Latin Psalters#Enumeration

The Latin Church has a number of more or less different full translations of the psalms into Latin. Three of these translations, the Romana, Gallicana, and juxta Hebraicum, have been traditionally ascribed to Jerome, the author of most of the Latin Vulgate; however, the Romana was not produced by Jerome. Two other translations, the Pian and Nova Vulgata versions, were made in the 20th century.

{{See also|Vetus Latina}}

Also called the Psalterium Vetus, the psalter of the Old Latin Bible. Quotations from the Psalms in Latin authors show that a number of related but distinct Old Latin recensions were circulating in the mid-4th century. These had by then substantially replaced the older Latin 'Cyprianic Psalter', a recension found in the works of Cyprian of Carthage that only survived in the 4th-century writings of the Donatists; and are all thought to be revisions of a lost common early 3rd-century version.

A 12th-century Latin bible from Monte Cassino (Ms. Cas. 557) preserves, alongside the Roman, Gallican and Iuxta Hebraeos psalters, a fourth complete version of the psalms extensively corrected with reference to the columns of the Hexapla Greek, possibly using a columnar transcription of the Hexapla psalter similar to that surviving in Milan. The underlying Latin text for this manuscript is believed to correspond with an early 3rd-century 'Cyprianic Psalter'.{{Cite book|last=Norris|first=Oliver|title=Fortunatianus redivivus: Bischof Fortunatian von Aquileia und sein Evangelienkommentar|date=2017|publisher=De Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-047158-8|editor-last=Dorfbauer|editor-first=Lukas J.|series=Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, [Extra Seriem]|pages=283–306 (283)|chapter=Tracing Fortunatianus′ Psalter|doi=10.1515/9783110471588-011|editor-last2=Victoria|editor-first2=Zimmerl-Panagl|chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/view/book/9783110471588/10.1515/9783110471588-011.xml}}

This is the version used in the Ambrosian rite for use in Milan.{{Cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02768b.htm|title=Catholic Encyclopedia: Breviary|website=www.newadvent.org|access-date=2019-08-10}}

This is the version used in the Mozarabic rite for use in Toledo.

The Roman Psalter, called also the Versio Romana or Psalterium Romanum, was traditionally identified with Jerome's first revision of the psalms completed in 384; which was thought to have been made from the Versio Vetus Latina, with cursory corrections to bring it more in line with the psalms in the common Greek text of the Septuagint. More recent scholarship rejects this theory.{{Cite book|last=Goins|first=Scott|contribution=Jerome's Psalters|editor-last = Brown|editor-first = William P.|title=Oxford Handbook to the Psalms|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2014|page=188}} The Roman Psalter is indeed one of five known revised versions of the mid-4th century Old Latin Psalter; but, compared with the four others the revisions in the Roman Psalter are in clumsy Latin and signally fail to follow Jerome's known translational principles, especially in failing to correct harmonised readings. Nevertheless, it is clear from Jerome's correspondence (especially in the long and detailed Epistle 106) that he was familiar with this psalter text, albeit without ever admitting any responsibility for it; and consequently it is assumed that the surviving Versio Romana represents the minimally revised Roman text as Jerome had found it.{{Cite book|last=Norris|first=Oliver|url=https://www.degruyter.com/view/book/9783110471588/10.1515/9783110471588-011.xml|title=Fortunatianus ridivivus|publisher=CSEL|year=2017|isbn=9783110471588|editor-last=Dorfbauer|editor-first=Lukas J.|location=|page=285|contribution=Tracing Fortunatianus's Psalter|doi=10.1515/9783110471588-011}}

The Roman version is retained in the Roman Missal and is found in the writings of Pope Gregory the Great, but for the Divine Office, it was, from the 9th century onwards, replaced throughout most of the west by Jerome's so-called "Gallican" version. It lived on in England where it continued to be used until the Norman Conquest and in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome and fragments of it were used in the Offices at St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice from at least 1609 until 1807.{{Cite book|title=Musica e Liturgia a San Marco|last=Cattin|first=Giulio|publisher=Edizione Fondazione Levi|pages=57–59}}

{{Main|:fr:Psautier gallican}}

The Versio Gallicana or Psalterium Gallicanum, also known as the Gallican Psalter (so called because it became spread in Gaul from the 9th century onward) has traditionally been considered Jerome's second Latin translation of the Psalms, which he made from the Greek of the Hexapla between 386 and 389.{{Cite book|title=Jérôme : Préfaces aux livres de la Bible|publisher=Éditions du Cerf|year=2017|isbn=978-2-204-12618-2|editor-last=Canellis|editor-first=Aline|location=Abbeville|pages=90–93|language=fr|trans-title=Jerome: Preface to the books of the Bible|chapter=Introduction : Retour à l'Hebraica veritas|trans-chapter=Introduction: Back to the Hebraica veritas}} This became the psalter of the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate bible.{{Cite book|title=Jérôme : Préfaces aux livres de la Bible|publisher=Éditions du Cerf|year=2017|isbn=978-2-204-12618-2|editor-last=Canellis|editor-first=Aline|location=Abbeville|pages=213, 217|language=fr|trans-title=Jerome : Preface to the books of the Bible|chapter=Introduction : Du travail de Jérôme à la Vulgate|trans-chapter=Introduction: From Jerome's work to the Vulgate}}

This most influential psalter has a distinctive style which is attributable to its origins as a translation of the Septuagint.{{Cite book|last1=Plater|first1=W.E.|url=https://archive.org/details/AGrammarOfTheVulgateByPlaterAndWhite|title=A Grammar of the Vulgate|last2=White|first2=H.J.|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1926|location=Oxford}} Following the Septuagint, it eschews anthropomorphisms. For instance, the term rock is applied to God numerous times in the Hebrew Psalter, but the Latin term petra does not occur as an epithet for God in the gallicana. Instead more abstract words like refugium, "refuge"; locus munitus, "place of strength"; or adiutor, "helper" are used.Nova Vulgata Bibliorum Sacrorum Editio, [https://www.vatican.va/archive/bible/nova_vulgata/documents/nova-vulgata_praenotanda_lt.html Praenotanda], In Psalterio , Editio typica altera

The versio juxta Hebraicum or versio iuxta Hebraeos was the last made by Jerome. It is often informally called the "Hebrew Psalter" despite being written in Latin. Rather than just revise the Gallicana, he translated these psalms anew from the Hebrew, using pre-Masoretic manuscripts ca. 392.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bible-researcher.com/vulgate1.html|title=Latin Vulgate (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)|last=Angus|first=Samuel|date=1915|website=www.bible-researcher.com|access-date=2019-08-10}} This psalter was present in the Bibles until Alcuin's reforms linked to the Carolingian liturgical reform: Alcuin replaced the versio juxta Hebraicum by a version of the psalter used in Gaul at the time. The latter became known as the Gallican psalter (see the section above), and it superseded the versio juxta Hebraicum. The versio juxta Hebraicum was kept in Spanish manuscripts of the Vulgate long after the Gallican psalter had supplanted it elsewhere.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bibliasacraiuxta0000unse_d8t5|url-access=registration|title=Biblia sacra : iuxta Vulgatam versionem|publisher=Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft|others=Oliver Wendell Holmes Library Phillips Academy|year=2007|isbn=978-3-438-05303-9|editor-last=Weber|editor-first=Robert|edition=5|location=Stuttgart|pages=VI, XV, XXV, XXXIV|chapter=Praefatio|editor-last2=Gryson|editor-first2=Roger}} The versio juxta Hebraicum was never used in the liturgy.{{Cite book|title=Jérôme : Préfaces aux livres de la Bible|publisher=Éditions du Cerf|year=2017|isbn=978-2-204-12618-2|editor-last=Canellis|editor-first=Aline|location=Abbeville|page=213|language=fr|trans-title=Jerome : Preface to the books of the Bible|chapter=Introduction : Du travail de Jérôme à la Vulgate|trans-chapter=Introduction: From Jerome's work to the Vulgate}}

===Versio Piana===

{{See also|Liturgical reforms of Pope Pius XII}}

Under Pius XII, a new Latin translation of the psalms, known as Versio Piana, Psalterium Vaticanum or Novum Psalterium,{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qq0jSm_P7roC&q=Versio+Piana&pg=PA230|title=The Japanese Translations of the Hebrew Bible: History, Inventory and Analysis|last=Cohen|first=Doron B.|date=2013|publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004243477|pages=230|language=en|chapter=Five: Translation compared: psalm 23 in its numerous versions}} was published by the Pontifical Biblical Institute.{{Cite book|title=Biblia Sacra iuxta Vulgatam Clementinam Nova editio|publisher=Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos|year=1999|isbn=84-7914-021-6|editor-last=Colunga|editor-first=Alberto|edition=10th|location=Spain|page=449|quote=Vulgatae textui addimus in altera columna novam versionem latinam Instituti Biblici a Pio XII pro usu liturgico approbatam, die 24 martii 1945.|editor-last2=Turrado|editor-first2=Lorenzo}}{{Cite journal|date=1945|title=De Novae Psalmorum Conversionis Latinae usu in Persolvendo Divino Officio|url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/documents/AAS-37-1945-ocr.pdf|journal=Acta Apostolicae Sedis|volume=37|pages=65–67}} This version is sometimes called the Bea psalter after its author, Augustin Bea.{{Cite web |title=Compendium of the Reforms of the Roman Breviary, 1568 – 1961: Part 8.2 – The New Psalter of Pius XII and Card. Bea |url=https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2010/10/compendium-of-reforms-of-roman-breviary_21.html |access-date=2022-09-05 |website=New Liturgical Movement}}{{Efn|1=Augustin Bea's book Il nuovo Salterio Latino. Chiarimenti sull'origine e lo spirito della traduzione, Rome, 1946 (published in English in [https://www.jstor.org/stable/43719062?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Vol. 8, No. 1 (January, 1946), pp. 4–35]) explains in details the criteria and the reasons for his version.|name=|group=}} In 1945, its use was officially permitted by the pope through the motu proprio In cotidianis precibus, but not required.

===Versio Nova Vulgata===

{{See also|Nova Vulgata|Sacrosanctum Concilium|Liturgiam authenticam}}

In 1969, a new psalter was published which translated the Masoretic text while keeping much of the poetry and style of the Gallican psalter.{{Cite journal|last=Clifford |first=Richard J.|date=2001|title=The Authority of the 'Nova Vulgata': A Note on a Recent Roman Document|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43724418|journal=The Catholic Biblical Quarterly|volume=63|issue=2|pages=197–202|jstor=43724418|issn=0008-7912}} The 1969 psalter deviates from the previous versions in that it follows the Masoretic numbering of the psalms, rather than the Septuagint enumeration. It is the psalter used in the edition of the Roman Office published in 1986.Liturgia Horarum iuxta ritum Romanum: Editio typica altera, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2000, Vol. III, p. 9, item 3

Below is a comparison of Jerome's two versions of the first three verses of the psalm Venite exsultemus (psalm 94 (95)) with the Vetus Latina, Ambrosiana, Mozarabica, Romana, Gallicana, and Hebraicum versions, as well as the two 20th century versions (Piana and Nova Vulgata), which illustrates some of the distinctions noted above:

The enumeration of the psalms differs in the Nova Vulgata from that used in the earlier versions. The earlier versions take their enumeration from the Greek Septuagint. The Versio Nova Vulgata takes its enumeration from the Hebrew Masoretic Text.

File:Saint Louis Psalter 30 verso.jpg" for the start of Psalm 1 "Beatus vir", from the Leiden St Louis Psalter; first of the early tripartite divisions of the psalms|alt=]]

Apart from the schemata described below, it was customary in medieval psalters to divide the text of the psalms in numerical sequence into sections or divisions, the start of which were typically marked by a much larger and more decorated initial letter than for the other psalms. The "B" of Psalm 1, Beatus Vir, usually was the most enlarged and decorated, and often those two words occupied a full page, the rounded shape of the letter being very suitable for decoration. These are often referred to as "Beatus initials". In early medieval psalters a three-fold division with decorated letters at Psalms 1, 51, 101 was typical, but by the Gothic period French psalters were often divided into eight sections, and English ones into ten, at Psalms 1, 26, 38, 51, 52, 68, 80, 97, 101 and 109.McKendrick, Scott, Lowden, John and Doyle, Kathleen, (eds), Royal Manuscripts, The Genius of Illumination, p. 269, 2011, British Library, {{ISBN|9780712358156}}

A scheme (Latin schema, plural schemata) is an arrangement of all or most of the psalms for distribution to the various canonical hours. In addition to the psalms proper, these schemata typically include psalm-like canticles from other books of the Bible. Historically, these schemata have distributed the entire 150 psalms with added canticles over a period of one week, although the 1971 Liturgy of the Hours omits a few psalms and some verses and distributes the remainder over a 4-week cycle. Some of the more important schemes are detailed below.{{cite web|url=http://www.kellerbook.com/SCHEMA~1.HTM|title='Psalter Schemas' by Theo Keller|website=kellerbook.com|access-date=12 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120805162124/http://www.kellerbook.com/SCHEMA~1.HTM|archive-date=5 August 2012|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02768b.htm|title=Catholic Encyclopedia ncyclopedia : Breviary|website=www.newadvent.org|access-date=2019-08-19}}

In addition to the rotating schema, the order of service has ordinary texts that are fixed. These include the Invitatory, normally psalm 94(95), and the canticles Benedictus Dominus, Magnificat, and Nunc dimittis.

As commissioned by the Council of Trent, St. Pius V published a reform of the Roman Breviary in 1568 for use by the churches of the Roman rite. The scheme used in this breviary{{Efn|Available [http://www.gregorianbooks.com/gregorian/www/www.kellerbook.com/PRE-19~1.HTM here].}} differs in some details from the Scheme of St. Benedict,{{Efn|Available [https://www.gregorianbooks.com/gregorian/www/www.kellerbook.com/Monastic.htm here].}} but follows its overall pattern.{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/theromanbreviary01unknuoft|title=The Roman breviary: reformed by order of the Holy oecumenical council of Trent: published by order of Pope St. Pius V|publisher=William Blackwood and Sons|year=1908|pages=1–213}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.gregorianbooks.com/gregorian/www/www.kellerbook.com/PRE-19~1.HTM|title=Pre-Pius X Psalter (up to 1911)|date=January 14, 2018|website=gregorianbooks.com}} Some obvious differences are that Sunday had three nocturns, while the other days had but one; Lauds and the daytime hours had less variation in the Psalmody; and Compline added Psalm 30. In addition, while St. Benedict made heavy use of "divided" Psalms, the Roman rite divided only Psalm 118.

This scheme was used by many religious orders as well, such as the Dominicans{{Cite book|url=https://media.musicasacra.com/dominican/Breviarium-1909-1-optimized.pdf|title=Breviarium Juxta Ritum S. Ordinis Praedicatorum|last=Cormier|first=Hyacinthus|year=1909|location=Roma|pages=1–153}} (of which Pope Pius V was a member{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Pius-V|title=Saint Pius V {{!}} pope|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2019-08-08}}).

{{see also|Reform of the Roman Breviary by Pope Pius X}}

In 1911, Pope Pius X reformed the Roman Breviary, re-arranging the psalms into a new scheme{{Efn|Available [http://www.gregorianbooks.com/gregorian/www/www.kellerbook.com/1911-1~2.HTM here].}} so that there was less repetition and so that each day of the week had approximately the same amount of psalm-chanting.

Psalm 94 (the Invitiatory) was recited every day at the beginning of Matins. With Lauds, there are two schemes. Lauds I were celebrated on all Sundays and ferias, except from Septuagesima until Palm Sunday inclusive, and on feasts celebrated at any time of the year. Lauds II, having a more penitential character, were used on the Sundays and ferias of Advent until the vigil of Christmas and from Septuagesima until Monday of Holy Week inclusive. They were also used on vigils of the second and third class outside of Paschaltide. When Lauds II were said, the omitted psalm was said as a fourth psalm at Prime, in order to include all 150 psalms each week during penitential seasons; on Sundays with Lauds II, the scheme became 92, 99, 118i, and 118ii. On feasts which used the Sunday psalms, 53, 118i, and 118ii were said at Prime. On Sundays after Epiphany and Pentecost, the Athanasian Creed was said fourth at Prime; it was omitted if a commemoration of a Double feast or of an octave occurred.{{Cite book|title=The Hours of the Divine Office in English and Latin: a bilingual edition of the Roman Breviary text, in three volumes|publisher=Liturgical Press|year=1964|location=Collegeville, Minnesota}}

{{See also|Mass of Paul VI}}

In 1971 with the release of a new edition of the Divine Office under Pope Paul VI, the Liturgia Horarum, a new schema{{Efn|Available [https://www.gregorianbooks.com/gregorian/www/www.kellerbook.com/Loh-1971.htm here].}} was introduced which distributed 147 of the 150 psalms across a four-week cycle.

{{notelist}}

{{Commons category|}}

• Vulgate
• Sixto-Clementine Vulgate
• Septuagint
• Vetus Latina
• Beatus vir

Latin psalters

• Vetus Latina psalter (pp. 9–293) Latin text
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=388HAAAAQAAJ&dq=ambrosianum+psalterium&pg=RA1-PR1 Breviarium Ambrosianum] Latin text
• [http://www.liberpsalmorum.info/Psalterium%20Romanum.html Psalterium Romanum] Latin text
• [http://vulsearch.sourceforge.net/html/Ps.html Psalterium Gallicanum] Latin text
• [https://www.sbl-site.org/assets/pdfs/bibletexts/Vulgata/Vulgata_18_Psalmorum_MT.pdf Psalterium juxta Hebraicum] ([https://www.academic-bible.com/en/online-bibles/biblia-sacra-vulgata/read-the-bible-text/bibel/text/lesen/stelle/19/10001/19999/ch/85d924f920916c845cf9cceb13fbd10a/ also available here]) Latin text
• Psalterium Mozarabicum Latin text
• [http://www.liberpsalmorum.info/Psalterium%20Pianum.html Psalterium Pianum] Latin text
• [https://www.vatican.va/archive/bible/nova_vulgata/documents/nova-vulgata_vt_psalmorum_lt.html Psalterium Neo-Vulgatum] Latin text
• [http://www.almudi.org/Portals/0/docs/Breviario/fuentes/breviario.html Liturgia Horarum Online] A very nice, practical and versatile version to read the psalter online.
• [http://www.liberpsalmorum.info/ Liberpsalmorum.info] A list of the different Latin psalters from the Vetus Latina to the Nova Vulgata.

Miscellaneous

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080508233358/http://www.kellerbook.com/LANGUA~1.HTM Theo Keller's comparison] of the psalm De profundis, giving the Roman, Gallican, Pian, and Neo-Vulgate versions of psalm 129.
• [http://wdtprs.com/blog/2008/08/breviary-psalter-variations-drilling-into-psalm-1/ Fr. John Zuhlsdorf's comparison] of the psalm Beatus vir, giving the Roman, Gallican, Neo-vulgate, Pian, and Ambrosian versions of psalm 1.
• [http://www.gregorianbooks.com/gregorian/www/www.kellerbook.com/SCHEMA~1.HTM Theo Keller's tables] of historical psalter schemas. Includes the four choices of the Psalterium Monasticum above

• {{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iQ8C5m49HBkC&q=the+new+latin+psalter+is+diction+and+style&pg=PA109|title=Études sur le latin des chrétiens, Latin chrétien et médiéval|last=Mohrmann|first=Christine|publisher=Ed. di Storia e Letteratura|year=1961|volume=II|pages=109–131|language=fr, en|chapter=The New Latin Psalter: Its Diction and Style}}

{{LiturgicalHours}}

Category:Psalters

Category:Latin liturgical rites

Category:Vulgate

Category:Vetus Latina