Art and Music for First Vespers of the Most Holy Rosary

Just in time for First Vespers of the feast of the Most Holy Rosary, these paintings by an artist I had never heard of before showed up on a social media group about art that I belong to. They are the works of a late Gothic German painter who is traditionally referred to as the Master of the Polling Panels. (Polling is the name of the Bavarian town, about 33½ miles southwest of Munich, where they were originally displayed.) The article about them on German Wikipedia says that this artist has recently been identified as a painter from Munich named Hans Gleismüller, and this identification has generally been accepted; he was active ca. 1440-70. These four panels were most likely originally part of a shrine, which has long since been dismantled. The first panel, as you can see, gives the date 1444.

The Annunciation

The Birth of Christ

The Adoration of the Magi

The Presentation in the Temple

In the Office of the Most Holy Rosary, the hymn for First Vespers has five proper stanzas (plus the standard doxology for feasts of the Virgin), each of which is about one of the Joyful Mysteries. The hymn for Matins covers the Sorrowful Mysteries, and the hymns for Lauds the Glorious Mysteries, while the hymn for Second Vespers summarizes all fifteen. The first three were written by an Italian Dominican friar named Augustine Thomas Ricchini (1695-1779), and the fourth by his confrere Eustachio Sirena; the English translation given here is by Alan McDougall (1895-1964).

Caelestis aulae Nuntius, arcana pandens Numinis, plenam salutat gratia Dei Parentem Virginem.	The Messenger from God’s high throne his secret counsel making known hails Mary, child of David’s race, God’s Virgin Mother, full of grace.
Virgo propinquam sanguine matrem Ioannis visitat, qui, clausus alvo, gestiens adesse Christum nuntiat.	The Mother Maid with joyous feet her friend, John’s mother, goes to greet; he, stirring in the enclosing womb, declares that Christ his Lord has come.
Verbum, quod ante saecula e mente Patris prodiit, e Matris alvo Virginis, mortalis Infans nascitur.	The Word, who ere the worlds began, from God the Father’s thought forth ran, of Mary, Virgin undefiled, for us is born a mortal child.
Templo puellus sistitur, Legique paret Legifer, hic se Redemptor paupere pretio redemptus immolat.	Christ to the Temple courts they bring; the King’s own law subjects the King; the world’s Redeemer for a price is there redeemed, our sacrifice..
Quem iam dolebat perditum, mox laeta Mater invenit ignota doctis mentibus edisserentem Filium.	The joyful Mother finds once more the Son she mourned as lost before; while doctors by His speech were shown the mysteries they had never known.
Jesu, tibi sit gloria, qui natus es de Virgine, cum Patre, et almo Spiritu, in sempiterna saecula. Amen.	All honor laud, and glory be, o Jesu Virgin-born, to Thee; all glory, as is ever meet, to Father and to Paraclete. Amen.