faroe

Act III of pentiment you destroyed me

the holy face of christ

miniature from an illustrated vita christi, a manuscript created in east anglia c. 1190-1200 and expanded with added devotional texts and illuminations in northern england c. 1480–90 (the image above belongs to this second cycle)

sálve sáncta fáciés nóstri rédemptóris, ín qua nítet spéciés divíni splendóris. impréssa pannículó níveá candóris, dátaqué Veroníce sígnum ób amóris.

Metrical form: The basic structure is one that a lot of medieval Latin songs have (or have variations on), which is rhyming couplets with:

/ u / u / u / / u / u / u

(The strong positions can be either primary or secondary stresses of the word.) Compare éstuáns intrínsecus / íra véheménti or the first parts of the stanzas in témpus tránsit gélidúm / múndus rénovátur, both from the carmina burana.

I notice that this writer accentuates some words differently than I/classical Latin would, which might be how they actually pronounce them or might be just metri causa. So Veronīcē and dīvīnus and impressa should all be accented on the penult, but this poem only scans if you accent them on the antepenult.

+au