Murbach hymns

The Murbach hymns (German: Murbacher Hymnen, also Murbacher Hymnar "Murbach hymnal") are a collection of 27 early medieval Latin hymns with interlinear Old High German translation. The hymns are intended to be sung at certain times of the day in the course of the year, being introduced with the header Incipiunt hymni canendae per cirulum anni.

First page of the hymnal (fol. 122v).
Beginning of hymn 22 (Aeterna christi munera), fol. 116r.

Grouped with the Frankish Hymnal, an early medieval extension of the Ambrosian hymns of the Milanese Rite, the Murbach hymns are preserved in a single manuscript of the early 9th century, now part of the Junius collection in the Bodleian Library (MS Junius 25), originally kept at Murbach Abbey, Alsace.[1]

History

Bodleian MS Junius 25 consists of 193 folia, containing the text of the hymns, among various Latin texts and Latin-German glosses, on foll. 122v–129, 116/117. It is the product of an Alamannic monastery workshop, most likely of the first quarter of the 9th century. The hymns were most likely written down in Reichenau, the interlinear version may have been written in Murbach Abbey, where the manuscript was kept until at least the 15th century (based a dated note made in the ms.).[2]

The manuscript was acquired by Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn, who published glosses from the ms. in 1652. Later in the 17th century it was owned by Isaac Vossius. Franciscus Junius copied the text of the hymns from the ms. while it was in Vossius' possession. The ms. passed into possession of Junius at an unknown date, and was acquired as part of Junius' collection by the Bodleian Library after his death in 1677.

The text of the hymns was first printed by George Hickes in 1703, and by Rasmus Nyerup in 1787. The first philological edition of the text was published by Jacob Grimm in 1830, based on a copy of the text in Junius' hand. Eduard Sievers in 1874 published a new edition based on the original manuscript. Recent critical editions have been published by Simbolotti (2009) and Gerhards (2018).

The collection is classified as belonging to the "Frankish hymnal" by Helmut Gneuss (1968, 2000),[3] grouped with five other collections of the 8th to 9th century.[4] The Latin hymns are described as of Ambrosian or "pseudo-Ambrosian" type. The final hymn on fol. 117v is the Te Deum, the others appear to be original to the "Frankish Hymnal" tradition. Grimm's Latin text was reprinted by Migne (1845) in PL 17 in a collection of "hymns attributed to Saint Ambrose" (hymni S. Ambrosio attributi).[5]

Interlinear version

Opinions on the status of the Old High German translation have varied: Thoma (1958) judged them as wholly dependent on the Latin text and not forming a coherent German text of its own. Sonderegger (1964) by contrast argued that the interlinear version in certain passages does represent a grammatical Old High German text with a poetic quality and "surprising eloquence" (mit erstaunlicher Sprachgewalt). Haubrich (1988) likewise admitted a "literary and poetic ambition" on the part of the author of the interlinear version.[6]

List of hymns

Grimm (1830) counted 26 hymns, but Sievers (1874) identified the final verse of Grimm's hymn 25 as a separate hymn with a single verse, numbered 25a, for a total of 27 hymns. Hymns 1–21 are on foll. 122v–129v. The final six hymns, 22–26, are part of the preceding quaternum in the manuscript, on foll. 116r–117v, followed by nine pages (foll. 118r–122r) of Latin to Old High German glosses. In spite of being edited as forming the conclusion of the collection by their 19th-century editors, they were most likely written down slightly earlier than the 21 hymns that follow.[2] The incipit of the 27 hymns are as follows (Gerhards 2018:13):

Nr. fol. Incipit Incipit (OHG) Use OH NH Chevalier no.
22116rAeterna Christi muneraEuuige [chris]tes lonMartyrsOH 44NH 117600
23116rTempus noctis surgentibusCit thera naht erstantantemNocturnsOH 520328
24116vRex aeterna domineCuning euuigo truhtinNocturnsOH 3NH 3117393
25117rAeterne rerum conditorEuuigo rachono felahantoNocturnsOH 2NH 4647
26 [25a]117rTe decet lausThir krisit lopMatins Sunday20075
27 [26]117vTe deum laudamusThih cot [lobo]mesVigils SundayOH 620086
1122vMediae noctis tempore Mittera nahti ziteNocturns SundayOH 111420
2123rDeus qui celi lumen es Cot du der himiles leoht pistMatins SundayOH 74491
3123vSplendor paternae gloriaeSchimo faterlicher tiuridaMatins MondayOH 8NH 1519349
4124rAeterne lucis conditorEuuiges leohtes sceffentoMatins TuesdayOH 9626
5124vFulgentis auctor aetherisScinantes ortfrumo himilesMatins WednesdayOH 106608
6124vDeus aeterne luminisCot euuiges leohtesMatins ThursdayOH 114415
7125rChriste caeli domineCrist hi[mi]les t[ruh]tinMatins FridayOH 122845
8125vDiei luce redditaTago leohte arkepanemuMatins SaturdayOH 134586
9126rPostmatutinis laudibusAftermorganlichem lopumPrime during LentOH 2215175
10126vDei fide qua vivimusKotes kalaubu dera lebemesTerce during LentOH 36NH 514323
11126v Certum tenentes ordinemKauuissa habente antreitidaTerceOH 232272
12127rDicamus laudes dominoChuedem lop t[ruhti]neSextOH 244573
13127rPerfectum trinum numerumDuruhnoht drisca ruauaNoneOH 25NH 5314836=14835
14127rDeus qui claro lumineKot der heitaremu leohteVespers SundayOH 284490
15127vDeus qui certis legibus[Cot] der kauuissem euuomVespersOH 274489
16127vChriste qui lux es et diesChrist du der leoht pist inti takeComplineOH 30NH 122934
17128rMeridiae orandum estMittes takes za petonne istSext during LentOH 37NH 5211506
18128rSic ter quaternis trahiturSo driror feorim kazokan istVespersOH 38NH 5418913
19128vAurora lucis rutilatTagarod leohtes lohazitMatins at EasterOH 41NH 721644
20129rHic est dies verus deiDeser ist tak uuarer cotesMatins and Vespers at EasterOH 397793
21129vAd cenam agni providiZa nahtmuase lambes kauuareVespers at EasterOH 40NH 70110

Hymns 2, 6–9, 11–12, 23 and 26 (single verse) are unique to the Frankish Hymnal tradition, hymns 10, 13–14, 17–19 and 21 are first recorded in the Frankish Hymnal and are received into the New Hymnal. Of the hymns adopted from the earlier Old Hymnal tradition, authorship of Ambrose is likely for hymn 25 (Aeterne rerum conditor), and thought uncertain but possible for hymns 3, 20 and 22.[7]

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References
  1. MS. Junius 25, Summary Catalogue no.: 5137 (medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk); online facsimile: iiif.bodleian.ox.ac.uk.
  2. Gerhards (20181, 27ff).
  3. Helmut Gneuss, "Zur Geschichte des Hymnars", Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 35.2 (2000) 227–247 (p. 228).
  4. Voetz (2013:277).
  5. Patrologia Latina vol. 17 (1845), 1171ff. The Junius ms. is described col. 1164, abbreviated O. (for bibliotheca Oxoniensis).
  6. Andreas Kraß, "Murbacher Hymnen" in: Joachim Heinzle, L. Peter Johnson (eds.), Wolfram-Studien XIV: Übersetzen in Mittelalter Cambridger Kolloquium 1994 (1996), 89–91.
  7. Inge B. Milfull, The Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church: A Study and Edition of the 'Durham Hymnal' (1996), 473f.
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