Ritmennt - 01.01.2001, Page 85

RITMENNT
LATNESK TÍÐASÖNGSBÓK ÚR LÚTERSKUM SIÐ
folk music, dated the manuscript back to 1500 or before. Later research
has shown that the time of writing is 1570 or a little later. This in-
dicates strongly that the book was written under the supervision, if not
at the initiative, of Guðbrandur Þorláksson (headmaster of the school at
Hólar from 1569, and bishop 1571-1627).
Undoubtedly the book covered the whole Church year. Several
leaves are missing in the beginning, and some at the end. A loose leaf,
with one side originally unwritten, has, apparently by mistake, been
placed at the front of the book, the empty page thus becoming a false
"title page". It bears several notations, one of them, dated 1647, claim-
ing that the book is the property of the Cathedral of Hólar. This has
been taken to indicate that the book was still in use in 1647 (dr. Jakob
Benediktsson, 1969). In this study it is assumed that the scribbling took
place only after the manuscript had reached its present mutilated stage,
and the empty page had been placed at the front. If this is true, the book
would certainly have been out of use when the note was written.
Iceland was not fully converted to Lutheranism until 1551. During
the previous tumultuous years the Latin schools at Hólar and Skálholt
(in Southern Iceland) had been closed down temporarily, and were
reestablished in 1552. The regulations of the Danish Church Ordinance
of 1537, about religious practice in schools, had never been effective in
Iceland. They were now somewhat modified, with emphasis on daily
singing and reading from the Bible as was done "in the old times (til
forna) at the cathedral, de tempore". It seems certain that this book was
written to meet these requirements in the Latin school at Hólar. It
could be a copy of an older manuscript, which again might have been
based on a Danish or German model.
Each Sunday or feast day is celebrated with three services: 1) Vespers
on the preceding evening, 2) a combined Matins and Lauds in the morn-
ing, and 3) a second Vespers at night, often a repetition, at least in part,
of the first. The morning office always ends with Benedictus [Dominus
Deus] and the evening hour with Magnificat, in accordance with Ro-
man Catholic tradition. On the whole the manuscript is Catholic in
appearance. Its differences from the Roman ritual lie in omissions,
rather than changes or additions. Suiprisingly many of the antiphones
are still to be found, virtually unchanged, in the Roman liturgy.
In the manuscript the Latin hymns to be sung at the services are in-
dicated only by their first words. The hyrnns themselves were con-
tained in special hymn-books, which before the Reformation were
owned by many churches. At Hólar there was certainly more than one
of them.
None of these Latin hymn-books have been preserved. But three
collections of Latin hymns for school use have survived. The oldest is
Hymni scholares (HS) written in 1687. It contains in all 111 hymns,
beginning with 21 morning and evening hymns, mostly Lutheran. But
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