Laudes are the prayers sung at dawn during the monastic Office of the Hours and are linked to the genesis of the Laudes creaturarum of St. Francis (1182-1226), poems that have come down to us without musical notation in the Codice 338 of Assisi. Only poetic texts are available for the period preceding the establishment of the laudesi. It is the oldest known collection of songs in the Italian vernacular, and is the only such source for the entire 13th century.