THE MANUSCRIPT OF LOIMIJOKI

The Loimijoki manuscript preserved in the Provincial Archives of Turku (Loimaan kirkonarkiston kirjaluettelo III d 1) consists of 130 folios. Besides the Lutheran gradual, it contains a Latin Hymnarium with approximately 60 melodies and 25 Sequences, and the Chorale part which is published here (fol. 110r-125v). In the 17th century the manuscript was the property of Johannes Salmenius, whose name is extant on its cover. After working as Director Cantus at the Cathedral school in Turku, he became Vicar of the parish of Kuopio in eastern Finland, and died there in the year 1683.

The Chorale part contains 78 hymns with 77 different melodies (no. 63 = no. 12). Under the majority of the melodies, the entire Swedish text of the first stanza has been written. Some of the chorales, however, only have the initial words of the text, and 14 chorales have no text added.

The collection of chorales can be divided into five sections. In particular, the first (1-14) and the fifth (53-78) consist primarily of chorales linked with the Swedish hymnal printed already in the year 1536, while the chorales of the second (15-33) and fourth (46-52) sections are related to those of later hymnals (1562, 1567, 1572). The latter section surprisingly contains mostly melodies from the Psalter of Burkardt Waldis (1553). The chorales of the third (34-45) and fifth (53-78) sections appear in the same order as in the hymnal of Valentin Babst (1545), but interrupted by the fourth section, and also show detailed similarities with the melodies of Babst's hymnal.

Of the 77 melodies of the Loimijoki manuscript, 63 are similar to the versions found in the 1624 Kangasala manuscript. However, the melodic lines may differ both from the 1624 Kangasala group and also from the hymnal of the Danish Bishop Hans Thomissøn (1569), which was very significant for both Sweden and Finland. 41 of the melodies appear in the oldest Swedish chorale manuscript, Olaus Ericis Sångbok (ca 1600). Ten of the 14 chorales without text mentioned above are melodies found in the Babst hymnal but not found in the Kangasala manuscript. Nor are these melodies to be found in the chorale collections printed in 1697 and 1702, in spite of the fact that both these collections contain more than 50 chorales from the Loimijoki manuscript. Four of the chorales without text, namely nos. 38, 44, 60 and 75, also appear in other manuscripts, but the following ten are uniquely in the Loimijoki manuscript and not in other Swedish or Finnish manuscripts.

This group of chorales without text is not known to have been in common use in Sweden in the 16^th and 17^th centuries.

The Credo melody without text (no. 78), which can be considered the final melody of the chorale part, resembles the versions printed in the year 1578 in Latin and Swedish. The Nicaean creed with its melody was favoured by King Johan III of Sweden, and also appears in subsequent years as an addition to hymnals, but later fell into disuse for several years in the early 17^th century. The text returns, however, for example in the Finnish hymnal of the year 1646, and the melody in the later printed collections (1697:5, 1702: 5).

The manuscript lacks a date of origin. The compiler and copier may be signified by the initials "P.S.A." on folios 5r-16v of the Tonarium included in the manuscript. The final initial may signify the word "Aboensis" (inhabitant of Turku). The watermark on the paper resembles those from the end of the 16th century, and a Finnish document from the year 1581 has been discovered which was written on paper of the same type. The Finnish hymn texts found at the front of the Chorale section originate either from the collection of Michael Agricola, or from the codex of Matthias Joannis Westh or from the collection of Jacobus Finno, i.e. from approximately the years 1540-83. The Loimijoki manuscript, like the Swedish hymnals of the late 16th century, lacks the polemical anti-popery hymn O Rom går thet nu så medh tigh (Rvomi röyckjä cuing kätes käy nyt) [O Rome, you will now be suffering]. This hymn returns, however, in all of the most important Swedish and Finnish chorale manuscripts from the 17th century (and is still found in 1697:236, 1702:240). On these grounds and on the grounds of the characteristics mentioned above, it can be presumed that the Loimijoki collection, or at least its model, has its origin as early as the period of the well-known Liturgical Quarrel, and so in the activities of King Johan III after the year 1575 (see Schalin I, 266-277, II, 15-47), and is thus chronologically earlier than the above-mentioned Swedish chorale manuscript of Olaus Erici.

More details in: Schalin I, 51-52 nr 106; Lagercrantz I, 38-42 nr 19.