« VICTIMAE PASCHALI ». - An Easter sequence clothed in a splendid Gregorian melody, which gives notable prominence to the impassioned dialogue concerning the Risen Christ between Mary Magdalene and the community of the faithful, a dialogue which provided the inspiration for the various medieval Easter liturgical dramas.
Originally it comprised nine stanzas; but since the reform of s. Pio V (1570) it has contained only eight, the fifth, which recalled the unbelief of the Jews, having been deleted. Rhyme and assonance are employed in it; this has led to the view that its author, Vipone (d. after 1046), poet and musician, chaplain to the emperors Corrado II and Enrico III, drew inspiration from a pre-existing text.
BIBL.: U. Chevalier, Repertorium hymnologicum, II, Lovanio 1897, no. 21505 (v. also supplement); H. Bresslau, Die Werke Wipos, 3rd ed., Lipsia 1915; J. Handschin, Gesungene Apologetik, in Miscellanea L. C. Mahlberg, II, Roma 1949, pp. 72-90; J. A. Jungmann, Missarum solenniae, Italian trans., Torino 1953, pp. 352-53. A. Pietro Frutaz