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Piae Cantiones
The tune for "Gentle Mary Laid Her Child" came from Piae Cantiones. Piae Cantiones ecclesiasticae et scholasticae veterum episcoporum ("Devout ecclesiastical and scholastic songs of the old bishops") is a Finnish collection of Medieval Latin songs that was published in 1582, originally intended for pupils of the Cathedral School in Rostock, Finland.
Singing was a very important subject in the Finnish schools of the Middle Ages. Pupils were brought up as servants of the Church and were responsible for much of the church singing. Piae Cantiones is considered one of Finland's greatest musical treasures, giving them a link with the European cultural centers of the Middle Ages.
The original version of Piae Cantiones contained seventy-four songs. It was edited by Jaakko Finne, the rector of the Turku Cathedral School and was published by Theodoricus Petri Rutha, from Nyland Finland. About half of the songs are believed to be of Finnish origin.
In 1853 John Mason Neale translated some of the carols and hymns from Piae Cantiones. He and Thomas Helmore published twelve carols in Carols for Christmas-tide (with music from Piae Cantiones). In 1854 they published twelve more in Carols for Easter-tide.
After these original publications, several more editions of Piae Cantiones were printed. The first English edition was published in 1910 with the hefty title Piae Cantiones: A Collection of Church: School Song, Chiefly Ancient Swedish, Originally published in A.D. 1582 by Theodoric Petri of Nyland, London.