Nuper rosarum flores
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Nuper Rosarum Flores or Flowers of Roses/ The Rose Blossoms, is an isorhythmic motet composed in 1436 by Guillaume Dufay, to be performed at the consecration of the new Florence cathedral on the occasion of the completion of the dome designed by Filippo Brunelleschi. Pope Eugene IV presided at this ceremony, which was by all accounts a notably grand occasion. The motet is striking for its synthesis of both the older isorhythmic style and the new contrapuntal style to be developed in the coming decades by Dufay himself as well as his successors. The title of the piece stems from the actual cathedral itself, which was named Santa Maria del Fiore, or St. Mary of the Flower.
At one time scholars believed that the proportional structure of the motet mimicked the proportions of the building itself. However, Craig Wright, in his article Dufay's "Nuper rosarum flores," King Solomon's Temple, and the Veneration of the Virgin, presents a compelling argument that Dufay's motet does not do so. Charles Warren, the author of the original article Brunelleschi's Dome and Dufay's Motet and main proponent of that view, has admitted that Craig Wright proves that the motet does not mimic the cathedral.
[edit] Poem
Nuper rosarum flores
Ex dono pontificis
Hieme licet horrida
Tibi, virgo coelica,
Pie et sancte deditum
Grandis templum machinae
Condecorarunt perpetim.
Hodie vicarius
Jesu Christe et Petri
Successor Eugenius
Hoc idem amplissimum
Sacris templum manibus
Sanctisque liquoribus
Consecrare dignatus est.
Igitur, alma parens
Nati tui et filia
Virgo decus virginum,
Tuus te Florentiae
Devotus erat populus,
Ut qui mente et corpore
Mundo quicquam exorarit.
Oratione tua
Cruciatus et meritis
Tui secundum carnem
Nati Domini sui
Grata beneficia
Veniamque reatum
Accipere meraeatur. Amen.
(Cantus firmus) Terribilis est locus iste.
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