medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Dear Katherine,

judging from the little that I know about prayers and hymns, I would concur with your general impression that it was not common to address (Christian) prayers to objects. But to quote Robert S. Sturgess (_The Circulation of Power in Medieval Biblical Drama_, 2015, p. 33, chap. 3: Things: Objects and Agency in the Trial and Crucifixion Plays): "Few aspects of medieval culture are as focused on objects--physical things--as is the devotion to the Passion of Christ." 

Unlike other objects serving as pure metaphors for addressing a divine person or a saint (of the type Salve flos, Salve stella, Salve gemma, there is even a Salve horologium!), objects physically (and by consequence metonymically) related to the passion of Christ or even instrumental of this passion could actually seen as instruments or 'ministers' of his grace. This idea pointed out alrady by Kurt Sherry (who spoke of "vehicles") in Byzantine tradition is quite explicit also in the Latin hymn _Salvete clavi et lancea_ (Chevalier 18332), st. II: "Vos ad scelus judaica / Elegerat perfidia, / Sed in ministra gratiae / Vos vertit e coelo Deus". In this regard, there is not really a difference between the Cross and the (other) arma Christi, except that prayers and hyms addressing the Cross are more frequent and seem to begin earlier in history than similar texts addressing the arms of Christ. Nevertheless, as a general caution one may have to take into account that it is not always ea
sy to draw a clear line between prayers in the strict sense and texts which are rather laudes 'in praise of' or pious meditations entering in dialogue with an object like the Cross or the arms of Christ.

A related hymn addressing the nails and the lance is _Qaenamm lingua tibi o lancea_ (Chev. 16008). Another hym, _Legis figuris pingitur_ (Chev. 10582), is a praise of the crown of thornes and its prefigurations in the OT and in st. III turns to addressing the crown itself (Christi dolorum conscia, / salve corona gloriae, / gemmis et auro pulchrior, / vincens coronas siderum"). As a third text of this kind, which had caught my interest because it is comparing the vulnera Christi to the rivers of Paradise, I may point you to _Salve mea o patrona_ (by Conrat von Gaming, saec. XV, Chevalier 18055, Mone I, no. 122), which includes a stanza addressed to crown of thorns: st. I-VI is addressed to the Cross, st. VII-VIII to the caput inclinatum and the crown of thorns ("O corona pretiosa / quam cruoris tincta rosa / plasmatoris omnium! / per te fiat speciosa / mens humana, mens spinosa / declinans in vitium"), st. IX-X to the fons paradisi and the vulnus laterale, st. XI-XII to the vulnus 
dextrae manus, compared to the river Phison, st. XIII-XIV to the left hand compared to the River Geon, st. XV-XVI to the vulnus dextri pedis compared to Tigris, st. XVII-XVIII to the wound of the left foot compared to Euphrates, st. XIX to Maria, compared in st. XX in her pain to the singer's own pain, st. XXI-XXII to St. John, st. XXIII to the Cross, st. XXIV to Jesus in person. 

If I understand M. A. Edsall (_Arma Christi Rolls or Sacred Amulets?, in: Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft 2, 2014, pp. 178ss.) right, scholars have recently begun to question the idea established by Robbins (1939) of a "congregational function" of the Arma Christi Rolls and the (image-) text of _O Vernicle_ preserved in some of these rolls, assuming rather a more private use for individual prayer and 'affective' devotion or even a magical-apotropaic use as it seems to be indicated in the roll studied by Edsall. The Latin hyms as part of the Office and of the Breviary may indicate nevertheless how apostrophes or invocations of this kind came to be used in the way considered by Robbins, but I have not studied their history and don't know anything about their age and provenance (except that _Salve mea o patrona_ is attributed to Conrat von Gaming). I know of two hyms related to the relic which your text calls 'Vernicle', _Ave facies praeclara_ (Chev. 17914) and _Salve sancta facies_ (C
hev. 18189), which have been associated in their earliest forms with Innocent IV and John XXII respectively (S. Solange Corbin de Mangoux, _Les offices de la Sainte Face_, in: Bulletin des études portugaises, n.s. 11, 1947, pp. 1-65), but they are addressing rather the original face of the Saviour than its imprint on the suarium. As a hymn with a precise local and liturgical, but less precise temporal context, there is the hymn _O vestis inconsutilis_ (Chev. 13882, printed by E. A. Plater, _The Holy Coat of Trèves_, London: Washbourne, 1891, pp. 106s.) for the Holy Robe at Trier. According to the Continuation of the _Gesta Trevirorum_, the relic was sealed in the altar of St. Peter in the dome of Trier in 1196 by archbishop John I. who also instituted an annual feast for the local clergy (see Stephan Beissel, _Geschichte der Trierer Kirchen_, vol. II: _Geschichte des hl. Rockes_, Trier: Paulinus-Druckerei, 1889, pp. 20ss.), but without having investigated the textual history of th
is hymn I cannot say whether it was composed before or rather after its famous 'rediscovery' by Emperor Maximilian in 1512. 

So, after all, the best that I can adduce as a text with a precise context (actually a 'congrergational' one, if my source can be trusted) are nine "lezioni" in Latin prose addressing each the "Corona Christi" and printed by Fra Giuseppe Maria Guidi, _Vita del Beato Fra Andrea Franchi_ (1714), Pistoia: Tip. Cino, 1834 (https://books.google.de/books?id=MlwXAAAAYAAJ), cap. XXVII, pp. 102ss. According to Guidi, they were composed by Fra Andrea in the summer of the year 1400, in occasion of the pest which had broken out in this year, and were destined to be sung in the Church S. Maria di Ripalta at the matins on the feast of the Holy Crown celebrated on 2 May.

Kind regards, O.

-----------
Otfried Lieberknecht
Dorbaumstr. 86
D-48157 Münster
mob. +49 1573 79 79 329
tel. +49 251 287 99 111
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www.lieberknecht.de

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