The Stabat Mater in Middle French Verse: An Edition of Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fr 24865

THE STABATMATER IN MIDDLE FRENCH VERSE: AN EDITION OF PARIS, BIBLIOTHÈQUE NATIONALE,/? 24865 Stabant autem iuxta crucetn Jesu mater eius et sóror matris eius (John 19: 25) The most moving and tender lyric to emerge from Latin hymnody of the medieval Church was surely the Stabat mater.1 While often ascribed to well-known figures of medieval letters like Innocent III, Bonaventure, or Jacopone da Todi, its author remains still today somewhat of a mystery.2 What is beyond question, however, is that it issued from a milieu steeped in Franciscan piety, from that atmosphere of deep and affective devotion to the Virgin so well known among followers of Francis and so much a part of Franciscan spirituality.3 In these verses the narrator calls us to witness the pathos of the physical suffering of the mother, to share her anguish as her son undergoes the torments of the cross, to feel with her the desolation and pain as he nears his end. The theme is here closely allied with the widespread planctus Mariae tradition attributed to Saint Bernard wherein the grieving Virgin and her crucified son are the speakers. It is the purest and most heartfelt expression of a mother's grief composed in lyric form passed down from the Middle Ages.4 1TeXt published in the Analecta hymnica medii aevi, ed. Guido Maria Dreves, 55 vols. (Leipzig: Fues's Verlag, 1886-1922) 54: 312-18 (hereafter cited as Analecta hymnica). Cf. the somewhat different version in Guido Maria Dreves, Em Jahrtausend lateinischer Hymnendichtung, 2 vols. (Leipzig: O. R. Reisland, 1909) 2: 390-92, attributed here to Jacopone da Todi. 2On the various theories of authorship, see F. J. E. Raby, A History of ChristianLatin Poetryfrom the Beginnings to the Close of the Middle Ages (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1927) 437-40, and the Analecta hymnica 54: 317-18. 3ItS popularity has not diminished in modern times, witness the many musical compositions it has inspired over the centuries including versions by Palestrina, Pergolese, Haydn, Rosini, Dvorak, and many others. 4See F. Ermini, Le Stabat mater ed i pianti délia Vergine (Città di Castello, 1906), for the planctus inspiration of this sequence. For a detailed analysis of the Stabat, see J. Franciscan Studies 52 (1992) 192 RICHARD O'GORMAN The popularity of the hymn was immense.5 In the Middle Ages alone there are versions in most Western vernaculars. Of the several versions preserved in French,6 the most well known was surely the one published here preserved in six fifteenth-century manuscripts. This text has been edited previously by Karl Bartsch7 according to ms. B with the assistence of D. The editor frequently mingled readings of the two manuscripts and freely normalized word forms, with the result that his text cannot be considered authoritative. Furthermore, he makes a curious statement in his notes: "Les vers 37 à 60 manquent en A [=BN, fr 984]; nous les donnons dans l'orthographie de B [=BN, fr 24865] un peu modifiée." But there are no missing verses in this copy and, because of the editor's interventions, it is not always clear which manuscript he follows after v. 37. Manuscripts: According to the published lists of prayers in Old and Middle French there are seven extant copies of this version of the Stabat mater, plus an early sixteenth century edition.8 One of the copies traditionally listed, however, that preserved in Poitiers, Bibliothèque Municipale 95 (350) fols. 96v-98r, begins in the usual way, but then abandons the standard text with v. 3 to continue in a completely independent manner that, despite its obvious merits, renders it of no use for the establishment of this text. I print the text Szöverffy, Marianische Motivik der Hymnen (Leiden: Classical Folio Editions, 1985) 8692 . 5The exceedingly long list of extant manuscripts given in the Analecta hymnica (54: 313-14) attests to this popularity. 6A different version is preserved in a book of Hours housed in the Bibliothèque Municipale in Châlons-sur-Marne: "Cy commence Stabat mater dolorosa en français." See Jean Sonet, Répertoire d'incipit de prières en ancienfrançais (Genève: Droz, 1956) 16...