblein, art. ‘Cantio,’ LThK 2 2.923.Google Scholar