Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1968, Page 220
2}RD DEC. DE S. THORLACO - 21ST JAN. DE S. AGNETE - asND JAN. DE S. VINCENTIO
scheint kurz nach der Translatio des Heiligen im Jahre 1233...oder
doch zur Canonisatio (1234) von einem seiner Ordensbruder ver-
fasst zu sein.” Accordingly the Icelandic adaptation of the Domi-
nicus-sequence on St. Thorlacus cannot have been made until some
time after 1233 (or 1234), say about the middle of the 13th century.
The same melody, and this time in its entirety, appears connected
with the St. John sequence “Precursorem ... En baptista”.
PURE MENTIS GAUDIA
MS: h. Fac. 234, 11. 1-8; the latter part of the sequence, from v. 7b
(8a) [repujtat onwards.
Text printed in AH 40, No. 138, from a single source (Miss. ms.
Scireburnense ca. ann. 1400. Cod. Alnwicen. s. n.).
Textual differences from AH: 10a (10b) Tui] Tua, 10a (10b)
precor] prece, 10b (11a) lam] Nam, 11a (11b) et] sed, 11b (12a)
Post] Nos.
All the half-verses have the same metrical structure, so that any
half-verse might be connected either with the previous one or with
the following to make a whole verse.
In AH the first half-verse stands alone, representing a whole
initiatory verse, and all the other half-verses are coupled together
in pairs, making whole verses.
Our MS. begins with the syllable “tat” (with the note G) which
AH holds to be the last one of v. 8 a (“reputat”). With “Mente cecus...”
begins what AH calls v. 8b, and the following half-verse “O vere
gratissima” is there reckoned as v. 9a. But the music shows that
“Mente cecus” and “O vere” are the two halves of one and the
same verse. The music continues in the same way, so that v. 12, the
last one (in AH v. 12b), is the only half-verse without parallelism.
The inference is therefore that the initiatory half-verse “Pure mentis
gaudia...” is v. la, and is to be connected with the next half-verse,
which is to be reckoned as v. Ib, not 2a.
AH says: “Die Strophenabteilung entspricht genau den Initialen
der Hs.”. This is true enough, because every half-verse begins with >
an initial; but it does not correspond to the music.
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