sounds of urban memory: music and sacred space in medieval abruzzi

Elke Koch ∙ Heike Schlie (Hg.) Orte der Imagination – Räume des Affekts

F5955-Koch-Schlie.indd 1 11.02.16 13:17

Urheberrechtlich geschütztes Material! © 2016 Wilhelm Fink, Paderborn

Elke Koch ∙ Heike Schlie (Hg.)

Orte der Imagination – Räume des Affekts

Die mediale Formierung des Sakralen

Wilhelm Fink



Gedruckt mit freundlicher Unterstützung der Fritz Thyssen Stiftung für Wissenschaftsförderung.

Umschlagabbildung:Giotto di Bondone, Capella degli Scrovegni, Padua (Detail).

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Inhalt

ElkE koch/hEikE SchliE Einleitung . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

I. PIlGERSCHAFT

UtE VErStEgEn In Kontakt mit den Allerheiligsten. Zur frühchristlichen Inszenierung der Heilsorte in der Jerusalemer Grabeskirche . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

SUSanna E. FiSchEr Räume des Heils. Die narrative Repräsentation des Heiligen in lateinischsprachigen Pilgerberichten des 12. Jahrhunderts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

laura D. Gelfand Sinn und Simulacra. Die Manipulation der Sinne in mittelalterlichen ‚Kopien‘ Jerusalems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

anika höppnEr Visionäre Räume. Die ‚Irrfahrten‘ des Christoph Kotter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

II. SAKRAlE RäUME

BarBara SchEllEwald Ikone und Raum. Die Konstituierung des Heiligen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

hartmUt BlEUmEr Kartierte Immersion. Ein Versuch zum imaginären Raum der Ebstorfer Weltkarte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

nadinE mai leid und licht. Strategien der Imagination in der Jerusalemkapelle zu Brügge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

linda EggErS licht am Altar. Formierung von sakralen Räumen und Zeiten durch Kerzenlicht in der Zeit der Romanik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195



6 INHAlT

Eric hold

‚In spiritu et corpore‘. Affekt und Imagination romanischer Skulpturenräume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

III. SEElENUMGEBUNGEN

cornElia logEmann

Baupläne der Andacht. Meditative Architekturen in der nordalpinen Manuskriptkultur des Spätmittelalters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Johanna SchEEl

Sich selbst sehen – der Betrachter in und vor dem Bild. Spiegel- und Stifterfiguren in Texten und Bildern des 15. Jahrhunderts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

michaEla Bill-mrziglod

Die Inner(welt)lichkeit des Gartens im 16. Jahrhundert. Der Garten als Thema und Ort der Meditation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

martin kirVES

Die Einsiedelei als topischer Ort. Johan und Raphael Sadelers Eremiten-Darstellungen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

IV. URBANE UND lOKAlE SAKRAlISIERUNG

BricE grUEt

Holy blood, sacred city: Naples and San Gennaro, a multisecular story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

FrancESco zimEi

Sounds of Urban Memory. Music and Sacred Space in Medieval Abruzzi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

maximilian BEnz

Die Geburt des Purgatoriums im Medium legendarischen Erzählens . . . . . . 391

Erik wEgErhoFF

Geschichtskonstrukte. Die Erfindung des Kolosseums als Martyriumsort in Text und Architektur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405



7INHAlT

V. TRANSFORMATIONEN SyMBOlISCHER RAUMORDNUNGEN

Ulrich Barton

Inszenierung und Transzendierung von Räumlichkeit im Passionsspiel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

JUtta Eming

„was sall dir bedewtten der drawm?“ Theatralisierung als Sakralisierung im Heidelberger Passionsspiel . . . . . . . . . . . 461

carla daUVEn-Van knippEnBErg

Der Papst ist schwanger. Ein Raum für religiöses Tauziehen? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481

hanS JürgEn SchEUEr

Sakrale Räume im Schwank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495

Zu den Autorinnen und Autoren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513

Personenregister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515

Ortsregister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519



FrancESco zimEi

Sounds of Urban Memory

Music and Sacred Space in Medieval Abruzzi

Two Abruzzese medieval sources, MS Vitt. Em. 349 of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale of Rome, from l’Aquila, and MS 1 of the Museo Diocesano in Sulmona, are able to shed light on the existence of seminal links between music, ritual and urban space, revealing the path of an-cient processions. Comparing these data with recent studies of urban archeology in medieval Abruzzi, both rites show clear traces of the archaic lustratio, through which the ancient commu-nity fixed the urban sacred space, ‘purifying’ its borders.

In the historical process of forming local identities, the paradigm of a city usually coincided with the image of its walls. Indeed, from ancient times, walls recur in the founding myth of numerous settlements, not only as defensive structures but also as the materialization of a perimeter whose significance was enhanced by specific purification rites.1 Starting from the Middle Ages, this concept gradually devel-oped, and the idea of city walls as the confines of a sacred space, the image of the town, brought new evidence in the visual arts: frequently, for instance, representa-tions of patron saints as urbis custodes bear in the palm of their hand a model of the city stylized within its fortifications.2

On occasions, the city’s destiny was entrusted to more than one patron, as in the case of l’Aquila which, on a banner painted in 1579 by Giovanni Paolo Car- done, is portrayed against a wide panoramic view, borne by as many as four saints (Plate 1). This may give a measure of the devotion still existing in the town chosen on August 29 1294 by the hermit Pietro del Morrone to host his papal consecration as Celestine V. On that occasion, which took place in the basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio, he also granted the first perpetual plenary indulgence – known today as the Perdonanza Celestiniana and a direct forerunner of the Grand Jubilee of Bon-iface VIII – to all who visited the place on the anniversary of his coronation.

In the text of the privilege,3 a special role was assigned to the music, destined to accompany the arrival of the penitents by virtue of the invitation, universis Christi fidelibus, to celebrate that day with hymnis et canticis.4

1 See, for example, le Goff 1982, or the interesting historical excursus entitled Un recinto di identi-ficazione: le mura sacre della città dell’età classica al Medioevo, published by Mantini 1995, 25–35.

2 On the origins of this iconographic tradition, cf. Camelliti 2010 with annexed bibliography. 3 The bull Inter sanctorum solemnia, preserved at l’Aquila in the tower of the town hall, was pub-

lished in Potthast 1957, no. 23981. 4 This expression is attested in two of St. Paul’s epistles (Eph 5,19 and Col 3,16), but also recurs in

several Franciscan sources, such as the Legenda maior by Bonaventura da Bagnoregio (XV,5) and the Legenda perusina (CIX).



372 FRANCESCO ZIMEI

The citizens of l’Aquila interpreted this musical requirement not only with an abundant production of vernacular laude, but also by organizing an expiatory dance involving the whole people, appointing three dance masters for each district. Although in the Middle Ages dances were generally condemned by public opinion

Plate 1: Giovanni Paolo Cardone, Banner of l’Aquila (1579). l’Aquila, Museo Nazionale d’Abruzzo

(ph: Gino Di Paolo).



373SOUNDS OF URBAN MEMORy

and especially by the Church,5 in May 1434, in defence of this custom, a municipal statute even sanctioned cutting out the tongues of any detractors and their perpet-ual banishment from the surrounding area.6 In subsequent centuries, the tradition itself flagged: only the music of such dances (the so-called soni) were preserved and continued to be performed by several groups of players from various parts of Italy, who in the eight days before both Celestine festivals (the said indulgence on August 29, and his name-day on May 19) processed along a prescribed path from the town hall to the basilica of Collemaggio, playing their instruments (Plate 2).7

The importance of this itinerary should also be considered in connection with the tradition, documented from the Cinquecento onward, according to which the foun-dation of l’Aquila was based on the layout of Jerusalem:8 from this point of view, comparing the respective sites, Collemaggio would represent the Holy Sepulchre. Apart from the issue of authenticity, this legend – related to the medieval founding myth of various Italian cities9 – probably flourished at the arrival of Celestine V, whose election gave rise to a millenarian ferment since it was believed that it indicat-ed the beginning of the Age of Holy Spirit which, according to the Liber figurarum of Gioacchino da Fiore, would take place in a new Jerusalem. It is thus, perhaps, no coincidence that on the occasion of his coronation Celestine V, duly advised, entered the city riding a white donkey, id est imitating the entry of Christ into Jerusalem.10

However that may be, for l’Aquila at least, those years effectively saw the begin-ning of a new era. Founded in the mid-thirteenth century close to the border be-tween the Kingdom of Sicily and the Papal States for anti-feudal reasons, the city was razed to the ground as early as 1259 by Manfred of Swabia as a result of its accession to the Guelph party. It was, in fact, being rebuilt at the bidding of the Angevin dynasty, which also authorized the building of a much more extensive circle of walls, completed around the first quarter of the fourteenth century. In the absence of any visible remains of the early settlement, a reading of these transfor-mations – highly topical after the earthquake on April 6 2009 – has so far been the preserve of archeologists and town planners. But to support their investigations, new evidence is now available in the city’s devotional repertory.

In this regard, special attention should be paid to the principal literary source of laude in honour of St. Celestine: MS Vitt. Em. 349 at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Rome, which belonged to the Aquilan confraternity of the Disciplinati di San Tommaso d’Aquino, active in the chapel of the same name in the church of the Dominicans.11 The codex, a paper volume that can be dated, on palaeographic evi-dence, to the half of the fifteenth century, consists of 57 pieces, arranged substan-

5 On the reactions – often highly contradictory – that dance provoked in religious literature from the Middle Ages and Early Modern Era, see Arcangeli 2000, 69–105, and Zimei 2010, 322–338.

6 Statuta Civitatis Aquile, ed. Clementi 1977, 367–368. 7 See Zimei 2015, chapter 6. 8 See Pasqualetti 2013. 9 See Benvenuti/Piatti 2013. 10 Cf. Pasqualetti 2013. 11 A summary of this manuscript is published in De Bartholomaeis 1924, 335–344.



374 FRANCESCO ZIMEI

tially in the order of the liturgical calendar. As a result, the coinciding of several feast-days indicates a more stringent chronology: in particular, the fact that Con reverentia disse Ave Maria, on f. 24v, for the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25), is placed between the lauda for the Canonical Hours of the Adoration of the Cross, to be sung at Vespers on Holy Saturday, and the Devotione della festa de Pasqua, for Easter Sunday. It follows that, in the year in which the manuscript was compiled, the Feasts of the Annunciation and Easter fell on two consecutive days – and

Plate 2: Itinerary of soni for Celestine festivals at l’Aquila, from the town hall to the basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio, identified on a city map engraved

by Giacomo lauro (Rome 1622).




throughout the Quattrocento this happened only in 1448. An interesting corrobo-ration of this hypothesis comes from the final part of the laudario, where the text in honour of St. Benedict, Glorioso confessor san Benedicto (f. 72v) immediately precedes the one for the third Sunday of lent, a sequence that is wholly analogous to that of 1449, when the two feast-days were in a row (March 21 and 23).

A greater problem, on the other hand, would have been posed by ff. 55v–57v, a set of ten pieces – nine of which comprising a single strophe – with rubrics featur-ing the use of the preposition ‘ad’ rather than the more usual ‘de’, skipping from St. Augustine (August 28) back to St. Mark (April 25), then forward to St. Francis (October 4) and back again to St. Peter (June 29), and so on, if l’Aquila had no churches with these precise dedications. Enlightening in this connection is the presence of two laude in honour of the Apostle: the title of the first, Ad Sancto Pe- tro de Popplito, refers to the parish built intra moenia by the inhabitants of Coppito, one of the villages – now a suburb – that took part in the foundation of the city. The second, however, Ad Sancto Petro, this time de Saxa, concerns another church, not far from the previous one, built by the inhabitants of Sassa.

But more is to come. The entire sequence shows a precise topographic consist-ency, revealing what was clearly a processional itinerary, which the text previous to it – Virtù divina di·llassù venisty, with the rubric Laude del Corpo de Christo (f. 55) – allows us to assign confidently to the feast of Corpus Christi. At this point, the use of ‘ad’ clearly implies that each lauda was to be sung before the church with which it was associated:

laUdE dEl corpo dE criSto

Virtù divina di·llassù venisty, c’amasti tanto l’umana natura: per trarela dalla pena aspera e dura su nella croce morire volisty.

Humanità na Vergene prendisty: facto Dio et homo per nostra salute, l’anime che erano perdute dello tou sangue tu le redemisty.

O Yhesu Cristo, lassare volisty ally cristianj el sancto Sacraminto et lu tou corpo ad nostro salvaminto per conmunione ally apostoly desty.

[i] laUdE ad Sancto aUgUStino

Poy che credisti nella Trinitate, o glorioso doctore Augustino, fusti di fore dello infernal domìno: ày alluminata la cristianitate.

laUda oF thE Body oF chriSt

o Divine Virtue from Heaven come down,Thou who so loved human kind:To redeem them from Hell’s harsh pains Didst die upon the Cross.

Thou wast incarnate in the Virgin:God become man for our salvationAnd the souls that were lostThou hast redeemed through Thy Blood.

O Jesus Christ, Thou didst leaveTo Christians the Holy Sacrament,And Thy Body for our salvationIn communion gavest Thine Apostles.

laUda BEForE Sant’agoStino

When in the Trinity thou didst believe,O glorious doctor [of the Church] Augustine,No longer under Hell’s dominion,Thou hast enlightened Christendom.



376 FRANCESCO ZIMEI

[ii] laUdE ad Sancto marco

San Marcho, pietuso vangelista, da sancto Petro apostolo imparasty, evangelista doctrina predicasty: chi che la serva el paradiso acquista.

[iii] ad San FranciSco

Francischo confessore da Dio electo tra li beati nella sancta gloria, nello tou corpo ad eterna memoria le stìmata mandò ch’erj perfecto.

[iV] ad Sancto pEtro dE popplito

Ad sancto Petro Signore dicistj: “Petrj te chiami e sopre questa preta, perché la mente ày scì mansueta, la Ecclesia in te porrò perché cridisty”.

[V] ad Sancto dominicho

Sancto Tomasci de Aquino doctore, lume de sancta Ecclesia et della fede, cercha per tuct’i peccator mercede ad Cristo ch’è lu nostro redemptore.

[Vi] ad Sancto SEBaStiano

O martire glorioso Sebastiano, o cavaleru de Dio, che tucti satia, per tuct’i fidely demanda la gratia e non te scorde el populo aquilano.

[Vii] ad Sancto QUinçano

Sancto Quinzano cavalerj de Deo, tu fusti per la fede tormentato. El populo tou te sia ricomendato, che Dio li scampe d’onne penser rio.

laUda BEForE San marco

Saint Mark, compassionate Evangelist,From Saint Peter Apostle thou has learnt,His Gospel doctrine thou didst preach:That those who practice it reach Heaven.

BEForE San FrancESco

O Francis, confessor elect by GodAmongst the blessed in holy glory,On thy body as eternal reminderOf thy perfection, He sent the stigmata.

BEForE San piEtro di coppito

To Saint Peter, lord, Thou said:“Peter thy name and on this rock”– Thou whose mind is calm itself –“I build my Church, for thy belief ”.

BEForE San domEnico

O Doctor, Saint Thomas Aquinas,light of holy Church and Faith,Seek pardon for all sinnersFrom Christ, who is our Redeemer.

BEForE San SEBaStiano

O glorious martyr Sebastian,Knight of God, who satisfies all,For all the faithful ask for graceAnd don’t forget the Aquilan people.

BEForE San QUinziano

O Saint Quinziano, knight of God,Thou wast tormented for thy faith.Commend thy peopleThat God protect them from all bad thoughts.




[Viii] ad Sancto pEtro dE Saxa

San Petro primo nella santa Sede, Cristo del papatu te fe’ digno: donòte le chiavj dello sancto regno. Per li toy servj cercha a Dio mercede.

[ix] ad Sancto Blaxio

O gloriosi martirj biatj, san Blasio e ’l pretïoso Victorino: o martiry iacete in Monte Armino, sciate denantj a Dio nostry advocatj.

[x] ad Sancto maSSimo

Rendamo gratie al martir glorïoso: san Maximo dell’Aquila è patrone. Denanti a·dDio per nuy faccia oratione che·nne dea pace et eterno riposo.

Lu ’mperadore assay desiderosu tuct’i cristiani scì persequitava. Quagiù in Forcone ad Maximo mandava unu offitiale: o quanto era furioso!

San Massimo, diacono gratioso, dallo offitiale ractu fo chiamatu: “Chi è quisto Cristo de chi ày predicatu? Dici che sopre li altry è più famoso”.

El martire beato virtuoso responde con parole honeste e scorte, non curando recepere morte: “Cristo è vero Dio sempre pietuso.

Cristo è quil Verbo che stette rechiuso nel corpo della Vergene mandatu et di po’ parto quil corpo beatu vergene rimase pretioso”.

Quillo offitiale fo tanto innogiuso: voleva che renunzasse il vero Dio. san Maximo, perché non consentìo, fe’·llu gectare dalla rupe in giuso.

BEForE San piEtro di SaSSa

Saint Peter, of the Holy SeeChrist made thee worthy as first Pope:Gave thee the Holy Kingdom’s keys.Beseech God to pardon thy servants.

BEForE San Biagio

O glorious and blessed martyrs,Saint Biagio and precious Saint Vittorino:O martyrs that rest on th’Armenian mount (Ararat),Be our advocates before God.

BEForE San maSSimo

We give thanks to the glorious martyr:Aquila’s patron, Saint Massimo.Pray to God for usTo give us peace and eternal rest.

The emperor (Decius), with great zealAll Christians persecuted.Here below at Forcona he sent MassimoAn officer: how furious he was!

Saint Massimo, a deacon full of grace,By the officer was called at once:“Who is this Christ that you preach,Saying He is greatest of all?”

The Blessed Martyr, of virtue full,With honest, prudent words replied,Unbothered by death’s sentence:“Christ is true God, ever full of compassion”.

“Christ is that Word that being sentWas closed within the Virgin’s womb:After childbirth that blessed bodyRetained its precious virginity”.

The officer, profoundly full of hate,Ordered the saint to renounce the true God.Since Massimo did not consent,The officer had him hurled from a cliff.

The singular brevity of the intermediate laude, all comprising a quatrain of hendec-asyllables with the rhyme ABBA, thus clarifies their function as pieces of ‘transition’, to be sung to the same music, which the confraternity members probably took, in



378 FRANCESCO ZIMEI

accordance with the practice of contrafactum, from a repertory of interchangeable settings based on contemporary models of the so-called canzonetta giustinianea.12

A plausible example of the genre, applicable to a certain extent to the Aquilan context, is provided by a text – with the very same rhyme scheme – attributed to Giovanni da Capestrano, one of the major protagonists of the Friars Minor Re-formed Observance, a native of the area and often present in the city as a preacher and tireless promoter of devotional and charitable activities: Amor Yhesù perché ’l sangue spargisti. An important fifteenth-century source of ‘cantasi come’,13 the MS Chigi l. VII 266 in the Vatican library, suggests that it should be sung to the mu-sic of Madre che festi colui che te fece, here in a version for two voices handed down to f. 30v of MS Ital. IX, 145 in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice:

12 Cf. Zimei 2015, 132, 145–146. 13 This expression, frequently attached to lauda texts of the Renaissance, concerns instructions as to

a song, clearly known by heart, whose melody should be used in singing the piece. For a compre-hensive database of the major occurrences, see Wilson 2009.




But let us return to the procession. As we can see (Plate 3), the series described a perpendicular route which, starting from the Cathedral of San Massimo, winds its way through the main thoroughfares of the city centre – cardo and decumanus, corresponding to the present-day Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and Via Roma, plus the parallel Via Sassa, halting in succession at the churches of Sant’Agostino, San Marco, San Francesco a Palazzo, San Pietro di Coppito, San Domenico (to which, as the seat of the Confraternity, a lauda in honour of St. Thomas Aquinas is actual-

Example 1: Musical reconstruction of the lauda Amor Yhesù perché ’l sangue spargisti by Giovanni da Capestrano according to the ‘cantasi come’ written in the MS Chigi l. VII 266 of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.



380 FRANCESCO ZIMEI

Plate 3: Itinerary of the Corpus Christi procession in l’Aquila, highlighted on a city map engraved by Giacomo lauro (Rome 1600).




ly dedicated), San Sebastiano, San Quinziano di Pile, San Pietro di Sassa and San Biagio d’Amiterno, then returning to the main square. This itinerary was, moreo-ver, still in use at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when its main function had become the Good Friday procession, along which the townsfolk processed, bearing a catafalque with a statue of the Dead Christ.14

This could lead us to think that this shift of devotions merely reflects the contin-uous centuries-old use of the same route. If, however, we compare our data with the results of surveys carried out years ago on the particular structure of the urban centre delimited by it, we discover that this space largely coincides with what sev-eral scholars have deduced must have been the early perimeter of the city: a “qua- drante”, whose “trama stradale […], a differenza di quelli angioini, tende a conver-gere e a chiudersi su vertici reali o virtuali.”15 In other words, its symbolic value, reaffirmed periodically by ceremonies, served as a memorial of the foundation rite.

A case dense with interesting analogies is documented – moreover in a far more explicit fashion – in nearby Sulmona, a city of far more ancient origin. At the time of the poet Ovid, whose birthplace it was, the city was already a Roman municipal-ity and, during the medieval period, gave rise to a complex procession in the area within the original walls, starting from the Cathedral of San Panfilo with stations in front of all the town gates and the principal religious buildings.16 It is handed down in the contents of MS 1 of the Museo Diocesano, a small parchment codex created in the Quattrocento by assembling several gatherings on ritual subjects, compiled largely during the previous century.

The texts, all of them in latin, introduced by rubrics almost always featuring – just as at l’Aquila – the use of the preposition ‘ad’, consist of versiculi and responso-ria, with alleluia refrain, followed by an oratio. The existence of two different drafts, located on ff. 35v–42 and 64–67v respectively and featuring additions and interpo-lations, reflects the compiler’s need to adjust the itinerary to the growing housing expansion which, between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, involved radical transformations,17 showing, from a technical point of view, “il passaggio della città dalla sua forma di impronta essenzialmente romana a quella medioevale.”18

On ff. 48v–50, preceded by a page set to music in square notation, the following tabula summarizes the various stages of the rite, indicating the rubric for each sta-tion together with the first words of the corresponding prayer, here supplemented by the related verses:

14 Cf. Emidio Mariani, Notizie storiche della città dell’Aquila, l’Aquila, Biblioteca Provinciale “S. Tommasi”, MS 583, 20–21.

15 Clementi/Piroddi 1986, 32: “a quadrant” whose “road network […], unlike Angevin [town cen-tres], tends to converge and end in real or virtual vertices.”

16 Cf. Pansa 1894 and Di Tirro 1999. 17 Cf. Mattiocco 1994, 40–48. 18 Di Tirro 1999, 16: “the transition of the town from its essentially Roman to its medieval form.”



382 FRANCESCO ZIMEI

[Alleluia; Exurge Domine adiuva nos]

antE altarE Sancti pamphilJ. oratio

[V. Dicite in gentibus; R. Quia Dominus regnavit a ligno]J Deus qui pro nobis filium tuum

dEindE pro ciV[ita]tE Et pro Sancta maria

[V. Regina celi letare R. Quia quem meruisti portare]J Deus qui per unigeniti filij tuj

pro Sancto pamphilo

[V. Ora pro nobis beate Panphile; R. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi]J Deus qui beatum Pamphilum

pro Sancto pElino

[V. Ora pro nobis beate Peline; R. Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi]J Omnipotens sempiterne Deus

ad SanctUm amicUm

[V. Iustum deduxit Dominus per vias rectas: R. Et ostendit illi regnum Dei]J Devotionem populi tui

ad portam Sancti amici

[V. In te Domine speravi, non confundar in eternum; R. In tua iustitia libera me]J Populum tuum Domine

ad SanctUm andrEam dE ForE

[V. Antreas Christi famulus dignus Dei apostolus; R. Germanus Petri et in passione socius]J Maiestatem tuam Domine

ad Sanctam mariam dE ForE

[V. Dignare me laudare te virgo sacrata; R. Da mihi virtutem contra hostes tuos]iJ Concede nos famulos tuos

ad SanctUm agUStinUm

[V. Amavit eum Dominus et ornavit eum; R. Stolam glorie induit eum]iJ Deus qui beatum Agustinum

ad SanctUm mathEUm

[V. In omnem terram exivit sonus eorum; R. Et in finis orbis terre verba eorum]iJ Beati evangeliste Mathei

ad portam romanam

[V. Fiat Domine misericordia tua super nos; R. Sicut speravimus in te]iJ Protege Domine populum tuum

ad portam Sancti pamphilJ

[V. Salvum fac populum tuum Domine; R. Et benedic hereditati tue]iJ Via sanctorum omnium Ihesu Christe




ad Sanctam mariam prEtallUnE

[V. Ora pro nobis santa Dei genetrix; R. Ut efficiamur promissionibus Christi]iiJ Deus qui virginalem

ad SanctUm pEtrUm

[V. Petrus apostolus et Paulus doctor gentium; R. Ipsi nos donaverunt legem tuam Domine]

iiJ Deus cuius dexteram beatum Petrum

ad portam iohanniS BonJ hominiS

[V. Ostende nobis Domine misericordiam tuam; R. Et salutare tuum da nobis]iiJ Omnipotens sempiterne Deus

ad SanctUm andrEa dE poStErgUla

[V. Maximilla Christo amabilis tulit corpus apostoli; R. Optimo loco cum aromatibus sepel-livit]

iiiJ Quesumus omnipotens Deus

ad poStErgUlam

[V. Converte Domine captivitatem nostram; R. Sicut torrens in austro]iiiJ Gregem tuum

ad Sanctam mariam noVam

[V. Ave Maria gratia plena Dominus tecum; R. Benedicta tu in mulieribus]iiiJ Omnipotens sempiterne Deus

ad portam FinamaBiliS

[V. Fiat pax in virtute tua; R. Et abundantia in turribus tuis]V Veniat super nos, quesumus Domino

ad SanctUm angElUm

[V. In conspectu angelorum; R. Psallam tibi Deus meus]V Deus qui miro ordine angelorum

ad portam Sancti antoniJ

[V. Domine in nomine tuo salvum me fac; R. Et in virtute tua libera me]V Respice, quesumus Domine, plebem tuam

ad portam SanctE mariE

[V. Eripe me de inimicis meis Domine; R. Et ab insurgentibus in me libera me Domine]V Virginis matris tue

ad Sanctam mariam dE tUmBa

[V. Post partum virgo inviolata permansisti; R. Dei genetrix intercede pro nobis]VJ Deus qui hodierna Dei



384 FRANCESCO ZIMEI

ad Sanctam mariam dE porta noVa

[V. Diffusa est gratia tua; R. Propterea benedixit te Deum in eternum]VJ Dirigantur, quesumus Domine

ad portam noVam

[V. In te inimicos nostros ventilabimus cornu; R. Et in nomine tuo spernemus insurgentes in nobis]

VJ Da, quesumus Domine, ut expurgatis

ad Sanctam lUciam

[V. Specie tua et pulchritudine tua; R. Intende prospere procede et regna]VJ Exaudi nos Deus salutaris noster

ad SanctUm antoniUm

[V. Iustum deduxit Dominus per vias rectas; R. Et ostendit illi regnum Dei]ViJ Deus qui concedis obtentu

ad Sanctam claram

[V. Adiuvabit eam Deus vultu suo; R. Deus in medio eius non commovebitur]ViJ Famulos tuos quesumus Domine

ad SanctUm FranciScUm pro Sancta maria magdalEna

[V. Ora pro nobis beata Maria Magdalena; R. Ut ea te Mariam]ViJ Beate Marie Magdalene

antE portam SalVatoriS

[V. Esto nobis Domine turris fortitudinis; R. A facie inimici et persequentibus]ViJ Civitatem istam quesumus omnipotens Deus

pro rEgE noStro n. [V. Salvum fac regem nostrum Domine; R. Exaudi nos in die in qua invocaverimus te]ViiJ Quesumus omnipotens Deus ut famulj tuj19 n.

ad portam pacE[n]dranam

[V. Dominus virtutem populo suo dabit; R. Et benedicat populo suo in pace]ViiJ Quesumus omnipotens Deus

ad portam FontiS

[V. laudans invocabo Dominum; R. Et ab inimicis meis salvus ero]ViiJ Quesumus omnipotens Deus ut corpus

ad SanctUm thomaSiUm

[V. Gloria et honore coronasti eum Domine; R. Et constituisti eum super opera manuum tuarum]

ViiiJ Deus pro civitatis ecclesia gloriosus




ad Sanctam chatarinam

[V. Veni sponsa Christi; R. Accipe coronam vite]ViiiJ Deus qui dedisti legem Moysi

ad portam manErE[S]cham

[V. Da pacem Domine in diebus nostris; R. Quia non est alius qui pugnet pro nobis nisi tu Deus noster]

ViiiJ Benedictio tua Domine

ad SanctUm BartholomEUm

[V. In omnem terram exivit sonus eorum; R. Et in finis orbis terre verba eorum]ViiiJ Omnipotens sempiterne Deus qui huius

ad SanctUm dominicUm

[V. Os iusti meditabitur sapientiam; R. Et lingua eius loquetur iudicium]ViiiJ Deus qui ecclesiam tuam

ad SanctUm nycolaUm

[V. Elegit eum Dominus sacerdotem sibi; R. Ad sacrificandum ei hostiam laudis]x Deus qui beatum Nicolaum

antE portam JohanniS paxarJ

[V. laudate Dominum omnes gentes; R. Et collaudate eum omnes populi]x Civitatem hanc quesumus Domine

ad SanctUm lEonardUm

[V. Iustus non conturbabitur; R. Quia Dominus firmat manum eius]x Maiestati tue quesumus Domine

ad SanctUm onUFriUm

[V. Iustum deduxit Dominus per vias rectas; R. Et ostendit illi regnum Dei]x Omnipotens sempiterne Deus qui

As observed in the codex of the Disciplinati di San Tommaso d’Aquino, here too the sequence of texts is perfectly consistent from a topographic viewpoint, allowing us to observe the stratification of the perimeter walls (Plate 4). Despite there being many more sites than those mentioned at l’Aquila (remembering, however, that the urban structure had begun its development long before), the route is also divided into ten stations – which are also numbered – so that each one must have represent-ed a fairly vast area overlooked by the various buildings, or from which they could at any rate be seen.

Rites of this kind are also mentioned in other Italian cities, especially for the Minor Rogations, as a symptomatic alternative to the propitiatory processions held in the countryside during the three days prior to the Ascension to beseech a good

19 In superscript, an alternative ending is given with a feminine declension. In the preceding version of this oratio, however, king Charles II of Anjou and then his son and successor Robert are men-tioned.



386 Francesco Zimei

harvest. We need look no farther than Lucca, where the city’s twelfth-century cler-gy processed repeatedly around the first circuit of the walls,20 or in milan, where “Le solenni antiche Processioni ne’ tre giorni detti delle Litanie, o delle rogazioni, uscivano in ciascun dì da una Porta delle vecchie nostre mura, e rientravano da un’altra; ma ogni volta, che nella partenza, o nel ritorno passavano da tali Porte sempre si arrestavano per recitare una divota orazione.”21

in the case of sulmona, a link with rogations has so far been taken for granted,22 albeit a different, and apparently contradictory, celebratory context, suggested by two passages with music on f. 48: the antiphon for the procession, Exurge Domine adiuva nos, is indeed prescribed by the roman gradual, both in Litaniis Majoribus (i.e. for the major rogations, on april 25) and in Minoribus, whereas the psalm associated with it, Exurge quare obdormis, is utilized, although with a different tune, only for the introit of the mass for the Dominica in Sexagesima, during the carnival period.

20 cf. repetti 1835, 893. 21 Giulini 1760, vol. iV, 443: “The former solemn Processions during the three days of the Litanies,

or rogations, would each day go out from one of the gates in our ancient walls and re-enter through another; but whenever, either in starting out or in returning, they passed through these gates, they always halted to recite a devout prayer.”

22 cf. Pansa 1894, 3; Di Tirro 1999, 16.

Plate 4: stations of the ash procession in sulmona, highlighted on a city map printed by Pierre mortier (amsterdam 1704).




This combination is actually documented, with a relevant degree of musical concordance, in MS 34 of the Biblioteca Capitolare di Benevento,23 a Gradu-al-Troparium compiled in the second half of the twelfth century, where, on f. 61, it appears in reference to Feria IIII in capite ieiunii, i.e. on Ash Wednesday.

In view of the wide diffusion of the so-called Beneventan Chant in the Sulmona area,24 it is quite plausible that the procession around the city walls was held on that very day, set aside for purification, left over from some archaic lustratio, that is pre-cisely the rite by means of which the ancient community would have purified the borders of its urban space. This appears all the more evident on considering that all the codex’s prayers Ad Portam are aimed at beseeching divine protection for the territory from external dangers, as can be seen, for example, from the text to be

23 Facsimile edition: Paléographie Musicale 15. 24 Consider the fragments of a Gradual-Troparium of the Benedictine monastery of San Nicola,

kept in the library of the Convent of San Giuliano at l’Aquila and published by Planchart 1994, which should probably also be associated with sheets of the same provenance utilized as flyleaves for several Abruzzese codices in the Biblioteca Nazionale at Naples.

Example 2: Sulmona, Museo Diocesano, MS 1, f. 48: musical settings for the local procession (ph: F. Zimei).



388 FRANCESCO ZIMEI

recited Ad Postergulam: Gregem tuum ad tui laudem nominis civitatem istam proces-sionaliter circumdantes quesumus Domine tua dextera divina protege et adunantia ibi cuncta tuo victoriosissimo crucis signo quo suos ingressus omnis hodierna die devotione precipua munit benigne repellere pastor eterne dignare, which must have been fol-lowed by sprinkling with ashes.

This gesture, understood nowadays as a penitential rite and thus a prodrome of inner purification, originally had quite another meaning: one may just think of the Palilia described by Ovid himself, connected with the foundation of Rome,25 or else of the Old Testament, which directs that the water to be used for purification should be mixed with the ashes of sacrificed animals.26 This latter theme is also taken up in the Epistle to the Hebrews, but developed so as to emphasize the highly different effectiveness of the blood of Christ for this purpose: “The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkled on those who have incurred defile-ment, may restore their bodily purity. How much more will the blood of Christ, who offered himself, blameless as he was, to God through the eternal Spirit, purify our conscience from dead actions so that we can worship the living God.”27

It is in this vein that, at l’Aquila, the passage of the original rite at the Corpus Christi procession should probably be interpreted (not to mention the other, of great symbolic impact, with the statue of the Dead Christ): the exposition of the Most Holy Sacrament along the length of the ancient pomerium would assuredly have secured maximum spiritual defence for the community. What is surprising is that this only occurred starting from 1349,28 i. e. a good 90 years after the destruc-tion of the city at the hands of Manfred. During some of this time – as we have seen – there was an absence of any real demic reorganization, evidencing the inhab-itants’ tenacity in keeping alive, with sounds and songs, the memory of their sacred space.

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25 Fastorum IV, 721–781. See also De Francisci 1959, 225. 26 Num 19, 9. 27 Heb 9, 13–14. 28 Cf. Zimei 2015, p. 49.




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Sources

Example 1: Author.Example 2: Author.Plate 1: Gino Di Paolo.Plate 2: ed. by Author.Plate 3: ed. by Author.Plate 4: ed. by Author.



sounds of urban memory: music and sacred space in medieval abruzzi

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