Devotion to the Virgin of Sorrows arose in the Low Countries during a time of recovery from severe political crisis. Following the civil unrest sparked by the untimely death of Mary of Burgundy (d. 1482) and the decade-long uprising against her husband, Maximilian of Austria, her son and young heir, Philip the Fair, was charged with restoring unity to his fractured territories. Several leading members of Philip the Fair’s court collaborated to propagate the Seven Sorrows devotion, at that time only a small lay movement, offering it as a consolation for a troubled people. Relying on existing urban social networks, such as the chambers of rhetoric, as well as established civic ritual, Philip and his court promoted the devotion in hopes of restoring peace and unity to the Burgundian-Habsburg lands.
This dissertation explores the genesis of the devotion to the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin in the context of one of its most remarkable remnants, a music manuscript from the early sixteenth century. Brussels Bibliothèque Royale, MS 215-16 (B-Br 215-16) contains both plainchant and polyphony conceived or appropriated to celebrate the feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin. The first two chapters of this dissertation provide the historical background of the turmoil that precipitated Philip the Fair’s efforts to harness the Seven Sorrows devotion for the court’s political agenda. The third chapter focuses on the court’s most innovative initiative in propagating the devotion—a plainchant competition, which had as its objective the creation of new texts and music for the liturgy for the feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin. At the heart of the intersection between politics, ritual, and devotion, this plainchant competition was arguably inspired by the tradition of competition in the chambers of rhetoric.
The first full-length study to consider both the plainchant and polyphony of B-Br 215-16, the last two chapters examine the plainchant created for the feast of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin and the polyphonic masses and motets of B-Br 215-16. Chapter four confirms Peter Verhoeven as the winner of the text portion of the plainchant competition and demonstrates the modeling of his office on earlier Compassion offices. A comparison of musical settings of Verhoeven’s texts reveal three independent settings: the plainchant of B-Br 215-16, newly discovered plainchant in Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, MS 21123 as well as a setting in Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. Palatin. Vindobonensis 3787. An analysis of the polyphony of B-Br 215-16 in chapter five demonstrates that the figure of the Virgin of Sorrows was constructed through the use of liturgical and secular texts created or appropriated for the devotion.