An intabulation for 2 vihuelas at the fifth of a setting of the Marian prayer “Obsecro te, domina” attributed by Valderrábano to Josquin.
At the top of the tablature on fol 57v the rubric reads “Vihuela mayor. El temple de esta vihuela mayor, es como la canción pasada / que es en quinta / esta dicha vihuela lleva un canto llano, el qual se conocerá en unos puntillos que están llegados (ligados?) a la cifra. Primer grado.” [The tuning of this vihuela is the same as the in the preceding song, that is at the fifth. This said vihuela carries the cantus firmus which can be recognised by the dots that are tied to the ciphers.] At the beginning of the part for the second vihuela on fol. 58 the rubric states: “Vihuela menor. Este motete se puso por estos términos altos / porque en otro estilo no suena tambien. Segundo grado.” [This motet has been in this high register because in any other style it will not sound as good.]
No vocal model survives for this work. The first four lines of the text are based on the “Obsecro te” prayer (to the word orphanarum). This prayer was a favorite during the later part of the Middle Ages and invariably appeared in Books of the Hours from the 15th century and onwards. Elders points out that the text, a paraphrase of the lengthy well-know prayer, appears related to a version found in the book of hours of Mary of Burgundy. Valderrábano’s text omits the words shown here in italics:
Obsecro te Domina sancta Maria mater Dei,
pietate plenissima, summi regis filia,
mater [dei] gloriossisima, mater orphanorum,
consolatio desolatorum,
quam filius tuus unigenitus [coronavit],
salva me, honorificentia populi mei.
Elders concludes on stylistic grounds that there is no stylistic or other consequential evidence to dispute Josquin’s authorship. The work is published as an “opus dubium” in vol. 24 of NJE, no 24.8 in a hypothetical reconstruction by Willem Mook.