Yesterday I looked at the 1963 breviary.
If you are interested in buying an older breviary, though, it helps to have a sense of what you might be buying, so today a little potted history by way of context.
How hard is it to adapt an older breviary?
I have to admit that I haven't done a systematic comparison, but the bottom line to this is that, as far as I can discover is that the core texts and readings have not changed significantly since at least 1615, when the first official Benedictine breviary was approved. There has, it is true, been some tweaking here and there, particularly where feasts have changed, but the core of the Office can be found in these older books.
The rubrics, however, have been simplified over time, and that does lead to significant discrepancies and gaps. In essence, the older the book, the less the calendar will follow the 1963 order and the more feasts that will be missing, so the more work you will have to do to align the two.
Calendar reforms
It is worth noting that the key differences between the various books relates to the calendar.
First, at various points in time, new feasts have been added and others dropped, or their level changed; when this happens the texts for the feasts can also change.
Secondly, the categories for feasts have changed over time. The table, from the
Wikipedia accessed 4.4.17 below summarises the changes for the Roman Mass and Office. The Benedictine Rite didn't always entirely align with these, but was broadly updated to follow the Roman at various points in time.
Thirdly, the impact of different feasts on the Office has changed over time - commemorations sometimes had readings associated with them, for example, that displaced the text of the day in some cases.
| Pope | Date | Ranking |
|---|
| - | Antiquity | Doubles | Simples |
| - | 13th century | Doubles | Semidoubles | Simples |
| Pius V | 1568 | Doubles, I Class | Doubles, II Class | Doubles | Semidoubles | Simples |
| Clement Vlll | 1602 | Doubles, I Class | Doubles, II Class | Greater Doubles | Doubles | Semidoubles | Simples |
| Pius XII | 1955 | Doubles, I Class | Doubles, II Class | Greater Doubles | Doubles | Simples | Commemorations |
| John XXIII | 1960 | I Class | II Class | III Class | Commemorations |
| Paul VI | 1969 | Solemnities | Feasts | Memorials and Optional Memorials | Ferias |
The adaptation task then, requires you to be familiar with the 1963 rubrics, so that you know what texts you need for a particular day, and then be prepared to do a bit of hunting to find them!
Making sense of the many old breviaries...
The key challenge in buying an earlier breviary is that if you look on Abebooks or elsewhere, there are often many different options that look similar.
I have to admit that my own knowledge of this topic is pretty sketchy, and I only own or have access to a couple of breviaries myself, so I am largely going to draw on the work (indented quotes below) of an
anonymous commentator on the Saints Will Arise blog (cross-posted from an Amazon review) from some years ago, slightly edited and reordered. I will, though, also add a few things I've gleaned since.
For the Roman Office,
Mr DiPippio has provided an extensive description of the various changes that have been made since Trent, but I am not aware of an equivalent set of documentation for the Benedictine Office. Please do jump in if you know more though.
Note that I am only going to talk about Benedictine breviaries here - there is a whole other history for the Cistercian form of the Benedictine Office.
A potted history of the monastic breviary
1. Prior to the Council of Trent
Prior to the Council of Trent, each monastery (or Congregation) effectively set its own Office. There was a substantial common core of hymns, antiphons and responsories from very early on, but manuscripts from various monasteries capture a large number of variants as well. In the past Solesmes and other experts have largely drawn on these collections to construct their breviaries and chant books, but these days images of many of these manuscripts are now available online, and many of the key chants from them have been transcribed and are available through websites such as
the Cantus Database.
2.
After Trent - Breviarium Monasticum ordinis sancti Benedicti (various editions) up to 1915
"Pope Paul V allowed the Benedictines to preserve their proper Rite for the Divine Office in his Bull "Ex injuncto nobis" (1 October 1612) according to the ordinance in the Bull "Quod a nobis" of Pope St. Pius V (9 July 1568) that dispensed certain Dioceses and Religious Orders from the obligation of adhering to the Roman Breviary reformed by order of the Œcumenical Council of Trent. The Congregation of Sacred Rites promulgated the typical edition of the Monastic Breviary on 24 January 1615"
My comment: A number of versions of the monastic breviary were issued in this period. First, each Congregation seems to have had its own edition, with the differences mainly being in the feasts included/their level, particular prayers and votive offices. Some congregations, for example, did not say the Votive Office of St Scholastica.
In addition, the breviary was updated to include new feasts and other calendar changes at various points.
3. 1915 to 1962
"When Pope St. Pius X commenced the great reform of the Roman Rite by his Bull "Divino afflatu" (1 November 1911), the Abbot-Primate of the Benedictine Order, the Most Rev. Dom Fidelis von Stotzingen, requested the Apostolic See to approve an adaptation of the new reforms for the Monastic Breviary. By authority of Pope Benedict XV, the Congregation of Sacred Rites granted the request on 28 April 1915.
The reforms mentioned above did not affect the substance of the Monastic Office, the heart of which is the Psalter. Now that St. Pius X did away with the old Roman Psalter of immemorial origin, the Monastic Psalter is now the most ancient in the Latin Occident, having been ordained by St. Benedict in his Holy Rule (chapters viii-xviii) in the 6th century. The Latin texts of the Hymns predate the recension of Pope Urban VIII, which made the Hymns of the Roman Breviary conform to Classical metre.
The Monastic Rite had enthusiastically embraced the programme of reform established by St. Pius X for the Roman Rite by giving precedence to the Dominical and Ferial Offices above the Sanctoral Offices. Decades before the reforms of John XXIII, the Benedictines had already eliminated the "Semi-Duplex" rite in the Sanctoral Offices, expunged a great number of Saints' Feasts from the General Calendar of the Order, and had imitated the Ambrosian Rite in reducing all "Duplex" Feasts to commemorations in the Quadragesimal and Passiontide Seasons. The Monastic Rite had anticipated the limitation of the Athanasian Creed "Quicumque" to Trinity Sunday alone (which the Roman Rite did in the simplification of the Rubrics promulgated by the Congregation of Sacred Rites by authority of Pius XII in 23 March 1955) when it conformed to the reforms of St. Pius X."
My comment: The table below provides the rest of the material summarised on Wikipedia, this time relating to twentieth century calendar changes.
Aside from the calendar and those changes mentioned above aside, the key change made in 1915 seems to relate to Lauds, with the introduction of the Roman 'festal canticles' as an option.
4. 1962-3
"When the Congregation of Sacred Rites promulgated further reforms for the Roman Rite in the Decree "Novum Rubricarum" (26 July 1960) by authority of John XXIII, the Abbot-Primate of the Benedictine Order, the Most Rev. Dom Benno Gut, followed the example of his above-mentioned predecessor and the same Roman Congregation promulgated a new typical edition of the Monastic Breviary on 15 December 1962...Unlike the Roman Rite, the reforms of John XXIII left Monastic Matins intact."
My comment: Most of the changes made to the 1962 (actually published in 1963) breviary, as far as I can see, relate to the calendar and rubrics, and largely (though not entirely) align them with the 1962 EF Mass and Roman Office.
There were some (in my view highly undesirable) changes made to the psalter though, including changing the divisio points in some psalms, cutting out most of the Saturday ferial canticle at Lauds, and cutting out some verses that have always been included in the Vulgate version of Psalm 13 (but long been regarded as interpolations by some, including St Jerome). The changes to Matins though were minor.
