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the main source for the Continental tradition of the Latin hymn is the
collection of sacred songs known as the Piae cantiones. the 74 church and
school hymns which make up this collection were collected in finland,
then part of Sweden, by theodoricus Petri nylandensis, a finnish stu-
dent at the university of rostock. It was first printed in greifswald, also
part of Sweden at that time, by August ferber in 1582; the school director
jakko Finne from Åbo arranged for its printing.7 While ÍB 525 8vo does
not contain exactly the same collection of hymns as the Piae cantiones, the
latter nonetheless provides the most authoritative comparandum to the
Icelandic tradition of the text.8 Moreover, it is a pivotal source for our
understanding of school education in scandinavia in general and Iceland
in particular.9
Still, it should be noted that these hymns were by no means contem-
porary compositions. In fact, most of these songs, originally intended for
use in school or church, predate the reformation and were subsequently
reworked to fit the new religious dispensation. for example, guido Maria
Deves, who re-edited the Piae cantiones as Cantiones sueciae for the exten-
sive twentieth-century collection Analecta hymnica, argued convincingly
that many of the songs devoted to Christ had originally been addressed
to Mary, because the re-writing had often been either “so conservative
or sloppy […] that most of the changes made to the original are clearly
recognisable”.10 this may also account for the considerable thematic va-
riety of the collection, which, according to timo Mäkinen and gudrun
Viergutz, contains ballads and aubades as well as hymns and sequences
(some of which date as early as the tenth century), religious, satirical and
Jón M. Samsonarson, Smábækur Menningarsjóðs, vol. 5 (reykjavík: Bóka útgáfa Menn-
ingarsjóðs, 1960), 13.
7 Piae cantiones ecclesiasticae et scholares veterum episcoporum in inclito regno Sueciae passim usur-
patae, nuper studio viri cuiusdam reverendissimi, de ecclessia Dei et schola Aboënsi in Finlandia
optime meriti, accurate a mendis correctae et nunc typis commissae opera Theodorici Petri
Nylandensis (gryphisuualdiae [greifswald]: per Augustinum ferberum [ferber], 1582).
8 While an investigation of the entire Piae cantiones-tradition in scandinavia remains a desid-
eratum, this lies beyond the scope of this article; our discussion will be limited to the hymn
Personent hodie.
9 Margrét Eggertsdóttir, “Hljómi raustin barna best,” 159.
10 “[S]o konservativ, oder so salopp [...], daß die Veränderung überall mit Händen zu greifen
ist”; guido Maria Dreves, ed., introduction to Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi. Cantiones
et Muteti. Lieder und Motetten des Mittelalters. Dritte Folge. Cantiones: Variae, Bohemicae,
Suecicae, vol. 45b (1904; repr. frankfurt am Main: Minerva, 1961), 13.
An ICELAnDIC CHrIStMAS HYMn