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.
22	116r	Aeterna Christi munera	Euuige [chris]tes lon	Martyrs	OH 44	NH 117	600
23	116r	Tempus noctis surgentibus	Cit thera naht erstantantem	Nocturns	OH 5		20328
24	116v	Rex aeterna domine	Cuning euuigo truhtin	Nocturns	OH 3	NH 31	17393
25	117r	Aeterne rerum conditor	Euuigo rachono felahanto	Nocturns	OH 2	NH 4	647
26 [25a]	117r	Te decet laus	Thir krisit lop	Matins Sunday			20075
27 [26]	117v	Te deum laudamus	Thih cot [lobo]mes	Vigils Sunday	OH 6		20086
1	122v	Mediae noctis tempore	Mittera nahti zite	Nocturns Sunday	OH 1		11420
2	123r	Deus qui celi lumen es	Cot du der himiles leoht pist	Matins Sunday	OH 7		4491
3	123v	Splendor paternae gloriae	Schimo faterlicher tiurida	Matins Monday	OH 8	NH 15	19349
4	124r	Aeterne lucis conditor	Euuiges leohtes sceffento	Matins Tuesday	OH 9		626
5	124v	Fulgentis auctor aetheris	Scinantes ortfrumo himiles	Matins Wednesday	OH 10		6608
6	124v	Deus aeterne luminis	Cot euuiges leohtes	Matins Thursday	OH 11		4415
7	125r	Christe caeli domine	Crist hi[mi]les t[ruh]tin	Matins Friday	OH 12		2845
8	125v	Diei luce reddita	Tago leohte arkepanemu	Matins Saturday	OH 13		4586
9	126r	Postmatutinis laudibus	Aftermorganlichem lopum	Prime during Lent	OH 22		15175
10	126v	Dei fide qua vivimus	Kotes kalaubu dera lebemes	Terce during Lent	OH 36	NH 51	4323
11	126v	Certum tenentes ordinem	Kauuissa habente antreitida	Terce	OH 23		2272
12	127r	Dicamus laudes domino	Chuedem lop t[ruhti]ne	Sext	OH 24		4573
13	127r	Perfectum trinum numerum	Duruhnoht drisca ruaua	None	OH 25	NH 53	14836=14835
14	127r	Deus qui claro lumine	Kot der heitaremu leohte	Vespers Sunday	OH 28		4490
15	127v	Deus qui certis legibus	[Cot] der kauuissem euuom	Vespers	OH 27		4489
16	127v	Christe qui lux es et dies	Christ du der leoht pist inti take	Compline	OH 30	NH 12	2934
17	128r	Meridiae orandum est	Mittes takes za petonne ist	Sext during Lent	OH 37	NH 52	11506
18	128r	Sic ter quaternis trahitur	So driror feorim kazokan ist	Vespers	OH 38	NH 54	18913
19	128v	Aurora lucis rutilat	Tagarod leohtes lohazit	Matins at Easter	OH 41	NH 72	1644
20	129r	Hic est dies verus dei	Deser ist tak uuarer cotes	Matins and Vespers at Easter	OH 39		7793
21	129v	Ad cenam agni providi	Za nahtmuase lambes kauuare	Vespers at Easter	OH 40	NH 70	110

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]

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.

• Stefanie Gerhards, Die Murbacher Hymnen: Edition nach der Handschrift Junius 25, Bodleian Library, Oxford (2018).
• Jacob Grimm, Ad auspicia professionis philosophiae ordinariae in academia Georgia Augusta rite capienda invitat (inest hymnorum veteris ecclesiae XXVI. interpretatio theotisca nunc primum edita), Göttingen (1830).
• Eduard Sievers, Die Murbacher Hymnen: nach der Handschrift, Halle (1874).
• Chiara Simbolotti, Gli 'Inni di Murbach'. Edizione critica, commento e glossario (Ms. Junius 25), Alessandria (2009).
• Michael Stolz, "The Poetics of the Murbach Hymns", Oxford German Studies 46(2):200–205 (April 2017), doi:10.1080/00787191.2017.1325166.
• Lothar Voetz, "Murbacher Hymnen (Interlinearversion)" in: R. Bergmann (ed.), Althochdeutsche und altsächsische Literatur (2013), 272–288.