A Brief History of the Rosary

The first documented mysteries to be associated with the Marian Psalter (150 aves) was in about 1275 and the mysteries were three in number: Annunciation, Nativity, Assumption. Additional mysteries then developed--all joyously themed. These mysteries are mostly found in the modern non-sorrowful mysteries, but there were others like the adoration of the Magi or more heavenly Marian ideas, like her being given the role of Illuminatrix, or having her wishes united to Christ's and answered by Christ (ie her role as Mediatrix), or her eternal joy.

The next development was the addition of the Pater Nosters in the 1400s. I forget the name of the person who spread this, but he suggested meditating on the Passion of Christ on the Paters. This is when roses became more formally associated with the Marian Psalter--he said the prayers were like Roses sent to the Blessed Mother, Aves were white roses and the Paters (with Passion meditations) were red roses. The Sorrowful meditations were pretty much identical to the Sorrowful mysteries now in most versions of the Psalter back then, but one less popular version had more Marian-themed sorrows (similar to the seven Dolors we recognize today). The number of mysteries still varied though. Some had more general themes, rather than specific mysteries (ie "heavenly joys of Mary"), some versions had ten total mysteries, some had sets of seven (not sure how that worked), one had ninteen (I can see how these odd ones didn't stick as long...), etc..

This was also when the Psalter began to be reduced to only 50 Aves per day in many areas. The Vita Christi Rosary spread by Dominic of Prussia (50 Aves, but with 50 mysteries on the life of Christ; although supposedly he had a 150 mystery version too) became the most popular (more on its origins below). Interestingly enough, some condemned this as destroying the Psalter. This is when Bl. Alan de Rupe wrote his work on the Marian Psalterin order to return to the more authentic version as he saw it. He supported only praying the 150 a day and refused to call it the Rosary and forbade others from calling it that too, since he saw what was called the Rosary at the time (the fifty per day) as a corruption of the Psalter. His mysteries had three groups, they were general and not specificly [sic] listed except for the last group. His general themes were: Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection (which included the Resurrection, Ascension, Holy Spirit's descent, Glorification of Christ, Final Judgment). The Dominic of Prussia Vita Christi Rosary and Bl. Alan de Rupe's version were the most popular and seemed to morph into generally what we have today (with a few changes to the mysteries here and there) as people embraced parts of each (50 Aves per day, with five set mysteries for each day).

So, where does St. Dominic's experience fit in? It is also around this time that St. Dominic's experience is first mentioned (or at least of where the earliest evidence of it is). Bl. Alan says the Blessed Virgin appeared to himself and told him (Alan) to pray according to the method she said taught St. Dominic, which she said consisted of meditiating on "the life and passion" of her Son (no specifics on the mysteries are mentioned). The reference to "life and passion" makes it sound like the Vita Christi method, but Bl. Alan on the other hand didn't seem to take it that way. On the other hand, a prominant [sic] handbook of the same period which listed various methods (the Ulm handbook), the method listed as the "method of St. Dominic" is the a variation on the Vita Christi rather then the de Rupe method. This book also contains a picture of the Rosary very similar to what became the more uniform version, with only the last mystery different (judgment rather than coronation). So its tought [sic] to say what St. Dominic's method really was, other than it doesn't seem to be what we have today--it seems it's either Bl. Alan's method or the Vita Christi method.

This bring us to the 16th century. At this time, while what we all think of as the Rosary was the most common (including the shift to the Coronation as the final mystery beginning to take hold), there was still a lot of variation into the 17th century [....] However, it was in the 17th and 18th centuries in response to the Reformation that Rome began issuing a lot of legislative documents regulating and promoting Marian devotions, etc.--which, like the liturgy, led to more uniformity. 

---

Source: SaintSebastian, October 26, 2012 (12:49 p.m.), comment on Poche, "Mysteries of the Rosary," Fish Eaters Traditional Catholic Forum, October 26, 2012, accessed July 18, 2015, http://www.fisheaters.com/forums/index.php?topic=3454491.msg33819436#msg33819436.