An incipit for Septuagesima

Today is the feast of Septuagesima, the seventieth day, which is the ninth Sunday before Easter. The reason for the name of this feast is disputed, considering that this is not the seventieth day before Easter. On explanation is offered in  Legenda Aurea where Jacobus de Voragine explains that medieval exegesis considered this Sunday to mark the beginning of a season in which - in the liturgical cycle - represents mankind's turning away from God after the fall of Adam. Since this period of earthly exile, which precedes the spirit's reunification with God after Judgement Day, extends for seven thousand years, the seventy days of Septuagesima are symbolically representing the seventy times hundred years of mankind's exile on earth. This is according to Jacobus, but I do not know which exegete he used for this claim.

Be that as it may, Septuagesima marks the long preamble leading up to Easter, and this was symbolically important period in the liturgical year. The weeks before Easter is a typological reenactment of the time before the birth of the Messiah, marked by the fall of man and the many calamities of the history of the Israelites, such as the Babylonian captivity.

For the feast of Septuagesima, as a minor commemoration as it were, I present you with the incipit of the chant In te domine speraui (CID: g00639a). This is the verse for the communion - a chant sung during mass - of Septuagesima, and it follows the communion chant itself. In the picture below, you might be able to make out a rubricated "u" signifying "versus", i.e. verse.

In te domine speraui

Incipit for the communion verse for the mass of Septagesima
Syddansk Universitetsbibliotek RARA Musik L 42

The text of this communion verse is from Psalm 30:2 of the Vulgate, and runs like this:

In te domine speraui non confundar in eternum in iustitia tua libera me

Which is translated accordingly in the Douay-Rheims translation:

In thee, O Lord, have I hoped, let me never be confounded: deliver me in thy justice


The communion chant itself (CID: g00639) has its text taken from Psalm 30:17-18 and runs accordingly:

Illumina faciem tuam super serum tuum et saluum]me fac in tua misericordia domine non confundar quoniam inuocaui te


Translated in te Douay-Rheims translation as:

Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; save me in thy mercy. Let me not be confounded, O Lord, for I have called upon thee



It should be noted that the communion chant uses "illumina" whereas the Clemetine Vulgate, assembled in the sixteenth century, uses "illustra". This is a good example of how the medieval bible texts were subject to significant variations that owed to the lack of an authoritative edition of Jerome's Vulgate, and how easily susceptible the various copies of the Bible, as well as biblical extracts such as those of the liturgy, were to scribal errors and oversights. However, it should also be emphasised that we must not use the Clementine Vulgate as the standard against which all other biblical texts and extracts of the Middle Ages are evaluated. The Clemetine Vulgate - named after its patron Pope Clement VIII - was published in 1592 following the evaluations of its editors and the choices they made. This means that although the chant of the communion for Septuagesima uses a different word for "shine" than was chose in 1592, this is not an error as much as it is a different choice of a word meaning the same.