1994 Articles

Rewriting the Early Sequence: "Aureo Flore" and "Aurea Virga"

Boynton, Susan Leslie

Examining the relationships between two sequences for the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, both transmitted in the eleventh-century Aquitanian manuscript Paris, Biblothèque nationale de France, lat. 1138/1338 brings out significant differences between the texts, which share text as well as a melody. "Aurea virgo " is a rewriting of the tenth-century text "Aureo flore". The comparison of the two illustrates shifts in theological understandings of Mary as well as in vocabulary, style, imagery, and structure. The article concludes with editions and translations of both texts.