This edition reflects the text transmitted in Librone 1, ff. 84v–85r, where it was written by Scribe B, like all other motets of this cycle.
The text was copied very carefully and there are no variant readings or mistakes. Phonetically the text presents all typical phenomena of medieval Latin (c for t, u for v, e for ae and so on).
The devotion to Mary is the topic of this motet and of the whole cycle, whose textual material was drawn from two sequences. For this motet Gaffurius used verses 1 to 4 of the Marian sequence Salve mater salvatoris ascribed to Adam of Saint-Victor (AH 54, no. 245, pp. 383–86). In the first two verses of the motet Mary is compared to a beautiful vase (‘Vas electum, vas honoris, / Vas caelestis gratiae’; ‘vas provisum, / Vas insigne, vas excisum’) since she was selected to be the vessel for God’s incarnation. These verses correspond thematically to the image of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. In verses 3 and 4 the floral metaphor in which Mary is compared to a rose without thorn (‘Flos de spina, spina carens’) leads to reflection on the situation of sinners, who, in contrast to Mary, are indeed tortured by the thorn of sin (‘nos peccati / Spina sumus cruentati’). The rhythmic verse structure of the sequence corresponds to 8p/8p/7pp and thus results in a strong trochaic rhythmic movement.
The sequence was extremely widespread and was popular particularly in France and the German-speaking regions. Some Italian manuscripts that transmit this sequence attest that the piece was appreciated in Italy as well.^[1]

^[1] See Eva Ferro, ‘“Old Texts for New Music”? Textual and Philological Observations on the Cycles “Salve Mater Salvatoris” and “Ave Domine Iesu Christe” from Librone 1’, in Motet Cycles between Devotion and Liturgy, ed. Daniele V. Filippi and Agnese Pavanello, Schola Cantorum Basiliensis Scripta 7 (Basel: Schwabe, 2019), 189–218, at 200.