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New perspectives on the Feast of the Crown of Thorns

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2009

Judith Blezzard ,
Stephen Ryle  and
Jonathan Alexander
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Extract

The feast of the Crown of Thorns was one of the most important and enduring among the numerous cults that arose in medieval times, focusing on the supposed relics of Christ's Passion. As such, the feast provided the stimulus for the wide dissemination of a succession of liturgies, often with sections in picturesque devotional language. Very few sources of these liturgies survive complete with music. One of them, Liverpool University Library manuscript F.4.13, a 14th-century antiphoner from Pisa, is the principal subject of the present article. The Liverpool manuscript contains what we believe to be the only extant complete text with music of this version of both Office and Mass. As will become clear, the version is neither of the two commonest extant offices, which are Parisian and Dominican respectively; instead, it appears to reproduce an earlier and fuller form of the Dominican office than can be found in other Dominican books. We examine the texts and music of the Liverpool manuscript, together with associated evidence, and provide a discussion of the history of the feast and its special promotion by the Dominican order.

Type
Research Article
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Journal of the Plainsong & Mediaeval Music Society , Volume 10 , January 1987 , pp. 23 - 53
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© The Plainsong and Medieval Music Society 1987

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References

Notes

[1] Liverpool University Library Catalogue of the special collection, typescript, MS F.4.13; also Alexander, J.J.G.: Medieval and Renaissance Art Treasures of the North West (Manchester, 1976)Google Scholar, catalogue of an exhibition at the Whitworth Art Gallery, no.66, in which Dr. Alexander assigns the manuscript to the church of Santa Maria della Spina, Pisa; also Ker, N.R.: Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, III (Oxford 1983), pp.311–12Google Scholar, where the codicology is given.

[2] Surtees, V., ed.: Reflections of a Friendship: John Ruskin's letters to Pauline Trevelyan, 1848–1866 (London 1979), pp.vii–ix Google Scholar.

[3] See Tanfani, L.: Della Chiesa di S. Maria del Pontenovo, detta della Spina, e di alcuni uffici della Reppublica Pisana (Pisa 1871)Google Scholar.

[4] Ross, J. and Erichsen, N.: The Story of Pisa (London 1909), pp.249–53Google Scholar.

[5] As pointed out in Alexander, op.cit. For Pisan illumination in addition to M. Meiss (cited in notes 9 and 10) see Regoli, G. Dalli: Miniatura Pisana del Trecento (Vicenza 1963)Google Scholar; de Benedictis, C.: ‘Sullo Scriptorium pisano del Breviario “Strozzi 11”7, La Miniatura Italiana in età Romanica e Gotica. Atti del l Congresso di Storia della Miniatura Italiana. Cortona 26–8 Maggio 1978, ed. Waldenburg, G. Vailati Schoenburg (Florence 1979), pp.489–99Google Scholar (reproduces the Liverpool manuscript p.498, Fig.8); M.G. Ciardi Dupré Dal Poggetto: ‘Codici pisani trecentesche a Firenze’, ibid., pp.501–28; Avril, F. and others: Dix siècles d'enluminure italienne (vie-xvie siecles) (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale 1984), nos.54–55Google Scholar; de la Mare, A.C.: ‘Further Italian illuminated manuscripts in the Bodleian Library’, La Miniatura Italiana tra Gotico e Rinascimento. Atti del II Congresso di Storia della Miniatura Italiana. Cortona 24–6 Settembre 1982, ed. Sesti, E. (Florence 1985), p.140 Google Scholar; Regoli, G. Dalli and Paoli, M.: ‘I corali miniati da San Francesco a Pisa’, Critica d'arte 50 (1985), pp.47–51 Google Scholar.

[6] Dalli Regoli, op.cit. (1963), pp.87–90, plates 33, 99–101.

[7] Regoli, G. Dalli: Mostri, Maschere e Grilli nella miniatura medievala pisana (Pisa 1980)Google Scholar.

[8] Dalli Regoh, op.cit. (1963), pp.86–7, plates 32, 102–3.

[9] Meiss, M.: ‘An illuminated Inferno and Trecento painting in Pisa’, Art Bulletin 47 (1965)Google Scholar. Brieger, P., Meiss, M. and Singleton, C.: Illuminated manuscripts of the Divine Comedy (Princeton 1969) I, pp.52–70, 216–19Google Scholar, with bibliography, and plates in II, passim.

[10] As argued by Jenaro-Maclennan, L.: ‘The dating of Guido da Pisa's commentary on the Inferno’, Italian Studies 23 (1968), pp.19–54 Google Scholar. See also Guido da Pisa's Expositiones et Glose super Comediam Dantis or Commentary on Dante's Inferno, edited with notes and introduction by Cioffan, Vincenzo (Albany, New York 1974)Google Scholar. Meiss had in 1965 and 1969 accepted the date of c.1345 at that time given to the commentary. He revised this date in accordance with the revised philological dating in his ‘Notable disturbances in the classification of Tuscan Trecento paintings’, Burlington Magazine 113 (1971), pp. 178–82Google Scholar.

[11] Bellosi, L.: Buffalmacco e il Trionfo della Morte (Turin 1974)Google Scholar. For Meiss' ascription to Traini see his ‘The problem of Francesco Traini’, Art Bulletin 15 (1933), pp.97–173 Google Scholar and Painting in Florence and Siena after the Black Death (Princeton 1951)Google Scholar. For Traini see further entry by Gronau, H.D. in Thleme Becker. Allgemelnes Lexicon der bildenden Künstler 33 (1939, pp.340–41Google Scholar.

[12] Koch, M.: Die Rückenfigur im Bild von der Antike zu Giotto (Recklinghausen 1965)Google Scholar.

[13] Siena, , di Stato, Archivio, Capitoli 2. II Gotico a Siena (Siena, Palazzo Pubblico 1982), no.84, plate p.237 Google Scholar.

[14] Siena, Opera del Duomo, Cod. 98–4. Ibid., no. 101, plate p.275.

[15] Washington, National Gallery of Art, K.1547, for which see Shapley, F.R.: Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. Italian Schools XIII–XV century (London 1966), p.61, Fig. 160Google Scholar, as “probably c.1385” and “recalling Simone Martini”.

[16] Schiller, G.: Iconography of Christian Art, II (London 1972), Fig.249Google Scholar. The kneeling figure seen from behind is also used in Museo di San Marco, MS Inv.580: Ciardi Dupré dal Poggetto, op.cit (see note 5), Fig.22, and in a cutting from a choir book which is probably Pisan: London, British Library, Add.35254A. Also it occurs in the scene of the Ascension in the Campo Santo frescoes.

[17] See Schiller, op.cit., especially Figs.651 (Klosterneuburg Altar) and 652 (SS. Quattro Coronati). Also Lexicon der Christlichen Ikonographie, ed. Kirschbaum, E., I (Freiburg 1968), pp.183ffGoogle Scholar. (Arma Christi), 511 (Dornenkrone) and 513 (Dornenkrönung).

[18] For references see d'Ancona, M. Levi: Miniatura e miniatori a Firenze dal XIV I XVI secolo (Florence 1962), e.g. pp.171–3, 237ff., 261ff.Google Scholar, for Don Lorenzo Monaco, Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci, Don Simone Camaldolese and Zanobi Strozzi. For illustrations see Salmi, M.: La Miniatura Florentina Gotica (Rome 1954)Google Scholar.

[19] de Riant, Le Comte: Exuviae Sacrae Constantinopolitanae, II (Geneva 1878), pp.284–5Google Scholar.

[20] The office from the Sens breviary is printed in Dreves, G.M., Blume, C. and Bannister, H.M., eds.: Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi (hereinafter abbreviated AH) (Leipzig 1886–1922, reprinted 1961), V, pp.39–42 Google Scholar. Paris, B.N., lat. 1028 also contains the sequence Regis et pontificis, printed in AH VIII, p.22, and partially reprinted with additional annotation, ibid. LIV, p.204.

For a few further details of the Crown of Thorns office in B.N. ms. lat.1028 see Kirk, D.K.: ‘Translatlone Corona Spinea’ [sic]: a musical and textual analysis of a thirteenth-century rhymed office (M.Mus. thesis, University of Toronto, 1980, unpublished)Google Scholar, where this source (incorrectly dated as 14th-century) supplies material for comparison with a closely related Crown of Thorns office in B.N. ms. lat.15182, the second of two volumes making up a late 13th-century breviary on which Kirk bases his study of the office.

[21] AH VIII, pp.21–22, stanza 10.

[22] Pfaff, R.W.: New Liturgical Feasts in later Medieval England (Oxford 1970), p.91 Google Scholar.

[23] See Hesbert, R.-J.: Le Prosaire de la Sainte Chapelle. Manuscrlt du chapltre de Saint-Nicolas de Barl (vers 1250), Monumenta Musicae Sacrae, 1 (Macon 1952)Google Scholar. Hesbert not only prints the texts of previously unedited sequences (including five in honour of the Crown of Thorns) but also provides a facsimile of both texts and melodies for the complete collection. Commenting on the presence of the nine Crown of Thorns texts he remarks (p.47, note 5): “This simply goes to show that at this period a superabundance of proses was composed in honour of the Crown of Thorns; and perhaps also that our scribe wished, as a final gesture, to bring his volume to a conclusion with a song of the triumph of ‘la gent francaise’ to the glory of the distinguished relic, of which the splendid reliquary was none other than the Sainte Chapelle itself.”

[24] Paris, B.N., lat.13238, f.259: “In solennitate sacrosancte corone spinee Domini. Festum annuale cum octavis solenmbus. Et faciunt officium in sacra capella Fratres Predicatores.” See Leroquais, V.: Les bréviaires manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France (Paris 1934), III, pp.244–45Google Scholar.

[25] An account of the transfer of the feast to the new date is contained in the 3rd lesson of Matins for the feast in the reformed Dominican calendar dating from 1254: “Sed quia dies huius translations in Francia celebratur infra octavas beati Dominici patris nostri, scilicet in crastino beati Laurentii, qua die primo recepta fuit Senonis, visum est fratribus ut festum istud in crastino Inventionis Sancte Crucis celebraretur, ut quia in Christi passione ludibrio crucis patibulum et corona spinea concurrerent per solemnitates coniunctas ipsius resurrectionis triumphus et gloria devotorum animis amplius inculcetur et predicetur vocibus et openbus exaltetur” (London, B.L., Add.23935, f.208v, column 1). See also Dirks, A.: ‘De liturgiae dominicanae evolutione’, Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 53 (1983), pp.95–97 Google Scholar.

[26] After the decision to adopt a uniform liturgy throughout the order, an official exemplar was compiled to serve as the ultimate authority for its liturgical usage. This document, which has become known as the ‘prototype’, is preserved in the Dominican archives in Santa Sabina, Rome (Cod. XIV L 1). Several portable copies of the prototype, presumably one for each province, were made for the use of the Master General of the order to serve as correctoria. The English province's copy (British Library Add.23935) has been consulted for the present study.

[27] The information in the following two paragraphs is derived largely from de Gaiffier, B.: ‘La Legende de la Sainte Épine de Pise’, Analecta Bollandiana 70 (1952), pp.20–34 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also L. Tanfani, op.cit. (note 3), pp.79–80.

[28] B. de Gaiffier, op.cit. p.27.

[29] The new year according to the official Pisan calendar began on 25th March: thus for more than nine months of the year Pisa ran ahead of most of the rest of Christendom. Where a double year date is given the higher figure reflects official Pisan chronology.

[30] See Seidel, M.: ‘Skulpturen am Aussenbau von S. Maria della Spina in Pisa. Forschungen zur Werkstatt des Giovanni Pisano’, Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes In Florenz 16 (1972), pp.269–92, especially 274–6Google Scholar.

[31] B. de Gaiffier, op.cit., p.33. The Dominicans had coveted the relic from the time of its acquisition by the Longhi family: ibid. p.27.

[32] Saltareli was archbishop of Pisa from 1323 to 1342. See Zucchelli, N.: Cronotassi del Vescovi e Arcivescovi di Pisa (Pisa 1907), pp. 121–32Google Scholar.

[33] See Bonniwell, W.R.: A History of the Dominican Liturgy 1215–1945 (2nd edn., London and New York 1945), p.204 Google Scholar. For Dominican influence on the music written for Scandinavian feasts see Haapanen, T.: ‘Dominikanische Vorbilder im mittelalterlichen nordischen Kirchengesang’, Gedenkboefc Dr. D.F. Scheurleer ('s-Gravenhaage 1925), pp. 129–34Google Scholar.

[34] See de Riant, op.cit. (note 19), II, pp.4–6; also de Mély, F.: Exuviae Sacrae Constantinopolitanae, III (Paris 1904), p.328 Google Scholar. De Riant names the Norwegian king erroneously as Magnus IV. Magnus VI was known as Lagabøter (‘Lawmender’) and reigned from 1263 to 1280.

[35] A facsimile of the Trondheim Breviary was published in 1964: Kerbriat, J. and Bienayse, J., ed.: Breviaria ad usum ritüorum sacrosancte Nidrosiensis Ecclesie (Oslo: Børsum's Forlag)Google Scholar. The Crown of Thorns office is contained on folios zz.v verso - zz.vm verso.

[36] Eggen, E.: The Sequences of the Archbishopric of Nidaros (Copenhagen 1968), I, pp. xxi, 124–5Google Scholar.

[37] Brynolf was bishop of Skara from 1278 until his death in 1317. His Crown of Thorns office was probably the last of the four he is known to have written; the others were in honour of St. Helena of Sweden, St. Eskil and the Blessed Virgin. In all four he employed the same verse-form for the Matins responsories, with a hexameter line forming the final verse. The principal source for this and other information about his life and work is to be found in the submission for his canonization presented to Martin V and the Council of Constance in 1417. This document was printed at Lübeck in 1492, when the cause of his canonization was again submitted to Innocent VIII. A facsimile was published at Stockholm in 1870. The text is also printed in Fant, E.M. and others, eds.: Scriptores Rerum Suecicarum III, pt.2, pp. 138–85 (Uppsala 1871)Google Scholar. See also Westman, K.B. in Svenskt Blografiskt Lexikon 1 (1918), pp.391–5Google Scholar, s.v. Algotssönerna, and Bibliotheca Sanctorum 3 (1963), cols.533–4Google Scholar.

Brynolf's Crown of Thorns office was incorporated, with the exception of the opening antiphons for Vespers and the 1st nocturn of Matins, in the office for the feast printed in the Aarhus breviary of 1519 (AH V, pp.42–4), the editors of AH failing to realize that this office was essentially his work. The complete text was subsequently published by Schück, H. in ‘De Spinea Corona’, Samlaren 39 (1918), pp.28–44 Google Scholar, and in a somewhat more accurate version by Lundén, T.: ‘Brynolf Algotssons samlade diktverk’, Credo 27 (1946), pp.73–124 Google Scholar. See also Milveden, I.: ‘Neue Funde zur Brynolphus-kritik’, Svensk Tidskrift för musikforsknlng 54 (1972), pp.5–51 Google Scholar.

[38] This document, designated in AH XLVa, p.18, as ‘Legendarium Lincopense’, has come to be known as the ‘Codex Laurentu Odonis’. It is housed in the Dresden Staatsbibliothek (Cod. A 182). It suffered severe damage during World War II and is consequently virtually illegible in many places. The present authors have consulted a microfilm of the manuscript. See further Önnerfors, A.: ‘Zur Offiziendichtung im schwedischen Mittelalter’, Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch 3 (1966), pp.55–93, especially pp.60 and 66fGoogle Scholar.

[39] Office, AH, XLVa, pp.16–18: Diadema salutare ibid. LIV, p.207. The correspondences between the Pisa and Odo material are given in note 59 below.

[40] Missale ad usum lnsignis ecclesiae Eboracensis, ed. Henderson, W.G., Surtees Society 59–60 (London 1874 and 1872), 60, p.220–22Google Scholar.

[41] An account of the origin and spread of the Crown of Thorns feast in England can be found in R.W. Pfaff, op.cit. (note 22), pp.91–7.

[42] F. de Mély, op.cit. (note 34), pp.354–6.

[43] King, A.A.: Liturgies of the Past (London 1959), pp.288–9Google Scholar.

[44] Laing, D., ed.: Breviarium Aberdonense, facsimile annexed to preface (Edinburgh 1855)Google Scholar.

[45] Pfaff, op.cit. (note 22), pp.95–7. As in the case of the Odo document, the Dominican element results in correspondences also with the Pisa material: see note 59 below.

[46] Kerbriat and Bienayse, op.cit. (note 35), Introduction, p.102.

[47] Hughes, Andrew has announced a survey of the genre in ‘Rhymed offices of the late Middle Ages’, Dictionary of the Middle Ages (New York: Scribner, forthcoming)Google Scholar. An extensive bibliography is published at the end of his research report in this Journal 8 (1985), pp.33–49 Google Scholar.

[48] See further the remarks of G.M. Dreves in the introduction to AH V, where, in considering the various forms of liturgical poetry, he refers to the rhymed office as “in certain respects the most important of all”, and goes on to describe it, in contrast to the sequence and even to the hymn, as “a carefully structured, self-contained and rounded whole” (pp.5f). See also Stroppel, R.: Liturgle und qeistliche Dichtung zwischen 1050 und 1300 (Frankfurt-am-Main 1927, repr. Hildesheim 1973), pp.22–24 Google Scholar; and Corbin, S.: L'Église à la conquête de sa musique (Paris 1960), pp.243–7Google Scholar. On the relationship between form and function compare Ryle, S.F.: ‘The sequence: reflections on literature and liturgy’, in Cairns, F., ed.: Papers of the Liverpool Latin Seminar 1976 (ARCA 2, 1977), pp.171–82Google Scholar.

[49] See Kemp, E.W.: Canonization and Authority in the Western Church (London 1948)Google Scholar, chapters 4–6, and the hostile article by Goodich, M.: ‘The politics of canonization in the thirteenth century: lay and mendicant saints’, Church History 44 (1975), pp.294–307 Google Scholar, reprinted in Wilson, S., ed.: Saints and their cults: studies in religious sociology, folklore and history (Cambridge 1983), pp.169–187 Google Scholar.

[50] See above, p.33.

[51] Crown of Thorns office London, B.L., Add.23935, ff.332r (final word) – 333r, column 2. St. Dominic office ff.341v, column 1 – 342v, column 2.

[52] For the text of the St. Dominic office see AH XXV, pp.239–241. For the Crown of Thorns feast after 1254 the Dominicans used the opening Lauds antiphon, Adest dies laetitiae, as the Vesper psalm antiphon, as indicated in the ‘Ordinarius’ section of London 23935, f.32v, col.2. But Gaude felix mater ecclesia does appear in the ‘Antiphonarius’ section under the rubric “memoria de Corona Domini” (f.332r, final word).

[53] Dominic and Crown of Thorns office in London 23935 make use of a common melody, though with significant divergences. Corbin, S. refers to this melody in connection with rhythmical offices in L'Égllse à la conquête de sa musique (Paris 1960), p.247 Google Scholar. It became extremely well known in later centuries as a Sanctus, that of Mass VIII in modern Vatican books.

[54] A single source is cited for Coronam Sion filia at AH IV, p.23, and two further manuscript sources in Chevalier, U.: Repertorium Hymnologicum I (Louvain 1892), no.3933Google Scholar. It is also found in the Breviarium Lincopense printed in 1493, with the opening line “Corona filia Syon”: see the edition of the breviary by K. Peters (Lund 1950–58), p.648. For Aeternae regi gloriae and Lauda fidelis contio see AH LII, pp.13 and 14.

[55] The first two psalm antiphons and the opening of the third are missing from Liverpool F.4.13, on the leaves lost from between ff.9 and 10. The first antiphon is preserved in the standard Dominican service books (London 23935, f.332v, col.1). The melodies of the second antiphon and the opening of the third can be reconstructed from the corresponding items in the St. Dominic office.

[56] For confirmation of this hypothesis see now Dirks op.cit. (note 25), p.114.

[57] London 23935, f.208r col.2 – 208v col.1.

[58] Liverpool F.4.13, f.18r.

[59] The Codex Laurentii Odonis subdivides the first four Pisa lessons to provide material for the three nocturns of this feast, and then turns to material from other sources to supply a total of 21 further lessons for different occasions within the octave.

[60] Pfaff, op.cit. (note 22), postulated a common source for the material found in the Linköping and Aberdeen breviaries, and in the Legenda Aurea. The Pisa manuscript presumably also derives ultimately from the same source. The 1st lesson in Aberdeen and Linköping corresponds to a passage in the middle of the 3rd Pisa lesson. The 2nd and 3rd Linköping lessons are part of the 2nd and the beginning of the 3rd Pisa lessons. Aberdeen's 2nd and 3rd lessons correspond to parts of the 8th and 9th Pisa lessons. The Legenda Aurea (ed. Graesse, T., 3rd edn., Breslau 1890, repr. Osnabrück 1969, p.955)Google Scholar contains the same passages as Aberdeen, with a few differences of wording.

[61] See Dirks, op.cit. (note 25), p.115.

[62] The Codex Laurentii Odonis and the Linköping breviary agree with Pisa. The Trondheim and Aberdeen breviaries read “commendatur memorie”, as does the Aarhus breviary, where Adest dies laetitiae is the first of the Vesper psalm antiphons.

[63] This Credo melody is listed by Miazga, T.: Die Melodien des einstimmigen Credo der römisch-katholischen lateinischen Kirche (Graz 1976), p.81 Google Scholar, as no.319 of Group B, first found apparently c.1200. Miazga cites 59 instances of the melody in total, the majority of the sources being Italian; seven are of Dominican origin. However, in his transcription of the intonation Miazga gives an initial upward leap of a minor 3d (E to G), whereas in ms. F.4.13 the leap is a 4th (D to G). Possibly the D in ms. F.4.13 is a scribal error, since its presence makes the intonation unlike any listed by Miazga from earlier than the 17th century.

[64] The Codex Laurentii Odonis even includes a tract, providing for celebration within Septuagesima and Lent. Since 4 May invariably falls within the paschal season, the post-1254 Dominican service books contain no gradual, but two alleluias, the second of which varies according to the occurrence of the feast before or after the Ascension.

[65] See above, note 20.

[66] See above, p.33 and note 23.

[67] AH LIV, p.207.

[68] AH LV, p;133.

[69] It is found in a collection of liturgical texts, probably intended for personal use by a member of the order, which preserves items that had been superseded as a result of the 1254 revision. This document (Rome, Santa Sabina, Dominican Archives Codex XIV L 3) was compiled between 1254 and 1260. See Sölch, G., O.P.: ‘Cod. XIV L 3 Saec. XIII des Dominikanischen Ordensarchivs in Rom: ein neue Zeuge frühdominikanischer Liturgieentwicklung’, Ephemerides Liturglcae 54 (1940), pp.165–81Google Scholar; and I. Milveden, op.cit. (note 37), pp.44–47.

[70] Published in Buck, P.C. et al. , eds.: Taverner, Tudor Church Music I (London 1923), pp. 157–93Google Scholar; also Benham, H., ed.: John Taverner: 1: Six-part Masses, Early English Church Music 20 (London 1978), pp.75–169 Google Scholar; also Smart, J., ed.: John Taverner: Mass Corona spinea, Mapa Mundi series C, no. 16 (London 1981)Google Scholar.

[71] Bergsagel, J.D.: ‘The date and provenance of the Forrest-Heyther collection of Tudor masses’, Music and Letters 44 (1963), pp.240–248 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

[72] Benham, H.: ‘The music of Taverner: a liturgical study’, The Music Review 33 (1972), pp.251–74Google Scholar.

[73] Diadema salutare, Ad honorem/Cantemus coronae Christi, Speciali gloria and nine further ones in Hesbert, op.cit. (note 23), pp. 167–83, 300–303.

[74] Harrison, F.Ll.: ‘Faburden in practice’, Musica Disciplina 16 (1962), p.12 Google Scholar.

[75] Benham, H.: Latin Church Music in England 1460–1575 (London 1977), p.149 Google Scholar, note 7. Baillie, H.: ‘Squares’, Acta Musicologica 32 (1960), pp.185–6Google Scholar. Professor B.L. Trowell, the leading authority on faburden, has expressed to us his opinion that Taverner's cantus firmus is neither a faburden nor a square.

[76] Sandon, N.: ‘F G A B flat A: thoughts on a Tudor motif’, Early Music 12 (1984), pp.56–63 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For example, the same principle, applied to the opening of Taverner's cantus firmus, produces the following possibility of a textual allusion:

The second phrase also begins with these four notes. Other sections of the melody, treated similarly, yield “regina”, “domine”, “corona” and “spina”. Unlike Ashwell's mass, Taverner's ‘Corona spinea' mass is based on a melody rather than a brief musical motto. This, combined with possible different ways of solmizing parts of the ‘Corona spinea’ cantus firmus, diminishes the likelihood of any single underlying continuous text being discovered, although several fragments, like those above, can be postulated.

[77] Attention will shortly be drawn to the possible connection between Taverner's mass and Catherine of Aragon. It is therefore not entirely unreasonable to look toward Spanish melodies for Taverner's cantus firmus. Among the few sacred villancicos in the Cancionero Musical de Palacio (ed. Anglés, H., La música en la Corte de los Reyes Católicos, 2 vols., Barcelona 1951)Google Scholar, a repertory presumably known to Catherine at least in part, the anonymous Dios te salve, Cruz preciosa (Anglés vol.2, pp. 183–4Google Scholar) venerates the cross of Christ. The first Contra part bears strong similarities to a major portion of Taverner's cantus firmus, leaving out only the penultimate phrase. Although the resemblance may be coincidental, this villancico nevertheless offers the closest match to Taverner's cantus firmus yet to be discovered. (See Ex.1)

[78] Thompson, P.: The history and antiquities of Boston (Boston, London and Boston, Mass., 1856), pp.108ffGoogle Scholar.

[79] Thompson, A. Hamilton: ‘Visitations in the diocese of Lincoln 1517–31’, Lincoln Record Society 33 (1940), 35 (1944) and 37 (1947), passimGoogle Scholar; also compare Pfaff, op.cit. (note 22) chapters 4 and 5.

[80] Mattingly, G.: Catherine of Aragon (London 1942), pp.139–40Google Scholar; also Salter, H.E., ed.: Registrum Annalium Collegil Mertonensis (Oxford 1923), p.477 Google Scholar.

[81] Lyte, H.C. Maxwell: A History of the University of Oxford from the earliest times to the year 1530 (London 1886), pp.444ffGoogle Scholar.

[82] Mattingly, op.cit., p. 177.

[83] Mitchell, W.T., ed.: ‘Epistolae Academicae 1508–96’, Oxford Historical Society new series 26 (1980, for 1977–8), pp.196–200 Google Scholar.

[84] Shown, for example, by her construction of a wayside chapel which she named Mount of Calvary “because it was of Christ's passion”. Stowe: Survey of London, quoted in Forrest, W.: The history of Grisild the Second, ed. Macray, W.D. for the Roxburghe Club (London 1875), p.191 Google Scholar.

[85] Oxford, Bodleian Library, Twyne XVII, p.151; information kindly communicated by Professor J. Elliott, Syracuse University, New York.

[86] Bergsagel, op.cit. (note 71), p.242.

[87] Bray, R.: ‘Sixteenth century musica ficta: the importance of the scribe’, Journal of the Plainsong & Mediaeval Music Society 1 (1978), p. 66 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

[88] Bergsagel, op.cit., p.247; also Benham, op.cit. (note 75), p.25.

[89] Forrest, op.cit. (note 84).

[90] Ashwell's ‘Ave Maria' mass; Sheppard's ‘Cantate' mass, discussed in Sandon, N.: ‘Paired and grouped works for the Latin rite by Tudor composers’, The Music Review 44 (1983), pp.8–12 Google Scholar; Tye's ‘Euge bone’ mass, discussed in Doe, P.: Christopher Tye: ii: Masses, Early English Church Music 24 (London 1980), pp.xiv–xv Google Scholar; Alwood's ‘Praise him praiseworthy’ mass, discussed in Sandon, op.cit. (note 76), p.60; This leaves Aston's ‘Videte manus meas’ mass and Taverner's ‘O Michael’ mass unaccounted for.