Come down to us here for a little while. A study of space and place in the adapted hymns of Prudentius in London, British Library, MS Add. 30851.

Abstract

This study explores the adaptations of hymns from Prudentius’ Peristephanon found in an eleventh-century Iberian liber hymnorum (London, British Library, Add. MS 30851). While earlier research has often viewed these liturgical modifications simply as pragmatic shortenings of Prudentius’ lengthy compositions, this investigation seeks to uncover the underlying editorial logic guiding these adaptations. Through the framework of hymnodic cartography, the adapted hymns are approached from three interrelated perspectives: as a material object, as a carrier of conceptual meaning, and as a text shaped by and directed towards its intended audiences. The study ultimately argues that spatial thinking played a key role in how liturgists, composers, and hymnographers reshaped the original hymns and their meanings to suit new liturgical contexts. The hymns of Prudentius were living texts, which were continuously reimagined in the centuries after their original composition to reflect and shape the spatial and devotional realities of their time.