L’inno Te decet laus in un salterio olivetano del XV secolo proveniente da Łódź, in Polonia
Hymn Te decet laus in a 15th-Century Olivet Psalter From Łódź (Poland)

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the issue of the melodic tradition of one of the oldest ancient Christian hymns: Te decet laus, recorded in an Olivetan manuscript psalter of Italian provenance stored in the Museum of the Archdiocese of Łódź in Łódź (Poland). The author gives a brief overview of the work’s genesis, defines its formal structure and classifies it – in the light of Michel Huglo's typology – as a classical type of Gregorian melody. Written in prose form and having the character of a great doxology, the text of the hymn preserves the original prepositional conjunctions (‘cum Spiritu’) in the Olivetan transmission. A distinguishing feature of the Olivetan melody in relation to the other messages consulted is the more elaborate melisma on the word laus. The classical character of the hymn's melody is indicated, among other things, by its intonation almost unprecedented in ancient Roman chants. The most likely archetype of the melody in the Lodz codex was the Olivetan psalter from Modena, with which the Łódź version is almost identical.

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