Mickleham, July 2. 1850.
* * * * *
"DIES IRÆ, DIES ILLA."
In reply to the first of Mr. SIMPSON's Queries (Vol. ii., p. 72.)
relative to the magnificent sequence _Dies iræ_, I beg to say that the
author of it is utterly unknown. The following references may be
sufficient:--Card. Bona, _Rer. Liturgic._ lib. ii. cap. vi. p. 336.,
Romæ, 1671; or, if possible, Sala's edition, tom. iii. p 143., Aug.
Turin. 1753; Gavantus, tom. i. pp. 274-5., Lugd. 1664; and the
_Additions_ by Merati, i. 117-18., Aug. Vindel, 1740; Zaccaria,
_Biblioth. Ritual._ tom. i. p. 34., Romæ, 1776; Oldoini Addit. ad
Ciaconii _Vit. Pontiff. et Cardd._, tom. ii. col. 222., Romæ, 1677.
Mr. SIMPSON's second question is, "In what book was it first printed?"
Joannes de Palentia, in his notes upon the _Ordinarium PP. Præd._,
asserts that this celebrated prose was first introduced into the Venice
editions of the Missals printed for the Dominicans. The oldest _Missale
Prædicatorum_ which I possess, or have an opportunity of seeing, is a
copy of the Parisian impression of the year 1519; and herein the _Dies
iræ_ is inserted in the _Commemoratio Defunctorum_; mens. Novemb. sig.
M. 5.
An inquiry remains as to the date of the general adoption of this
sequence by the Roman Church. In Quetif and Echard (_Scriptt. Ord.
Præd._ i. 437.), under the name of Latinus Malabranca, we read that it
certainly was not in use in the year 1255; and there does not appear to
be the slightest evidence of its admission, even upon private authority,
into the office for the dead anterior to the commencement of the
fifteenth century.
Your correspondent was not mistaken in his belief that he had met with
an imperfect transcript of this prose, for the original consists not of
"twenty-seven," but of _fifty-seven_ lines. I may add that I do not
remember to have found the text more correctly given than in the
beautiful folio missal of the church of Augsburg, partly printed on
vellum in 1555 (fol. 466. b.).