PRIME, WILLIAM C. (EDITED BY)
O Mother Dear Jerusalem! the Old Hymn, It's Origin and Genealogy
New York, NY: Anson D. F. Randolph, 1865. 3rd Edition; 1st Printing. Hardcover. This book is in Very Good+ condition and is lacking a dust jacket. The book and its contents are in generally clean, bright condition. The spine ends and corners of the book covers have some light bumping and rubbing. There are several small nicks and tears, along with some fraying to the spine ends and corners as well. The text pages are clean and bright. There is a previous owner's bookplate on the front pastedown page, along with rubbing and an ink stamp mark to the front endpaper. "Prime continued practicing law until 1861, when he became part owner and editor-in-chief of the New York Journal of Commerce. In 1869 he gave up his editorial work and revisited Egypt and the Holy Land. It was at his insistence that Princeton established a department of art history, to which he donated his extensive collection of ceramic art. In 1884, the Trustees of the College elected Prime as the department's first chair. His interest in art matters brought him into close connection with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, of which he was elected first vice-president in 1874." "The English hymn “O mother, dear Jerusalem” and its relatives and variants come from a Latin text, “Mater Hierusalem, civitas sancta Dei, ” otherwise known as Chapter XXV in the spuriously named Meditations of St. Augustine. The texts in that collection are not by Augustine. The Meditations have their roots in an 11th century collection held at the Bibliothèques-Médiathèques (Bibliothèque municipale) de Metz, MS 245, a codex formerly belonging to the Monastery of St. Arnulf in Metz (Abbaye de Saint-Arnould de Metz). The text “Mater Hierusalem, ” etc, is found on folios 68v–71r. This MS does not contain the name of Augustine; rather, it was signed by Johannes, who is almost certainly Jean, the abbot of Fécamp (ca. 990–1078). The work was intended for Agnes, widow of Henry III of Germany. It can be divided into two parts, the first of which was copied and transmitted under the name Liber Supputationum, and attributed to Augustine by the end of the 12th century. The second part became known as the Confessio Theologica. By the end of the 14th century, the Liber Supputationum was combined with works attributed to Anselm of Canterbury (ca. 1033–1109) and was renamed the Meditationes Divi Augustini Episcopi Hipponensis. One useful English translation can be found in The Meditations, Soliloquia, and Manuall of the Glorious Doctour S. Augustine (1631)." (From Hymnology Archive). Very Good+ .
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Keywords: Poetry William C. Prime Hymns Jerusalem The Middle East St. Augustine