O Roma nobilis

O Roma nobilis is a Latin poem probably written in Verona some time in the tenth century, and a traditional song for pilgrims arriving to the tombs of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Rome.[1]

Analysis

Structure

The medieval paean poem O Roma nobilis is composed of three monorhymed stanzas of six verses in the form of an Asclepiadian ode.

Textual criticism

The first stanza praises Christian Rome, the second invokes the aid of Saint Peter, and the third, that of Saint Paul. The text is complete in only one manuscript kept at the Vatican library (Vat. lat. 3227) from the early 12th century; a second manuscript comes from the abbey of Monte Cassino (Monte Cassino 318) and is date from the 11th century but it carries only the first strophe.[2]

History

O Roma nobilis is a non-liturgical poem most frequently described, but without basis, as a medieval pilgrims' song.[3] It is often associated to the other pilgrim hymn in honor of Saint Peter and Paul, O roma felix quae duorum principum.[4]

Stemming back to the glory of the Roma aurea e aeterna of the Roman Empire, the language of exaltation of the Rome finds an echo in the 9th-century poetry of Liutprand of Cremona in Versus de Mediolani civitate.[5] The Beneventan script found in the earliest manuscripts of O Roma nobilis suggests an origin it was composed in or near the abbey of Monte Cassino, probably from the late ninth or early tenth century.

O Roma nobilis was discovered anew in the early 19th century. Its literary fame rests mainly upon the studies of Barthold Georg Niebuhr from 1829 and Ludwig Traube in 1891.[6]

In 1941, the millennial hymn was translated into English by Irish author and journalist Aodh de Blácam.[7]

It was declared the official hymn of the holy year of 1950.

In a show of ecclesial triumphalism, Igino Cecchetti published an essay entitled Roma nobilis in 1953[8] which received praise from the Jesuit review La Civiltà Cattolica in 1955.[9]

At the opening of the Second Vatican Council, Pope John XXIII referred to this hymn when referring to the Apostle Peter as the title of honor for Rome, worthily celebrated in the words of this poem.[10]

Music

As early as 1822 the poem was being sung in a choral setting by the papal choirmaster Giuseppe Baini, being popular not only in Rome, but also in Berlin, where Crown Prince Frederick William IV heard Baini's setting of O Roma nobilis at the Singakademie in Berlin on November 27, 1827[11] and it reached even the ears of German poet Goethe.[12] Baini claimed to have drawn his melody from the not readily intelligible neumes of the Vatican manuscript. In 1909 at Fribourg, P. Wagner published the Vatican melody from the exact notation given in the Monte Cassino manuscript and demonstrated the complete inauthenticity of Baini's transcription.[13] In both text and melody it is the matter of rhythm that largely occupies scholars today, although they are concerned also with the relation of the authentic melody of this poem to a secular piece, O admirabile Veneris idolum, which is constructed on exactly the same plan.[14]

Original settings of O Roma nobilis were produced by Franz Liszt in 1879 and Lorenzo Perosi in 1940.

Lyrics
Latin English translation by Aodh de Blacam (1941)
O Roma nobilis, orbis et domina,
cunctarum urbium excellentissima,
roseo martyrum sanguine rubra,
albis et virginum liliis candida,
salutem dicimus tibi per omnia,
te benedicimus: salve per saecula!
Queen of the earth, 0 thou Rome of nobility,
Thou the most excellent City of cities,
Red with the rubrical blood of the Martyrs,
White with the Virginal garments and lilies :
Thee we hail as we come to thy portal
Guard us, govern us, City immortal !
Petre, tu praepotens caelorum claviger,
Vota precantium exaudi jugiter.
Cum bis sex tribuum sederis arbiter,
Factus placabilis judica leniter.
Teque petentibus nunc temporaliter
Ferto suffragia misericorditer.
Marching we come, 0 celestial Key-keeper :
Hear the prayer of thy pilgrims, 0 Peter !
And when thou sittest as judge of the nations
Turn a favouring face on thy people :
That as accepted. in Heaven we may to thee
Come at the last, who here on earth pray to thee.
0 Paule, suscipe nostra precamina,
Cujus philosophos vicit industria.
Factus oeconomus in domo regia
Divini muneris appone fercula,
Ut, quae repleverit te sapientia,
Ipsa nos repleat tua per dogmata.
Hear thou also, 0 Paul, our pleading,
Thou who patiently vanquished the heathen
Grant, we beg thee, a share of thy benefits,
Thou, Dispenser of Heavenly teaching—
That as pilgrims we find our guide in thee
God at length may bid us abide with thee

References
  1. Brittain, Frederick (December 1951). Medieval Latin and Romance Lyric to A.D. 1300. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-04328-1.
  2. Catholic University of America (2003). New Catholic Encyclopedia. Thomson/Gale. p. 491. ISBN 978-0-7876-4004-0.
  3. Sumption, Jonathan (2003). The Age of Pilgrimage: The Medieval Journey to God. Paulist Press. p. 314. ISBN 978-1-58768-025-0.
  4. Piastra, Clelia Maria (1976). "De piacularibus annis". Aevum. 50 (1/2): 162–168. ISSN 0001-9593. JSTOR 25821524.
  5. Colonna, Enza (1996). Le poesie di Liutprando di Cremona: commento tra testo e contesto (in Italian). Edipuglia srl. p. 61. ISBN 978-88-7228-166-6.
  6. Mercati, Angelo (1951). Saggi di storia e letteratura (in Italian). Ed. di Storia e Letteratura. p. 230.
  7. de Blacam, Aodh (1941). "O Roma Nobilis!". The Irish Monthly. 69 (811): 41–51. ISSN 2009-2113. JSTOR 20514830.
  8. Cecchetti, Igino (1953). Roma nobilis: l'idea, la missione, le memorie, il destino di Roma (in Italian). Edizioni Arte e Scienza.
  9. La Civiltà cattolica (in Italian). La Civiltà cattolica. 1955. p. 195.
  10. Pope John XXIII (January 6, 1963). "Al Sindaco di Roma on. prof. Glauco Della Porta, alla giunta comunale, ai consiglieri e a vaste rappresentanze delle varie ripartizioni capitoline". www.vatican.va. Retrieved 2022-03-05.
  11. The American Benedictine Review. American Benedictine Review, Incorporated. 1950. p. 86.
  12. Bodley, Lorraine Byrne (2009). Goethe and Zelter: Musical Dialogues. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 394. ISBN 978-0-7546-5520-6.
  13. Peter, Wagner. O Roma nobilis (PDF). OCLC 718667771.
  14. Brittain, Frederick (December 1951). Medieval Latin and Romance Lyric to A.D. 1300. Cambridge University Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-521-04328-1.
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