"VICTIMAE PASCHALI." - Easter sequence set to a splendid Gregorian melody that brings into notable relief the animated dialogue about the risen Christ between Mary Magdalene and the community of the faithful, a dialogue that served as the starting point for the various medieval Easter liturgical dramas.

Originally it comprised nine stanzas; but since the reform of St. Pius V (1570) it has no more than eight, the fifth having been deleted because it recalled the unbelief of the Jews. In it rhyme and assonance are employed; this has led to the supposition that its author, Wipo (d. after 1046), poet and musician, chaplain to the emperors Conrad II and Henry III, was inspired by a pre-existing text.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: U. Chevalier, Repertorium hymnologicum, II, Louvain 1897, no. 21505 (see also supplement); H. Bresslau, Die Werke Wipos, 3rd ed., Leipzig 1915; J. Handschin, Gesungene Apologetik, in Miscellanea L. C. Mahlberg, II, Rome 1949, pp. 72-90; J. A. Jungmann, Missarum solenniae, Italian trans., Turin 1953, pp. 352-53.

A. Pietro Frutaz

@incollection{ec12_victimae_paschali, author = {Frutaz, Amato Pietro}, title = {Victimae Paschali}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {1387}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/victimae-paschali} }

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