Latin Hymn for the Nativity
In Nativitate Domini

Author: Medieval Latin

Source: Guido Maria Dreves and Clemens Blume, Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi. Vol. 45b. (Leipzig: O. R. Reisland, 1904), #162, p. 131.

1. Ecce, novum gaudium,
Ecce, novum mirum!
Virgo parit filium,
Quae non novit virum,
Sed ut pirus pirum,
Gleba fert papyrum,
Florens lilium.
Ecce, quod natura
Mutat sua iura!
Virgo parit pura
Dei filium.

2. Mundum Deus flebilem
Cernens in ruina,
Rosam delectabilem
Produxit de spina,
Natum de regina,
Qui est medicina,
Salus gentium.
Ecce, quod natura
Mutat sua iura!
Virgo parit pura
Dei filium.

3. Nequivit divinitas
Plus humiliari,
Nec nostra carnalitas
Magis exaltari,
Deo coaequari,
Caelo collocari
Per coniugium.
Ecce, quod natura
Mutat sua iura!
Virgo parit pura
Dei filium.

Note from Dreves & Blume:

Piae Cantiones 1582 fol. B 8a. (Klemming II, 12 sq. als: “Hymnus”.)

Editor's Note:

One free translation is Here Is Joy For Every Age by the Rev. John Mason Neale in Carols for Christmas-tide, 1853, from Piae Cantiones, 1582.

This hymn also occurs in G. E. Klemming, Piae Cantiones. S. Trinitas. Iesus Christus. S. Spiritus. S. Maria.; Collectionum Nostri Aevi Supplementum e. Fontibus Sveticis Depromtum (Norstedt, Typographie Regii, 1886), pp. 22-3. Klemming is a primary source for many scholars, including Dreves, Woodward and others. This volume is available at Google Books.

Other sources of the Latin hymns found in Piae Cantiones:

• Guido Maria Dreves and Clemens Blume, eds., Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi, Vol. 1.  Cantiones Bohemicae. (Leipzig: O. R. Reisland, 1886).

• Guido Maria Dreves and Clemens Blume, eds., Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi, Vol. 45b. Cantiones et Motetten des Mittelalters. (Leipzig: O. R. Reisland, 1904).

• George Ratcliffe Woodward, Piae Cantiones: A Collection of Church & School Song, chiefly Ancient Swedish, originally published in A.D. 1582 by Theodoric Petri of Hyland. (London: Chiswick Press for the Plainsong & Medieval Music Society, 1910).

• Sheet music for some hymns can be found in George Ratcliffe Woodward, The Cowley Carol Book, First & Second Series. Table Of Contents. (London: A. R. Mowbray & Co., Ltd., ca. 1902, 1912).

• Translations of some carols can be found in John Mason Neale and Thomas Helmore, eds., Carols for Christmas-tide (London: Novello, 1853). By the same authors was Carols for Easter-tide (1854).

• Translations and sheet music for some hymns can be found in Charles L. Hutchins, ed., Carols Old and Carols New (Boston: Parish Choir, 1916).

• Scans of individual pages from Piæ Cantiones (in the Adobe PDF format) can be downloaded from Facsimiles Piae Cantiones (http://www.spielleut.de/facs_piae_cantiones.htm; accessed June 15, 2009).