452 Mele
in a codex of the giudicato of Arborea, is kept in the monastery of Saint Clare
in Oristano (MS 1bR, fourteenth century).74 The codex also contains a dressing
ritual for the nuns with neumes.75 The song Ave virgo santissima, a laude in
Latin in the form of rhythmic antiphon from a hymnal-psalter of Oristano (MS
P. XIII, fourteenth/fifteenth-century or the first half of the fithteenth century),
is another outstanding survivor. The music evokes Venite a laudare, which is
the first song written in the Italian language, with musical notes dating back to
the end of the thirteenth century.76 Another interesting example is an uncom-
mon Mariological version of the Te Deum: Te matrem laudamus.77 In the same
codex of Oristano (P. XIII), there is still a rich collection of hymns transcribed
with interesting aspects of a metric, rhythmic, and paleographic nature. In
particular, in the Ambrosian hymn Aeterne rerum conditor,78 as well as in four
other hymns,79 the systematic alternation of the punctum inclinatum with the
74 Giampaolo Mele, Un manoscritto arborense inedito del Trecento. Il cod. 1bR del Monastero
di Santa Chiara di Oristano (Oristano, 2010 [1985]).
75 Ibid., pp. 156–160. Archivio del Monastero di Santa Chiara di Oristano, 1bR, fols. 35v–37v.
76 It is preserved in the manuscript of Cortona 91; see Mele,“Die ac nocte”, p. 39. The connec-
tion to the laude 1 of Cortona is the result of a conversation held in the winter 1989 at the
PIMS (“Pontificio Istituto di Musica Sacra,” in Rome), with Professors Giacomo Baroffio
and Italo Bianchi. On that occasion they suggested the melodic affinity.
77 Jean Leclerq, “Fragmenta Mariana. 1. Le plus ancien témoin du ‘Te Matrem’,” Ephemerides
Liturgicæ 72 (1958), pp. 292–294; Bonnie J. Blackburn, “ ‘Te Matrem Dei laudamus.’ A
Study in the Musical Veneration of Mary,” Musical Quarterly 53:1 (1967), pp. 53–76; Mele,
“Psalterium-Hymnarium Arborense,” pp. 236–237, no. LXXXIX; musical transcription,
pp. 283–287, no. LXXXIXa.
78 Aula Capitolare della Cattedrale di Oristano, MS P. XIII, fol. 25r; Mele, “Psalterium-
Hymnarium Arborense,” pp. 172–173, no. III; p. 250, no. IIIa; Mele,“Die ac nocte”, pp. 38–39,
fig. 37. See also, Mele, Manuale di innologia, which contains sources and 34 musical tran-
scriptions: “Parte terza: Aeterne rerum conditor: musica e poesia in 150 anni di edizioni e
studi,” pp. 155–169.
79 Aula Capitolare della Cattedrale di Oristano, MS P. XIII fol. 160r: Immense cæli conditor
(Chevalier, Repertorium Hymnologicum, no. 8453; Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi LI, no. 35,
35—II, no. 2, 31; Stäblein, Hymnen (I), nos. 86, 183, 213, 271, 271, 362); Mele, “Psalterium-
Hymnarium Arborense,” p. 184, no. XIX—256, no. XIXa: music; fol. 163r: Telluris ingens con-
ditor (Chevalier, Repertorium Hymnologicum, no. 20268; Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi II,
no. 5, 30—LI no. 36, 36; Stäblein, Hymnen (I), nos. 213, 363); Mele, “Psalterium-Hymnarium
Arborense,” p. 185, no. XX—256, no. XXa: music; fol. 166r: Cæli Deus sanctissime (Chevalier,
Repertorium Hymnologicum, no. 3484; Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi II, no. 31, 8—LI no.
37, 36–37; Stäblein, Hymnen (I), nos. 214, 263); Mele, “Psalterium-Hymnarium Arborense,”
pp. 185–186, no. XXI—257 no. XXIa: music; fol. 175v: Plasmator hominis Deus (Chevalier,
Repertorium Hymnologicum, no. 14968. Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi II, no. 33, 14—LI