Ave MARIA: Wreaths of flowers and prayer beads in the Miracles of Our Lady by Gautier de Coincy

Examining the rise of the Psalter of the Virgin-the recitation of 150 Hail Marys counted on a rosary-in the course of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, this article reminds us that this practice has its origins in two earlier devotions: the offering of wreaths of flowers and repetitive prayer. Following a survey of the allusions to the Psalter of the Virgin in the Miracles of Our Lady by Gautier de Coincy, the hypothesis is formulated that the miracle I Mir 23, featuring the devotion of the Corona gloriosae virginis Mariae, undertook for the first time in the Roman language the synthesis of the numerical and floral symbolism at the origin of the Psalter by erecting the name of Mary in a symbolic rosary. Put in perspective with similar lettrist practices in Adgar and Guillaume de Digulleville, miracle I Mir 23 seems to be the earliest indication in the vernacular of the formalization and ongoing dissemination of the Psalter of the Virgin.