Untitled

LATIN SECULAR SONGS 221
nizable as that of the hymn c
Ut queant laxis *. The other is a love-song
C
addressed to a boy, O admirabile Veneris idolum', which appears to
have been written in Verona, possibly in the tenth century. We have
three sources for the tune. In the Cambridge song-book it is noted in
neums; 1 in a manuscript at the Vatican 2 the words *O admirabile
Veneris idolum' appear on the same page as the pilgrim song 'O
Roma nobilis', which is in the same rhythm and is provided with a
melody in heighted neums ; while in a manuscript preserved at Monte
Cassino 3 *O Roma nobilis' occurs by itself with the same melody
exactly noted in solmization letters. The last two of these sources
agree in all essentials. Both end with an ornamented cadence which
appears in a simpler form in the neumatic notation of the Cambridge
song-book. A comparison of the three sources makes possible the
following transcription of the Cambridge version:
I
Ex. 86*
p r y ir~r Mr g r
O ad - mi - ra - bi - le
Cu - jus ma - te - ri - ae
Ar-chos te pro - te - gat
Fe - cit et ma - ri - a
Jl iL
Ve - ne - ris i - do - lum,
ni - hil est fri - vo - qui stel-las
con - di - dit
et .
et
- po
so -
lum,
lum
lum.
(O lovely image of Venus, in whom there is no blemish, may the Lord who
made the stars and the heavens and fashioned the seas and the earth protect
thee; may no thievish cunning ever come nigh thee, and may Qotho who bears
the distaff love thee.)
The rhythm of the words is dactylic, but a trochaic interpretation
serais to suit the tune better. Hie melody, it will be noted, is in the
major mode, of which we shall find plenty of examples in troubadour
and trouvere songs.
The Latin secular songs of the Middle Ages are not whoEy frivo
lous. A large number of them, without being specifically religious,
1
Cambridge, Univ. lib. Gg. v, 35, fo. 441 T ; facsimile in Breel, op. cit, facing p. 22.
1
Vatican, 3327; facsimile in L. Tranbe, *O Roma nobOis*, in Abhandhmgen der
pintosapHsck-pkfohgischen Classe der komglich Bayerischen Akaderme der Wissenr
schaften, xix, 2 (1891X pp. 299-309.
1
Monte Cassino, Q 318, fo. 291; printed in J. Wolf, HawUwch der Notationskwde, i
(Leipzig, 1913), p, 5$.
4
Recorded in The ffistmy ofMime ii side 9.
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