The title on the score is De dedicatione Templi but on this page it is Locus iste. Is this intentional? Secondly, does anyone know the source of the first three lines of text? --Bobnottstalk 12:16, 25 April 2010 (UTC)
This motet is a Gradual for the feast of the Dedication of a Church (De dedicatione Templi). The text is from Gen 28:17. "Terribilis est locus iste" translates, loosely, as "Awesome (or Holy) is this place". The present work is also titled "Terribilis est locus iste" in the Blasius Ammon collection Liber sacratissimarum ... cantionum ... (1582) where it is the final work (Nr. 41). The following similar text is extracted from SS Gregorius I Magnus - Liber Antiphonarius... :
Dedicatio basilicae Sanctae Mariae. [0688B]
Antiph. Terribilis est locus iste; hic domus Dei est, et porta coeli, et vocabitur aula Dei, alleluia.
Psal. Dominus regnavit decorem.
Resp. Lucus iste a Deo factus est inaesimabile sacramentum, irreprehesibilis est.