Bill,
I ran across the term "7 great hymns" in Charles Beeson's _A Primer of
Medieval Latin_. He used it in such a way that I thought it was a commonplace
(obviously not). Since Beeson is copyrighted in 1925 (and 1953), pre-Vatican II,
by Catholic University of America Press, in may represent some 19th-20th century
Catholic designation of seven of the most common Latin hymns incorporated into
the liturgy (but there are 5 sequences included in the liturgy...) or found in
all Latin collections of hymns (I am guessing here because Harrington uses that
description in his collection).
From Beeson, I catch four with this designation "One of the seven great
hymns..." and two others that to my mind must be in this category, although he
uses a superlative to describe them:
Veni Creator Spiritus
De Contemptu Mundi
Veni Sancte Spiritus
Stabat Mater
and
Pange Lingua
Dies Irae
and the seventh?
Ave Maris Stella?
Given your reaction, I gather I should remove the reference!
Karen Jolly
History
University of Hawai'i at Manoa
[log in to unmask]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|