On Sat, 23 Jan 1999, Hilmar Pabel wrote:
> In Erasmus' _De praepratione ad mortem_ (1534) he complains of people who
> pray "a subitanea et improuisa morte libera nos, Domine." The annotation
> both in the Amsterdam edition and the Toronto edition of Erasmus' works
> refer the reader to the litany of the saints in the _Rituale romanum_.
> This is misleading, however, since this _Rituale_ first appeared at the
> beginning of the seventeenth century.
>
> My question is: Where would this petition have appeared at the end of
> the fifteenth century/beginning of the sixteenth century?
>
> I don't doubt that it was part of the litany of the saints. My guess is
> that it would be part of this litany as conatined in a Book of Hours.
> Erasmus was critical of the practice of reciting offices from the Book of
> Hours.
The phrase `a subitanea et improvisa morte' probably does not
come from a litany but from prayers, which are often found in
clusters in books of hours. They do not belong with the two
standard prayers to the BVM, `Obsecro te' and `O intemerata', nor
to the suffrages to saints, and vary from manuscript to
manuscript, where they are present.
It occurs, for example, in the prayer that begins `Gratias tibi
ago domine iesu christe fili dei vivi qui voluisti pro
redemptione mundi nasci': `libera me ab insidijs inimicorum
meorum. visibilium et invisibilium et a subitanea morte.' This is
in Oxford, Christ Church MS 100, a French book of hours of
c.1500.
I've also found it in a prayer set to music in the sixteenth
century that begins `O domine Jesu Christe obsecro te per
venerandam crucem tuam'. It ends: `Defende eum a sagitta volante,
a fulgure et tempestate, a subitanea et improvisa morte, ab
omnibus inimicis suis. Defende eum, qui vivis et regnas in
saecula saeculorum. Amen.'
I suspect, with a little digging, you will find the phrase in a
number of prayers.
Bonnie Blackburn
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Bonnie Blackburn
67 St Bernard's Road
Oxford OX2 6EJ
tel. 01865 552808 fax 01865 512237
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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