# Cantus de beata virgine quae de ea in sabbatis agitur officium in conventu.



## clomu

This is a heading to a hymn 'Ave Maris Stella' from an old hymnal.
"A song for the blessed virgin ... appropriate for Saturdays"? Not sure.


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## exgerman

Can you triple-check your text? The sentence seems very odd:

_A song about the blessed Virgin who has a ritual performed about her on Saturdays by the entire community._

I'm very dubious about this.


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## exgerman

OK did some digging. Per Wikisource, channeling a Dictionary of Hymnology from 1907: 





> In the _Roman Breviary_ [Ave Maris Stella] is the Hymn for 1st and 2nd vespers in the Feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary; also in the* Office of the B. V. M. on Saturdays*, and in the Little Office, _Officium parvum Beatae Mariae Virginis_, at 1st vespers, there being no 2nd vespers in these two latter cases.



So it's _A song of the blessed Virgin_ [_when]_ _her Office is celebrated on Saturdays_.

I have no idea how_ quae _can be parsed so as to make sense.


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## clomu

Thank you.  That makes sense.  Why did 'entire community' go away?


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## exgerman

clomu said:


> Why did 'entire community' go away?



Because I'm not 100% sure about what is meant by conventu.  Common meanings are ecclesiastical convention, religious community, convent, monastery.

_Entire community_ was a guess. I was thinking that the only reason to add conventu was to emphasize some sort of group effort.  It could just mean_ in the monastery._


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## bearded

Hi
I surmise that _quae de ea _is a medieval ungrammatical expression instead of _de qua/cuius _(relative), and I agree with _in conventu = _in the monastery.
That text in late Latin strongly reminds me of Romance usages, e.g. in Italian 'in the monastery' = _in convento._


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## clomu

Great.  Thank you.


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## A User

exgerman said:


> Because I'm not 100% sure about what is meant by conventu. Common meanings are convent, monastery.


Monastery and convent.
In English usage since about the 19th century the term "convent" almost invariably refers to a community of women, while "monastery" and "friary" are used for men. In historical usage they are often interchangeable, with "convent" especially likely to be used for a friary. When applied to religious houses in Eastern Orthodoxy and Buddhism, English refers to all houses of male religious as "monasteries" and of female religious "convents".

"Monastero" non è sinonimo di "convento". Quest'ultimo termine venne introdotto con l'avvento degli Ordini mendicanti, i cui membri sono chiamati "frati" e "suore".
Il convento è perciò una struttura successiva rispetto alle antiche abbazie medievali.


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