Nocturnale Monasticum: Review

I noted a few days back that a new Nocturnale Monasticum has been released, so thought it might be useful to provide a short review of it.

What it is

The Nocturnale is a joint a joint project of Le Barroux and La Garde monasteries, and essentially provides the sections of the 1963 Monastic Breviary that relate to the Night Office (Matins).

There are two versions - Latin only (one volume), or Latin-French (three volumes).  I'm going to look at the Latin only volume here.

Is it for you?

Before I look at the book itself, let me just say a few things about who its target audience is.

This tome is a wonderful gift to monastic communities who use the 1962 Office and Mass, as well as those who want to say the full Benedictine Office in Latin, since the corresponding two volume breviary is long out of print, extremely difficult to get hold of, and very very expensive when you do find a copy.

For laypeople who use the breviary though, keep in mind that Benedictine Matins is extremely long (depending on the day and season, and whether you say or sing it, it can amount to around the same amount of time again as all the day hours combined, or even more).  So unless you have a lot of spare time, stick to the Diurnal!

Secondly, keep in mind also that it is entirely in Latin.  But if you really do want to tackle Matins, there are other resources around which could help support you using it, such as:

• the Latin-English  Matins Psalter published by Clear Creek; 
• English translations of many of the Patristic readings; and 
• Divinum Officium.
  

Thirdly, and most importantly from my perspective, this book is not, alas, the equivalent of the Antiphonale Monasticum, in that it provides the texts only (aside from an appendix with Te Deum, Te Decet Laus and final blessings).

Contents

The Nocturnale is divided into four sections: Ordinary, Temporale, Psalter, Commons, Sanctorale and Matins of the Dead.

The material is essentially identical to that contained in the 1963 breviary save for some (sensible) reordering of the material, and use of the calendar specific to the Le Barroux group of monasteries.

As Le Barroux includes all of the feasts of the Benedictine General Calendar, as well as quite a few Roman ones as well as some local feasts, the sanctorale is quite rich, including, for example, a few important feasts often now added back by monasteries such as the Most Holy Name of Jesus (Jan 2/Sunday between Circumcision and Epiphany), Finding of Holy Cross (3 May) and Most Precious Blood (1 July).

In a few cases it makes particular choices among options about feasts, but few will quibble with them: St Agnes, for example is Class II, although in the General Calendar it is listed as Class III for monasteries of men; and May 1 is the Solemnity of St Joseph rather than St Joseph the Worker!

Layout and presentation

The print size and layout of the text is, in my view, excellent.  The print size isn't quite as large as Psautier Monastique, but the difference is small, and the type face contrasts well with the yellow colour of the page, working well for my poor eyes!

There are also some sensible reorganisations of the material designed to reduce the number of page turns, such as providing a summary listing of all the Invitatories for days, seasons and Commons in the Ordinary upfront, including some of the texts for Our Lady on Saturday in the psalter section, and moving the canticles for throughout the year to the fromt of the Sunday Nocturn II section. 

Although there is no rubrics section, so you will need to work your way through the notes on the Learn Matins blog, and use an Ordo in conjunction with it, there are clear and useful rubrical prompts throughout.

Physical presentation

The book is well bound, and looks like it will stand up to being propped open on a stand well.

The pages look quite tough, so should stand up better than my poor rather battered breviary!

It is slightly larger than the Antiphonale Monasticum, measuring about 22cm*15cm*5.5cm, and comes in at 1236 pages (compared to around 1289).

But it is significantly heavier, at 1.5 kgs, so will be hard to hold for an hour or two through Matins.

I really hope they will consider printing the psalter section in a separate volume at some point in the near future, as I think as it stands, it would be more practical to use it for the readings only, and use a separate psalter book, which is a shame as the layout is very nice.

It doesn't contain any ribbons though.

A plea for English and the chants...

This is a great book, and a wonderful first step in supporting Matins.

But I really hope it is only the first stage in this project, and the next one will be to provide the chants for Matins.  

I realise most communities recto tono Matins, but its chant repertoire, particularly the responsories, is the richest in the Office, and they really deserve to be revived in my view.

Personally I have a collection of a lot of plastic folders, with cut and paste printouts of things such as the Ordinary chants mostly from Peter Sandhofe's draft Monastic Psalter, psalms downloaded from one of the online psalm pointing aps, and listings of books and page numbers for responsories. I  do hope a day will come when all this is available in a well edited equivalent of the Antiphonale!

And of course, for English speakers, a widely available Latin-English version of Matins would be nice... 

Where to buy...

You can purchase the book through the Le Barroux online bookshop