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MCE 05-05 Ave regina caelorum ave domina angelorum : O salutaris hostia

Edition

Motet

The motet is transmitted in I-Mfd 1 as the fifth piece of the cycle Ave mundi domina, whereas it is copied in I-Mfd 2 only with the following motet of the series, detached from the larger cyclical design. Both copied by Scribe A in two different stages of activity, the two versions display a few interesting variants. Besides two rhythmic variants at mm. 33 and 35, and a melodic and a rhythmic error at mm. 45 and 78 respectively, the copy of I-Mfd 2 shows major divergences in the text underlay. In I-Mfd 2 all voices begin with the second line of the poem, ‘Ave domina angelorum’, repeated twice in Altus and Bassus. It is unclear whether the omission of ‘Ave regina caelorum’ might have been intentional in this version (being thus a kind of conscious substitution) or what might have been the reason to skip the proper incipit. Elements such as the often divergent disposition of the text, a variant of ‘Gaude’ instead of ‘Salve’, as well as the different declamation indicated by the presence of ligatures in the Cantus and the Tenor at ‘pro nobis semper’, suggest that the motet in I-Mfd 2 was copied from a different source than I-Mfd 1. Compared with the reading of I-Mfd 1, the setting in I-Mfd 2 does not represent a better version: on the contrary, it is on the whole less reliable, with two significant errors; furthermore, accidentals notated in I-Mfd 1 are missing here. I-Mfd 1 is thus taken as the basis for the edition.

The second part of the motet, O salutaris hostia, is anonymously transmitted in B-Br IV.922 (‘Occo Codex’) and it initiates there (on a recto containing the four voices in the succession C T A B) a series of motets set on this same text, a stanza from Thomas Aquinas’s Verbum supernum (see Introduction). Interestingly, the notation of O salutaris hostia in B-Br IV.922 is not provided with the fermatas in the Milanese transmission. Fermata signs only mark the end of syntactic units, fulfilling a function similar to the thinly traced barlines of the Milanese sources. A few melodic variants (mm. 80, 82, and 83) characterize the Flemish source, carefully notated as well in giving the accidentals.

The melody of the Tenor is based on a pre-existing melody. The same tune is used in Jacob Obrecht’s song Laet u ghenoughen and it can be found in German sources with different texts.

Text (ed. by Eva Ferro)

Edition

Translation

Ave, regina caelorum,
Ave, domina angelorum,
Salve, radix sancta
Ex qua mundo[i] lux est orta.

Hail, queen of the heavens,
hail, lady of angels,
hail, holy root
from whom the light for the world is born.

Salve[1], gloriosa,
Super omnes speciosa[ii].
Vale[iii], valde decora,
Et pro nobis semper[iv] Christum[v] exora.

Hail, glorious one,
beautiful above all others.
Farewell, greatly beautiful one,
and always pray Christ for us.

O salutaris hostia[vi],
Quae caeli pandis[2] ostium[vii],
Bella premunt hostilia,
Da robur, fer auxilium.

O saving victim,
who opens heaven’s gates,
hostile wars oppress us.
Lend strength, grant assistance.

[1] salve] gaude Librone 2, C T

[2] pandis] pandit B-Br IV.922, C A T B

[i] mundo] mondo Librone 1, C T

[ii] speciosa] spetiosa Librone 1, A B; Librone 2, B

[iii] vale] valle Librone 1, T B

[iv] semper] senper Librone 1, A B; Librone 2, C A T

[v] Christum] cristum Librone 1, T

[vi] hostia] ostia Librone 1, A

[vii] ostium] hostium Librone 1, C A T B; Librone 2, C A T B; B-Br IV.922, C A T B

The edition of this fifth motet of the cycle Ave mundi domina is based on three sources, namely Libroni 1 (ff. 130v–131r, Scribe A), Librone 2 (ff. 51v–52r, Scribe A), and B-Br IV.922 (f. 4), which only has the ad Elevationem part of this motet, corresponding to the third stanza of the text (‘O salutaris hostia’). This last source is a parchment manuscript copied in the Low Countries in the first decades of the sixteenth century and is also known as ‘Occo Codex’ from the name of the Dutch merchant (Pompejus Occo of Amsterdam) for whom it was prepared. In all sources the text of the motet was copied extremely well, almost without mistakes except for the substitution of ‘Gaude’ for Salve in Librone 2 (C and T).

Regarding its content, the text of the motet comprises two very easily distinguishable parts: the first two stanzas have a clear Marian focus, while the third stanza is more easily recognizable as an ad Elevationem piece, since it explicitly mentions the Host and actually addresses it in the second person singular (‘tu’). The first two stanzas were used as an antiphon for Marian feasts, but are also transmitted as prayers; for example, they are attested in a twelfth-century ‘Liber precum’  from the Carthusian monastery in Mainz (Wissenschaftliche Stadtbibliothek Mainz, Hs I 361, f. 77v; see http://www.manuscripta-mediaevalia.de/#|5).[1] The third stanza is drawn from the famous hymn Verbum supernum by Thomas Aquinas (AH 50, no. 388/4, p. 588, stanza 5), but was used as an autonomous prayer at least starting in the first half of the fifteenth century.[2] 

All three stanzas of the motet are rhymed (aabb, ccdd, efef); the first two present, as common for this prayer in the transmission of the fifteenth century, a different rhythmic structure (8p/9p/6p/8p, 6p/8p/7p/11p).

[1] See also Giacomo Baroffio, ‘Corpus italicum precum: Materiali per una storia del sentimento religioso in Italia’, http://www.hymnos.sardegna.it/iter/iterliturgicum.htm.

[2] On O salutaris hostia  as a special Elevation prayer related to the Host of Dijon see Agnese Pavanello, ‘The Elevation as Liturgical Climax in Gesture and Sound: Milanese Elevation Motets in Context’, Journal of the Alamire Foundation, 9, no. 1 (2017), 33–59, at 45–48.

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Measure Voice Source Category Comment Image
I-Mfd1 designation of voices -, Contra Altus, Tenor, Contra bassus
I-Mfd2 designation of voices -, [A]ltus, [T]enor, [B]assus
B-Br_IV.922 designation of voices -, Contra, Tenor, Bassus
I-Mfd1 clefs original clefs: c1, c4, c4, f4
I-Mfd2; B-Br_IV.922 clefs original clefs: c1, c3, c4, f4
1-10 2 I-Mfd2 text underlay Ave domina angelorum instead of Ave regina caelorum
3-12 4 I-Mfd2 text underlay Ave domina angelorum instead of Ave regina caelorum
8 4 I-Mfd2 accidentals no flat before the Mi e
10-19 1 I-Mfd2 text underlay Ave domina angelorum instead of Ave regina caelorum
10 4 I-Mfd2 pitch and rhythm dotted Sm instead of Sm and Mi rest
12-16 2 I-Mfd2 text underlay Ave domina angelorum
12-19 3 I-Mfd2 text underlay Ave domina angelorum instead of Ave regina caelorum
13 2 I-Mfd1 clefs c3 until the end
13-15 4 I-Mfd2 text underlay Ave
16-25 2 I-Mfd2 text underlay Salve radix sancta
16-25 4 I-Mfd2 text underlay domina angelorum Salve radix
17-18 1 I-Mfd2 ligatures no lig. between Sm a and Sm g
28-30 2 I-Mfd1;; I-Mfd2 text underlay gloriosa instead of lux est orta (in the edition set at mm. 33–34)
28-30 4 I-Mfd2 text underlay sancta instead of lux est orta
30-34 1 I-Mfd2 text underlay Gaude gloriosa instead of Salve gloriosa
31-34 3 I-Mfd2 text underlay Gaude gloriosa instead of Salve gloriosa
33 2 I-Mfd1;; I-Mfd2 text underlay Sb f' instead of the two Mi f'
33-34 2 I-Mfd2 text underlay super
33-34 4 I-Mfd2 text underlay lux est orta instead of gloriosa
34-40 2 I-Mfd2 text underlay omnes speciosa
35 2 I-Mfd1 pitch and rhythm Mi and Sm instead of dotted Mi (reading of I-Mfd2); tie is editorial
35 2 I-Mfd2 pitch and rhythm dotted Mi a instead of Mi a and Sm a
45 1 I-Mfd2 ligatures lig. between the two Sb
45 4 I-Mfd2 pitch and rhythm c instead of d (error)
45-46 3 I-Mfd2 ligatures lig. between the Sb g and the Sb f
46 1 I-Mfd2 ligatures lig. between the two Sb
47 1 I-Mfd2 ligatures lig. between the two Sb
47 3 I-Mfd2 ligatures lig. between the two Sb
48-49 3 I-Mfd2 ligatures lig. between the Sb b and the Sb a
52-58 1 2 3 4 B-Br_IV.922 musical symbols no fermatas
55 4 I-Mfd2 accidentals no flat before the Br e
56 2 I-Mfd1 musical symbols thin barline after the Br with fermata
59 1 2 3 4 I-Mfd1 musical symbols thin barline after the Br with fermata
60-66 1 2 3 4 B-Br_IV.922 musical symbols no fermatas
63 1 2 3 4 I-Mfd1 musical symbols thin barline after the Br with fermata
67 1 2 3 4 I-Mfd1 musical symbols thin barline after the Br with fermata
67-74 1 2 3 4 B-Br_IV.922 musical symbols no fermatas
75 1 2 3 4 I-Mfd1 musical symbols thin barline after the Br with fermata
76-82 2 3 B-Br_IV.922 musical symbols no fermatas
76-83 1 4 B-Br_IV.922 musical symbols no fermatas
78 2 I-Mfd2 pitch and rhythm two Br instead of the two Sb
78 1 2 3 4 I-Mfd1 musical symbols thin barline after the Br with fermata
80 2 B-Br_IV.922 pitch and rhythm Sm d' and Sm e' in lig. instead of Br d'
81 4 B-Br_IV.922 accidentals flat is notated
82 2 B-Br_IV.922 pitch and rhythm additional Br d'
83 2 B-Br_IV.922 pitch and rhythm Additional Lo b is missing
83 1 2 3 4 I-Mfd1 pitch and rhythm all final notes are Mx
Text
EditionTranslation

Ave, regina caelorum,
Ave, domina angelorum,
Salve, radix sancta
Ex qua mundo lux est orta.

Hail, queen of the heavens,
hail, lady of angels,
hail, holy root
from whom the light for the world is born.

Salve, gloriosa,
Super omnes speciosa.
Vale, valde decora,
Et pro nobis semper Christum exora.

Hail, glorious one,
beautiful above all others.
Farewell, greatly beautiful one,
and always pray Christ for us.

O salutaris hostia,
Quae caeli pandis ostium,
Bella premunt hostilia,
Da robur, fer auxilium.

O saving victim,
who opens heaven’s gates,
hostile wars oppress us.
Lend strength, grant assistance.