Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Baronius Press Little Office Misprints

I say at the outset that Baronius Press has produced a handsomely bound, gilt-edged volume of The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, noteworthy especially for supplying the Gregorian chants proper to it.

That said, it does have a large number of misprints...

(I also have a reprint edition, issued by Carmel Books in 1997, of the 1914 R. & T. Washbourne version that Baronius Press seems to have made use of - although in ways the Carmel Books reprint is, I would argue, superior, at least in having far fewer mistakes.)

To be fair, they themselves noted two of the worst misprints, since they supplied an insert which substitutes for pages 67 and 114, as these pages had the wrong hymns supplied.

If only they had done the same for pages 86-8 and 112f, since they have stuffed up the last psalm at Lauds for Advent and Christmastide by substituting the Christmas antiphon Ecce Maria for the Advent antiphon Ecce ancilla, and vice versa!  This is a really flagrant and serious fault, which I am sorry to find.

At Matins (p.3), no rubric is supplied to say that one kneels for the words venite, adoremus, et procidamus ante Deum - though in the text with chant on page 136, these words are in small capitals as if to allude to this.

Speaking of the chant, the publishers have thoughtfully supplied much - but not the psalm-tones needed for chanting the psalms themselves: so a Liber or such would still be needed.  Similarly, the chants for the Absolution, Benedictions, Lessons and Little Chapters are needed (probably just a model formula for the last three items, as they've supplied for the Collect).

Very annoyingly, and most incorrectly, the collect at Lauds on pages 25, 37 and 91 has been supplied with the short ending Per Christum... instead of the long ending Per Dominum...; and indeed it is frustrating to see how throughout the Little Office, the long endings are hardly ever spelled out - to find the full version of Per Dominum..., one must turn to page 159f, and to page 117 for Qui tecum..., while Qui vivis... seems completely missing (except in the short version, for a collect in honour of St Joseph in an appendix).  Through long attendance at Mass and long use of the Office, I know these forms; but someone coming new to this book would find it stressful and confusing to have to search endlessly for these conclusions.

To pick further, on page 71 in the English ", &c" is superfluous; and ditto for "Who liveth, &c." and "Qui vivit, &c." on page 74, since the collect Deus qui salutis has a nonstandard short ending, or rather no normal ending at all.  Conversely, on pages 50 and 103 the abbreviation ", &c" ought be inserted at the end of the collects.

(There is also a very minor misprint on page 152: pulehra instead of pulchra.)

I think I should email Baronius Press about this - they will need to fix these mistakes in the second edition.

UPDATE

Another set of very annoying misprints!

Baronius Press has confused the little chapter, versicle and collect at None during Advent with that of None during Christmastide, so the little chapter, versicle and collect on page 94f are really those for page 120f, and vice versa.

And unforgiveably, their errata insert has its own erratum! - the little chapter supplied for Lauds on page 114 and on the substitute page 114 is wrong, and should be that on page 34.

3 comments:

Fraser Pearce said...

Do send it.

Joshua said...

I've just emailed them - especially after I found the latest errata...

Joshua said...

Baronius Press have sent me a very polite reply, and inform me that they themselves have been printing an updated and corrected edition, which is very reassuring.