Observations on the texts in Latin intoned by Heinrich Schütz. The devotional prayer »O bone Iesu«.

Heinrich Schütz intoned some parts of the devotional prayer O bone Iesu in the Cantiones sacraje (1625) and in the Kleine geistliche Konzerte II (1639). In order to define the choices that the musician made, the contribution rebuilds the origin and the fortune of the pia oratio, getting the following results. The text was developed in the XVth century in a Carthusian milieu in England, by mixing common formulaic expressions with sentences and invocations from the Meditatio ad concitandum timorem by Anselmo from Aosta, bishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109. At least two versions of the text have been documented since most ancient sources: 1) the Oratio sancti Bernardini confessoris, from a book of hours ad usum Sarum of about 1470; 2) the Oracio devota ad Christum, testified early in the Carthusian abbey of Sheen founded in 1441. They are the ones which had the largest and longest-lasting spread in Europe, and are both testified in the book of hours of the first half of the XV century, especially in France and in England. From the end of the XV century, instead, both versions definitely entered the printed editions, thus forming two separate traditions. The first printed edition of the Oratio sancti Bernardini confessoris is included in the editio princeps of the book of prayers Ortulus animae (1490), which depends on the book of hours. In 1533 it is included in the book of prayers Precandi formulae piae et selectae (1599: Precationes ex veteribus orthodoxis doctoribus), edited by the Lutheran theologian Andreas Musculus, who attributes it to Saint Bernard. The same textual version was included in the Flores fragrantissimi, published in 1611 by the Lutheran theologian Daniel Cramer. The important result is that this version of the pia oratio was appropriated by the Lutheran confession. The textual version number two seems to be the most faithful to the original version, and was largely spread in the book of hours. Its luck is especially linked to Paradisus animae christianae, a book of devotional exercises edited by the Catholic priest Iacobus Merlo Horstius whose editio princeps was published in 1630, with the general title of Oratio ad Iesum. In the Catholic milieu the collection of devotional prayers Paradisus animae christianae spreads widely and continuously during the XVI-XIX centuries. But the Jesuits were especially the ones who contributed to enhancing the practice of this prayer and included it as a habit in their books of devotional practices. Such a widespread and continuous presence proves to what extent these two versions of pia oratio were part of the devotional practices, but also explains the variety of authors the text was ascribed to: Saint Bernard of Chiaravalle (1090-1153), Saint Bernadine of Siena (1380-1444), Saint John of Capestrano (1386-1456), Bernardino de Busti (1450-1513), and St. Gertrude (abt. 1256.1302). They were incorrect attributions; however, the reason which might have pushed common religious people as well as theologians and writers, to point to precise authors are quite interesting. The Society of Jesus later interpreted this tradition and the Oratio ad Iesum, in the version preferred by the Catholics, almost became an emblem of the counter-reformation devotion. During the XV-XVII centuries, the text, in its two versions, has been intoned by several musicians: Josquin Desprez, Robert Fayrfax, Robert Carver, Cornelius Canis, Petit Jean De Latre, Ivo de Vento, Orlando di Lasso, Marc’Antonio Ingegneri, Philippe de Monte, Melchior Franck, Rodolfo di Lasso, Paolo Agostini, Alessandro Grandi, Richard Dering, Francesco Sammaruco, Claudio Monteverdi, Giovanni Felices Sances e Michelangelo Grancino. Heinrich Schütz intoned parts of both versions, the Lutheran one and the Catholic one, which is the most faithful to the original version of the text and the one which the composers prefer.