Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Nova & Vetera Breviary

A free advertisement: very kindly, Nova & Vetera agreed to sell me just Volume II of their new edition of the 1962 Breviarium Romanum, for (oh dear, what a pity I didn't buy when the Aussie dollar was almost on par with the American) €99 (plus €10 for postage and handling), and their extremely smart and well-made product has just arrived - I paid them on the 13th inst., so it's taken but 15 days to get here from Germany.

I now, therefore, have a mismatched but perfectly serviceable set of the 1962 Breviary with the Vulgate Psalter - previously, my Volume II had the nasty Pius XII Psalter (I mean the translation, not the august deceased Supreme Pontiff!), and perforce I juggled both volumes in order to have St Jerome's incomparable version of the Psalms with the correct propers, this being particularly cumbersome and involved when Michaelmas came round with its proper Psalms...

My Volume I is the 1995 F.S.S.P. facsimile edition of the 1961 Dessain printing of the Breviary; both volumes are exactly the same in height and width (approx. 18 by 11 cm, or 7 by 4⅓ inches), but the F.S.S.P. Volume I is 4.5 cm thick, almost double the Nova & Vetera Volume II's thickness of 2.5 cm (c. 1 inch).  The difference appears to be that the N & V edition has thinner but no less sturdy paper.  Other sources I have consulted have remarked on the superior purity and uncorruptness of the liturgical text as reproduced in the N & V edition; certainly there are at least half a dozen very minor misprints in the F.S.S.P. edition (a letter missing at the end of a word or suchlike).

I would certainly recommend anyone wishing to pray the 1962 Breviary to purchase the Nova & Vetera edition!

6 comments:

  1. Sorry, but I'm not very technically minded - and a quick jump over to Nova & Vetera's own website would reveal all...

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  2. Fraser - I've added the relevant link!

    How are you, BTW?

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  3. The Nova & Vetera Breviary is a work of art. I didn't really need it, I suppose, but I bought it anyway. Sed contra, it being of lighter weight (even lighter than the Diurnale), I am more likely to use it, and take it everywhere.

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  4. I have thought about buying it, but I am bad enough with my English breviary at present. Maybe in a few months I might look into it.

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  5. I do hope, Quasi, that you look into your English Breviary rather sooner than in another few months!

    ;-)

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