Liturgical Hymns by Licenciado Francisco Pacheco. III. Hymns to Saint Isidorus and to Saints Iusta and Rufina

Abstract

Critical edition, translation into Spanish and study of six hymns (three to Saint Isidorus and three to Saints Iusta and Rufina) included in the breviary of saints of Seville (Officia propria Sanctorum Hispalen. Ecclesiae..., Seville 1591). Although there is considerable evidence to suggest that their author is licenciado Francisco Pacheco (1535-1599), there are no conclusive proofs. The critical edition offers the text published in 1591, during the life of the author. It also includes the modifications introduced in later editions, namely, tree new editions of Officia (Madrid 1659, Seville 1679 and Antwerp 1720), a new version published by Faustino Arévalo in his Hymnodia Hispanica (1786), who made minor lexical and metrical amendments, and an edition published by Ángel Galán y Domínguez in 1899. The paper makes three remarks: the hymns include phonic plays on words and some of Pacheco’s characteristic expressions; hymn II to Isidorus evidences Pacheco’s Neo-stoic ideas; finally, both Christian and pagan conceptions combine in the hymns in the same way as they do in the rest of his work. The analysis, therefore, offers a new evidence of Pacheco’s authorship.