There is some exciting news for all users of the Monastic Office - the Monastic Breviary of 1963 will soon be available once again!
Breviary edition
The 1963 breviary (or indeed any version of the monastic breviary) is currently extremely difficult - indeed nigh on impossible - to obtain, so having a new edition available will make the texts for Matins (particularly the readings and responsories) in particular far more accessible.
The new edition is being published by the Monastery of St Benedict's (Brignoles) Editions Pax inter Spinas, and copies can be pre-ordered now for a nice discount, with release scheduled for the feast of St Benedict on July 11 (see the details below).
Even more excitingly, as I've previously mentioned, the monastery is also working on producing a Monastic Nocturnale equivalent to the Antiphonale Monasticum, containing all of the necessary chants for Matins.
This is a huge step forward as currently the only versions of the monastic Matins psalter either don't contain any or all of the necessary chants; or, in the case of the draft developed many years ago by Peter Sandhofe, are riddled with inconsistencies and errors.
The Nocturnale will have three volumes, with the first, the Psalter currently out in a trial version for comment and proofreading.
It contains the hymns, psalms, antiphons, short responsories and other texts necessary for the daily ferial Office throughout the year (with major seasonal variants) in one conveniently sized, easy to hold book. It is expected to be publicly available in the Northern Spring.
The sanctorale and temporale volumes will follow thereafter.
3 comments:
Very good! In the meanwhile, this is a cool project if you want to take a look at the chant for the Roman Nocturnale (which seems to be often the same as the Monastic, though not as many responsories, and I don't know if there's a difference in the tunes.)
You haven't provided the link! But if its to the Roman Nocturnale project, if you look back a few posts, you will find a link to it.
That said, although the Roman Office has some common elements to the Benedictine, there are also a lot of differences, both in the order of the texts, and the specifics.
Hopefully one day they can make an English/Latin Breviary for the Monastic Office
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