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Talk:Media vita in morte sumus

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This sentence makes no sense

[edit]

"Reference has been made to a source originating in a battle song of the year 912 by Notker the Stammerer, a monk of the Abbey of Saint Gall, however, the Synod of Cologne declared in 1316 that no one should sing this without the prior permission of the residing bishop." Maybe that's two different sentences jammed together incomprehensibly? The first clause has nothing to do with the second clause. Anyway, nobody knows the source of this hymn, and the attribution to Notker is late and unsupported. See J.M. Clark, The Abbey of St Gall as a Centre of Literature and Art (Cambridge, 1926), p. 191.--98.111.164.239 (talk) 04:05, 11 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

True. Found it quite unhelpful. Does someone know enough about the source to correct it? --Tojasonharris (talk) 07:53, 2 January 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I took the trouble to locate the article. First, the reference is comically incorrect. This is the correct bibliographical information:
Geo. A. Trevor. "Passage in the Burial Service." Notes and Queries 8.199 (August 20, 1853), 177-78.
I'm guessing this is the George Trevor (1809-1888) who was a preacher and author on Church matters. The brief article quotes opinions by authorities named Rambach, Mantene, Hoffmann, and Daniel. I do not know who these people are and don't have the free time to devote to identifying them. As the first person here supposed, two separate sentences have been jammed together incomprehensibly. Trevor's brief article does not establish the source of the line; it only repeats the attribution to Notker (on the authority of the aforementioned Hoffmann). Immediately thereafter, there is a paragraph by John Booker pointing out that "Vivendoque simul morimur" appears in Petrarch too (but this is obviously later than Hartmann von Aue, which strikes me, after a day's worth of research, as the earliest solid attestation). Booker was wise enough to articulate the possibility that more than one person thought of the idea independently. Here I'm guessing that it's the John Booker (1820-1895) who was likewise a preacher and author on Church matters. 98.115.255.240 (talk) 02:51, 8 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]