M191 Virgo praecellens

Standardised text incipit: 
Virgo praecellens
Standardised composer: 
Anonymous
In cycle(s): 
C47a Virgo praecellens (5 motets)
C47b Virgo praecellens (4 motets)
Reference source: 
I-Rvat CS 15, ff. 231v-232r
Number of voices: 
4
Mensuration: 

Length: 
48
Signature: 
b
Clefs: 
c1c3c4f4
Final: 
G
Music incipit: 
..dcabag
dcabagag
.dcabaga
...gdded
Pre-existing melodies (Cantus prius facti): 
Modern editions: 
SCM 2
GCO Catalogue: 
[III.56]
Discography: 

Recorded by Cappella pratensis: http://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/3971223. Fragments online at https://www.muziekweb.nl/Link/EAX0513.

Further notes: 

Text details

Tags: 
Verse
To/about Mary
Standardised text incipit: 
Virgo praecellens
Full text: 

Virgo praecellens, deitatis mater, 
Nobis in terris hodie concedas 
Ut tibi puri resonemus omnes: 
Ave Maria.

 

English translation: 

Excellent virgin, mother of deity, do allow us on earth today that we all pure say aloud for you: Hail Mary.

Correspondences in standard ref works: 

No direct correspondence in a standard ref work could be found.

Related texts in other sources: 

Compare the original poem on which the contrafactum is based (Enea Silvio Piccolomini, Metrum saphicum adonium de nativitate Domini, in Epigrammata), st. 1:
Rector astrorum deus et superne
Molis, in terris hodie videri
Passus, ut culpas veteris parentis
Demere posses,

A sixteenth-century tarsia in the choir of the church of San Domenico in Bologna shows a book with this stanza inscribed (provided with music notation), between musical instruments (see ALCE 1969, 331)
deitatis] dei mitis

Further notes: 

This text observes the form of the Sapphic stanza.
T192-195 are the continuation of this text (see the relevant records for a comparison of original and contrafacted stanzas).

T191 Virgo praecellens

Music incipit (MEI): 
File M191VirgoPraecellens.xml