Singing was an important subject in Finnish schools in the Middle Ages. Pupils were brought up as servants of the Church and they were also responsible for much of the singing in church. One source stated that the work's ties with the grammar school in Vyborg (Viipuri) are very clear We would know hardly anything of these songs, had not a printed edition dated 1582 been preserved: Piae Cantiones ecclesiasticae et scholasticae veterum episcoporum ("Devout ecclesiastical and scholastic songs of the old bishops"). This collection of medieval Latin songs was intended for the pupils of the Cathedral School. The rector of the Turku Cathedral School, Jaakko Finne (or Jaakko Suomalainen) edited the first edition consisting of 74 songs and a Finnish student, Theodoricus Petri Rutha (who is known by many names and who was from Nyland, Finland), published  it in Greifswald, Sweden. At the time, Rutha was a student at Rostock, Germany, near Lubeck. About half of the songs are believed to be of Finnish origin, as they have not been found in other sources.

According to the Oxford Book of Carols, "The songs spread in the reformed Church of Sweden and Finland, and were still sung in Swedish schools in 1700, and in Finland late in the nineteenth century."

It is considered remarkable by some that Piae Cantiones was compiled and edited by a Swedish Lutheran pastor, and published by a Finnish Catholic student. This type of interdenominational cooperation was rare in those days of violent sectarian strife.

The Finnish edition of the songs dating from 1616 under the title Wanhain Suomenmaan Pijspain is among the earliest Finnish poetry. The Finns Henricus Fattbuur and Mathias Tolia published the second Latin edition (90 songs) in Rostock, Germany, in 1625, under the original name.

In 1853, G. J. R. Gordon, Her Majesty’s Envoy and Minister at Stockholm, gave a rare copy of the 1582 edition of Piae Cantiones to the Rev. John Mason Neale (Warden of Sackville College, East Grinstead, Sussex) and the Rev. Thomas Helmore (vice-Principal of St. Mark’s College, Chelsea). The book was entirely unknown in England at that time. Neale translated some of the carols and hymns, and in 1853, he and Helmore published 12 carols in Carols for Christmas-tide (with music from Piae Cantiones). In 1854, they published 12 more in Carols for Easter-tide. That copy of Piae Cantiones is now said to be in the British Museum.

Later several editions of Piae Cantiones were printed. The first English edition, with scholarly commentary by George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848-1934), was published in 1910 (Piae Cantiones : A Collection of Church & School Song, Chiefly Ancient Swedish, Originally published is A.D. 1582 by Theodoric Petri of Nyland. London: Plainsong & Medieval Music Society, 1910). Concerning this volume, it has been observed:

Collection of sacred and student songs in Latin for 1-4 voices. This edition uses mensural notation, but the editor has transposed all songs into treble or bass clef. In addition, the text is given in a modern font and has been arranged under the staff so that it is easier to follow.

Woodward also translated and "retexted" (e.g., wrote new lyrics) for some of the carols and hymns. Woodward also edited numerous other books of carols, including Carols for Christmastide (1892), Carols for Easter and Ascensiontide (1894), The Cambridge Carol Book, The Italian Carol Book, and the Cowley Carol Book (1901, 1902, 1919).

A facsimile edition of Piae Cantiones has been printed as Piae Cantiones: Ecclesiasticae et Scholasticae Veterum Episcoporum. Helsinki: Edition Fazer, 1967.

The Piae Cantiones collection of medieval songs from several European countries was one of Finland’s greatest musical treasures, forming a link to the European cultural centers of the Middle Ages.

Other medieval collections of hymns at that time include The Cloister Book (Denmark, c. 1450) and Thomissøn's Hymn Book (Denmark, 1569). Thomissøn's Hymn Book and the Piae Cantiones were published after the Reformation, but both of them contain many examples of music deeply rooted in the Middle Ages. In some cases the songs have been transmitted virtually unaltered down through the centuries (for example the Latin Christmas sequence "Psallat fidelis", which appears both in the Cloister Book and the Piae Cantiones). In other cases new texts have been written for the old popular melodies that people knew and loved, and several songs are found in both Swedish and Danish versions (for example the famous carol "In dulci jubilo").

Sources:

• Virtual Finland

• Ian Bradley, The Penguin Book of Carols (London, Penguin Books, 1999)

• Kirsti S. Thomas and Esther Mendes, A Singer's Guide to Bibliographic Resources for Medieval and Renaissance Music

• Percy Dearmer, R. Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw, The Oxford Book of Carols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1928)

• Eric Routley, The English Carol (New York: Oxford University Press, 1959)

• Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrott, The New Oxford Book of Carols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992)

• William Studwell and Dorothy Jones, Publishing Glad Tidings (New York: The Haworth Press, 1998)