In Hoc Anni Circulo

For Christmas

Words: Anonymous, a 12th Century Latin and Provenςal French Hymn from  a ms. in the Bibl. Nat. Paris (Lat., 1139, f. 48)

See also Verbum caro factum est, Ex virgine Maria, from Klemming, 1886, 5 verses, with additional translations.
And see In hoc anni circulo, from Hopkins, ed., Great Hymns of the Church Compiled by the Late Right Reverend John Freeman Young,  1887, 11 verses

Compare: See the Word Our Flesh Become (“Verbum caro factum est”)

Translations:
In The Ending Of The Year - Version 1 by John Mason Neale from Carols for Christmas-tide
In The Ending Of The Year -  Version 2 by John Mason Neale Alt. by George R. Woodward
In The Ending Of The Year - Version 3 by John Mason Neale, Medieval Hymns

Source: Édélestand Du Méril (1801-1871), Poésies inédites du Moyen Age (1854), note 6, pp. 337-338.

In hoc anni circulo,
Vita datur saeculo,
Nato Nobis parvulo
De virgine Maria.

Mei amic emei fiel,
Laisar estur lo ga zel
p.....det us e noel
De virgine Maria.

Fons de suo rivulo
Nascitur pro populo,
Necto mortis vinculo,
De virgine Maria.

Li us lom chimousab
Queu lol dirai ses ulgab
Mout nem issit abo chab
De virgine Maria.

Q(uod vetus)tas suffocat
H(oc a)d vitam revocat,
Nam se Deus collocat,
De virgine Maria.

So sabiat re .....
... com sen des esper
Deus i ven per nos maner
In te, virgo Maria.

Sine viri copula,
Florem dedit virgula
Qui manet in saecula,
De virgine Maria.

Nonper drai virginitat,
Tos temps aurai chasti tat
Sicum es pro feti zat;
Pois, virgo Maria.

Summi patri(s) filio
Datur in praesepio.
Sed volentes (l. volenti) mansio;
E virgine Maria.

Eu soi langels Gabriels,
Aporvos salut fiels;
Deus ... desus deu cel;
In te, virgo Maria.

Animal impositum
Veneratur agnitum
Huc infantem genitum
E virgine Maria.

Cum lareina l'enten
Sil respon tam piamen
Aco sia lauso talent
E virgine Maria.

O beata femina,
Cujus ventris sarcina
Mundi luit crimina;
E virgine Maria!

Cum lareina lauvit
Silamet esiu i auvit
Aco sia auso chausit;
In te, virgo Maria.

Illi laus et gloria,
Honor, virtus, gratia,
Decus et victoria!
E virgine Maria.

Tues mesat us alzei
Si cum tu odit ecrei
Alui medo emautrei,
Ego virgo Maria.

Ancela soi de ???? Deu, (?)
Sicum tuodit ecreeu ??
Maire serai damri Deu,
E pois, virgo Maria.

Li angels es deu cel veugut,
Eia domp na la creut,
Per tal nesmes erum but,
De virgine Maria.

Eu vos aidit monta lan
Evos duaf ena van
Cha ques vers nousab nos jan,
De virgine Maria.

Du Méril, "Poesies,", pp. 337-338 (1 version with 19 verses)

Mone, "Lateinische," pp. 65-66 (1 version with 12 verses)

Wackernagel, I (1864), pp. 163-165 (3 versions with 20, 12, and 11 verses, respectively).

 

Julian, Dict. of Hymnology (1907), p. 1216 (ii).

Verbum caro factum est, Ex virgine Maria. [Christmas.] This hymn exists in a great variety of texts. Leaving out of account the varieties of reading, which are very considerable, we may reckon at least five different forms. The two lines above are used in some cases as the introduction, and line 2 as the refrain.

i. The earliest form known is in a ms. in the Bibl. Nat. Paris (Lat., 1139, f. 48, in a hand of the 12th cent.), and thence in E. du Méril's Poésies inedites du Moyen Age, Paris, 1854, p. 337 [19 verses]. This form is partly in Latin and partly in Provenςal French. The Latin stanzas are:—
1. In hoc anni circulo.
2. Fons de suo rivulo.
3. Quod vetustas suffocat.
4. Sine viri copula
5. Summi patris filio.
6. Animal impositum.
7. O beata fetnina.
8. Illi laus et gloria.

ii. Mone, No. 50, prints it from a ms. of the 15th cent, in the town library at Trier. The stanzas there are 1, 2, 7, 8, and the following:—
9. Stella solem protulit.
10. Virgine de regia.
11. Inpraesepe ponitur.
12. O pastores currite.
13. Puer circumciditur.
14. Reges tres de gentibus.
15. Die hac sanctissima.
16. Ex divino flamine.

iii. Hoffmann von Fallersleben, 1861, No. 169, gives a German tr. (beginning "In des jares zirclikeit") from a Munich ms. of 1421. This has 15 stanzas, and represents 1, 2, 3, 9, 4, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 8, of the Latin, and also
17. Joseph natofruitur.
18. Ab angelis concinitur.
19. Aurum regi regnaturo.
20. O Jesu dulcissime.

iv. G. M. Dreves, in his Cantiones Bohemicae, 1886, p. 43, cites it as in two mss. now at Prag; the first being in the Bohemian Museum, and the second in the University Library. The first, written about 1420, has Stanzas 1, 3, 7, 10, 14, 19, 8, and also
21. Adam pomo vescitur.
22. Noe pro diluvio.
23. Serpens ille callidus.
24. O prompta humilitas.
25. Ergo nostra concio.

The second, written about 1510, has 1, 3, 21, 22, 23, 9, 13, 14, 19, 25, 8.

v. Mone, No. 387, has a form in 29 stanzas from mss. of the 15th cent, at Venice, and the same form is in a ms. in the Bibl. Nat., Paris (Fonds Italiens, No. 559, f. 107), also written in Italy in the 15th cent. In the Paris ms. it is given as by Jacobus de Benedictis. The text, as Mone prints it, has stanzas 1,3, 9, 2, 4, 7, 11, 17, 18, 14, 19, 12, 13, 24, 10, 20, 8, as above. The remaining 12 st. of this text need not here be noted.

vi. Wackernagel, 1841, No. 54, gives it from Leisen-tritt's G. B. (R. C), 1567. There it is in 14 St., viz. 1, 3, 21, 22, 23, 9, 4, 13, 7, 10, 11, 18, 17, 25.

From this summary it is pretty clear that No. i, is the original, and that Nos. ii. and iii. are forms which were current in Germany in the 14th cent. Stanzas 21-25 seem also to belong to the 14th cent. Stanza 25 might be attached to any hymn of the same metre, and is found in some forms of the "Puer natus" (p. 940, i.). The remaining 12 stanzas of No. v. were probably written in Italy. It may be added that ii. is also in Daniel, iv. p. 157 ; and vi. in Daniel, i. No. 477, and Neale's Hy. Eccl., 1851, p. 74. See also Wackernagel, i., Nos. 264-266. The text as in Daniel, i. No. 477, beginning In hoc anni circulo, was translated, omitting st. vii., x., xi., by Dr. Neale, in his Medieval Hymns, 1851, p. 106, as "In the ending of the Year." This was repeated in the 1867 ed. of the Hymnal Noted, and in The Office Hymn Book, 1889. [J. M.]

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