Add MS 36881

ff. 28. Collection of Sequences, Tropes, and other Cantiones with music, many of them having two or three verses set, like hymns, to the same music, which is, unless where the contrary is stated, in two parts, written on 4 lines scratched on the vellum, but not coloured, and preceded by the C, P, and G signatures. They appear to be arranged in series; and the harmonized ones, at least, were probably intended for performance at Christmas and other feasts in the so-called Mysteries. The pieces marked with an asterisk occur also in the 12th cent. MS. Fonds lat. 292 (formerly 3719) in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. The first series (nos. 1—15) refers to the Nativity, with which the cult of St. Nicholas is apparently combined (see no. 13): —

1. ‘Per letalis pomi pastum.’ / Per laetatis pastum. f. 1.

2. ‘*Omnis curet homo promere cantica‘ (in Dreves' 'Analecta Hymnica', xx, p. 67). f. 2b.

3. ‘*Noster cetus psallat letus’: trope to the ‘Benedicamus Domino‘ (Dreves, xx, p. 116). f. 3.

4. ‘*Per partum virginis’ (Dreves, xx, p. 87). f. 4.

5. ‘*Veri solis radius et sol pleni.’ (Dreves, xx, p. 45. Also in Add MS 15722, f. 49, a French MS., early 13th cent.), f. 5b.

6. ‘O! primus homo corruit in fraude feminea.’ f. 7b.

7. ‘*Lux refulget de supernis edita.’ f. 8b.

ff. 8r–8v: Divinum stillant desuper.

8. ‘*Vellus rore celesti maduit.’ f. 9b.

9. ‘Rex omnia tenens imperio‘: trope to the ‘Benedicamus Domino‘ (Gautier, 'Histoire de la Poésie Liturgique, p. 172). f. 10b.

ff. 10r–10v: Gaudia debita temporis.

ff. 10v–11: Per[/Rex] omnia tenens imperio.

10. ‘Dulci dignum/ Signum melodia.’ f. 11.

11. 'Congaudet hodie celestis curia.’ f. 12.

ff. 11v–12r: Oi, dex! Quam brevis est vita.

12. ‘Patris ingeniti filius’: originally an Advent hymn (Wackernagel, Das Deutsche Kirchenlied, i, 232). f. 12.

f. 12r: Congaudet hodie celestes curia.

f. 12r: Patris ingeniti filius venit … Domino.

13. ‘*Cantu miro summa laude summo uiro uir aplaude’ (Dreves, xxi, p. 85, among the hymns in honour of St. Nicholas), f. 12b.

14. ‘Prima mundi seducta sobole’: trope to the ‘Benedicamus Domino‘ (in Bibliothèque de L'école des Chartes, 1868, p. 108). f. 13b.

15. ‘Catholicorum concio’: trope to the ‘Benedicamus Domino’ (Gautier, p. 172). f. 13b.

16. ‘Gregis pastor titirus asinorum dominus,’ with allusions to the ‘festa . . . baculi‘ and the ‘epulum‘ given on that occasion, generally on the first day of the year. Published by Dreves, xx, p. 110, from a Mosbach Gradual of 1360; he gives (p. 254) the musical notes also, which are very similar to the lower part of the present setting, f 13b.

17. Unharmonized tropes to the 'Sanctus,’ including one, ‘Sanctus Fons uiuus,’ printed by Gautier (p. 163). f. 14. The four following (also unharmonized) are closely connected with the preceding number and are in honour of the Virgin and (no. 19) St. John the Baptist: —

18. ‘Clangat hodie vox nostra melodum.’ f. 15.

19. ‘Sollempnia presentia con (sic) nimia leticia ecclesia extollat precursoris.’ f. 15b.

20. ‘Aue, Mater saluatoris nostri terminus doloris.’ f. 16b.

21. ‘Virga iesse floruit, virgo deum genuit‘: the first words only of a prose of the Virgin (Milchsack, 'Hymni et Sequentiæ', i, 208, from a 15th cent. Jumièges MS.), f. 16b. Here there is a gap of at least eight leaves. Of the following six numbers, the first and the last four seem to refer to the Feast of the Annunciation (25 March) rather than to the Nativity: —

22. A sequence of which the beginning is lost. The first verse preserved in its entirety begins ‘Hanc prophete priscis a seculis signauere.’ f. 17.

23. ‘*Orienti oriens stella nova claruit . . . balaam presagiens ut olim edocuit‘ (Epiphany), f. 17b.

ff. 17r–17v: [Decorata tribus miraculis] … populis dies ista … [expl.] hominem subintravit.

24. ‘Delictis hominis subintrat uirginem . . . regis potencia.’ f. 18b.

25. ‘De monte lapis scinditur‘ (different from the one beginning with the same words in the Bibliotheca Laurenziana at Florence, Plut. xxix, cod. i, f. 204). f. 19b.

26. ‘Chorus noster recolat sancti uiri [? St. Nicholas] festum,’ with a verse ‘Quam felix cubiculum,’ referring to the Annunciation, f. 20b.

27. ‘Res iocosa quod hec rosa sine succo floruit’; followed by a musical setting of the words ‘Ora pro nobis, beate Nicolae.’ f. 21b.

28. ‘Ad honorem sempiterni regis’ (Pentecost?). f. 22b. The remaining pieces are unharmonized. Between nos.

29 and 30 are ‘Letetur orbis,’ with the refrain ‘fulget dies ista‘ (Pentecost), and ‘Dum annua recolitur dies redempcionis,’ without music (ff. 23, 23b).

29. ‘Regi nato gloria’ (Holy Innocents). f. 23.

30. ‘Gaudet chorus celestis hodie nobis Christo nato de uirgine,’ with a reference to the visit of the Magi, f. 23b.

31. ‘Benedicamus. Angelus sedens ad sepulcrum‘: Easter trope to the 'Benedicamus‘ (Gautier, p. 172). f. 24.

32. ‘Eya, pueri, uoce precelsa benedicamus regi magno olim nato domino.’ f. 24. Some charms are inserted on the next page, and then follows in a different hand and on smaller leaves: —

33. ‘Planctus ante nescia planctu lassor anxia,’ known as the ‘Planctus Mariæ,’ and as such introduced in Passion-plays (published by Du Méril, 'Origines Latines', p. 143). f. 25.

passim. Proses, etc., harmonized for 2 voices.