At long last the worthy Baronius Press is just about ready with its three volume, Latin-English edition of the Breviarium Romanum.
Having the English side by side with the Latin could open a whole new liturgical world for many who don’t know Latin well-enough (or who would like to know it better) to drill into this form of the Church’s daily worship.
I have never been quick to recommend to people who don’t have an adequate grasp of Latin to pray the Office in Latin. Cui bono? I haven’t seen these volumes yet, and I will reserve judgment on them. But it seems to me that this is a helpful development.
Roman Breviary – Breviarium Romanum
Latin-English Breviary [side-by-side]
Flexible cover (Black Leather), Size: 4.5″ x 7″, Item No: 5500, 3-Volume Set, 6,064 pages
Vol. I – 1952 pages
Vol. II – 2144 pages
Vol. III – 1968 pages
$350/ £230 (provisional price, to be confirmed at pre-ordering stage)
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The sample pages shown at the Baronius web site–though only 8 of the total of 6064 pages–look like the most beautiful I’ve seen in a breviary, certainly a far cry from most Vatican Press work.
“$350/ £230”
Yikes!
Is it just me or is the provisional price of £230 extraordinarally expensive? almost double the price of a 4 volume Liturgy of the hours costs £120 on Amozon, how pray are peniless priests, transitioanl decons and seminarians let alone lay people be able to afford a copy.
For me this is just another indicator that Traditional Catholocism is only for the rich, FSSP seminarians are required to pay $7000 a year in tuition fees, half decent vestments cost an arm and a leg etc etc.
bang go my hope as a working class lad of ever becoming a Traditional priest.
Well “The Divine Office” is also in three volumes and the last time I looked in our local Catholic shop each volume was around $130 so the price at $350 is not unreasonable and with the Australian dollar being more than the American dollar in value these days I might well splurge out.
One volume equals about $117. If I recall correctly, I bought the four volume LOTH for about $130 a few years ago (though it looks like it is up to about $165 now on Amazon). They might be running off lot of people who would otherwise be interested in this set.
A price like that will assure that the breviarium is used daily. And Baronius does make a quality product.
“$350/ £230?
Yikes!
As compared with the $785 paxbook.com price (at $196.30 per volume) for the 4 leatherbound volumes of the OF divine office, the Liturgia Horarum. And you get only Latin, no English. And (perhaps repeating a comment in moderation) the sample pages shown at the Baronius web site–though only 8 of the total of 6064 pages–look like the most beautiful I’ve seen in a breviary, certainly a far cry from most Vatican Press work.
I am hopeful the unfortunate typo on the “Decree” page posted on the Baronius website (Bishop Fabian Fabian Bruskewitz) is not an indication of the quality of the finished volumes’ proofreading.
Is it worth the price if the English will be retranslated? That may be five years from now or more, but for $350 they should last longer than that.
Harold this is the ‘old’ Roman Breviary. It remains as it is and will not be re-translated since it is timeless English based on the Latin.
The post-conciliar ‘Liturgy of the Hours’ will be due for a new, corrected English translation in the coming years.
This is going on the wishlist.
I cannot wait for the Divine Office to be for sale! I’ve been waiting a long time. We used to pray the “Liturgy of the Hours” but the translation was so horrible that at times we ended up laughing so we stopped praying it. I’d really love to be able to join in the holy prayer of the Church with the Divine Office is English. I for one would never be able to use nor profit from the Latin Divine Office. I can’t wait! Come on Baronius Press, get on with it already!
God bless you all.
Three volumes? That’s interesting. Wonder how it is divided.
I have many people interested in these at the store, but I think they are going to be scared off by the $350 price tag.
The price tag is a little high, but that is not unexpected. The “Liturgia Horarum”, which is divided into 4 volumes, is currently priced at US $355.81 from Libreria Editrice.
The regular use of the Latin/English edition of the “Romanum Breviarum” will pay off in spades over time.
I am not certain how the remaining two volumes will be divided, but based on the scanned pages on Baronius’ web site, volume 1 will include the 1st Sunday of Advent to the 4th week of Lent (inclusive).
You can get a less expensive Breviarium Romanum set from abebooks, loomebooks, or sometimes ebay. I have the 1911 version, and the 1962 version. I did not know a word of Latin when I got them but I am stubborn and started with the Psalms that I was most familiar with. If you go psalm by psalm with a Douay Rheims bible next to it, you will be building your vocabulary in no time. With a few textbooks and praying a few hours daily, I would say that in a little less than a year and a half, I can read most of the Breviary in Latin with no extra help. Of course, I asked for the intercession of all the Latin fathers for the grace to be able to learn the language. I was told that it might be a hindrance reading the two languages side by side because the human tendency is to just read the English and not actually learn the Latin. Anyway, I just wanted to throw that out for anyone who wants to pray the old office in Latin.
1. Older, cheaper versions are available online.
2. Make learning Latin your new hobby.
3. PRAY for God to help you learn the language of His Church.
God bless,
Danny
P.S. Does anyone out there teach their children Latin? I would like to form a group in my area (Bryan/CS, Texas) of people who would like to learn Latin and practice speaking it. I’m teaching my oldest boy, and at the same time teaching myself.
I hope that this Breviary is closer in quality to their 1962 Missal than to their English/Latin Little Office, which has a large number of errors in the Latin.
Dixit Dominus domino meo….
Salutationes omnibus.
I bought all 4 volumes of the new Liturgy of the Hours for the Church in Africa for only $100. I really wanted to buy this set… but… wow…!
I’m waiting for the reissue of Monsignor Knox’s translation of the Bible.
I’m adding this to the wish list… though I don’t know when it’ll ever come off the wishlist. Maybe if I get a real job next year :p
I can see where books like this are worth the money, but I wish they were priced within my meager student budget.
Legisperitus: I have a 3 volume Latin/English set from 1963 that I picked up in a New Orleans bookstore for $30 (for all three, perfect condition with prayer cards and everything–a steal). Volume 1 is Advent to Passion Sunday; Vol 2 is Passion Sunday to August; Vol 3 is August to Advent.
I have no connection whatsoever to Baronius Press. However I purchased the 3rd edition (2008) of their Roman Missal (1962). It is wonderfully legible, beautiful and durable. I am glad I bought it. Breviaries are supposed to last for a lifetime. They are an investment. Clerics and laity who use them daily will spend an enormous time with them over the years. I think everyone can understand that even with the large English-speaking Catholic public throughout the world, the limited market for these volumes, and the time and work that will have gone into their production, will most likely have to result in a high price to offset the costs of production.
“For me this is just another indicator that Traditional Catholocism is only for the rich, FSSP seminarians are required to pay $7000 a year in tuition fees, half decent vestments cost an arm and a leg etc etc.”
Wow. Apparently one is able to pass judgement on an entire classification of millions of faithful Catholics based on the price of a single volume of books.
Traditional Catholicism is for the rich? Surely you jest! What planet are you transmitting this message from? Have you ever even met a traditional Catholic? Ever been to a TLM parish (FSSP, ICK, SSPX, etc.)? I seriously doubt it. I was a seminarian with the FSSP and, due to financial circumstances, I paid whatever it was I could afford for a given month if anything (which was much, much less than the price of this Divinum Officium, BTW). No vocation can ever be turned away due to financial need. What a terrible sacrilege it would be. Priests of the myriad of vocation-heavy traditional orders make significantly less than your average diocesan Priest.
What never ceases to amaze me is the almost missionary-like zeal of those who exploit any and all opportunities to make cheap, irrelevant and unprovoked jibes against traditional Catholics and traditional Catholicism in general. From these malevolent “catholics” … Libera nos, Domine.
Congratulations Baronius Press. What a wonderful achievement, a great service, which, I hope will widen the appeal of the Usus Antiquior. The breviaries are expensive, but what you will receive in return is priceless. For Jack Hughes and the other fathers who are ‘hard up’ – I say ‘save up’ for these breviaries, it will be worth it. I had to ‘save up’ too (and I’m not wealthy either), to buy my (exclusively) Latin breviaries. But please, dear laity, help your priests if you can to buy these breviaries, or a Latin set. By the way, I would also say that very few books on earth are perfect (if any) as regards printing. It is always possible to spot errors – I know this from the different types of Roman Breviary which I have acquired over the years, for the purposes of prayer, and research. Even my copy of the ‘Nova et Vetera’ Breviarium Romanum from Germany has printing errors, and the text was checked – according to the publishers – ‘several’ times. Yes, let us hope that Baronius Press have done a good job with proof-reading. But, please, exercise a little charity when it comes to errors.
Yes, it’s expensive, but it’s also a permanent addition to one’s library. I was happy at the quality of the English translation which was not excessively “antiquated.” Since my Latin lies at the “low intermediate” level, I rely heavily on moving back and forth to a good translation.
Excellent news. I havent been able to pray LOTH since discovering my local E.F. If the price is too steep for some then hopefully a cheaper version will come soon.
I also expected that the volumes would be expensive. The two volumne all Latin version is $298 new so for 3 volumnes and with the English plus all of the work behind the project, I think the price is reasonable. Considering that, even with the desire, gaining the level of Latin needed to pray the Breviary in Latin will be difficult to impossible for many adults, this is a good solution. I disagree it is indicative of being attached to the EF is only for the rich. This breviary is a lifetime purchase that will be able to be handed down. I am looking forward to seeing in in person.
I am hopeful the unfortunate typo on the “Decree” page posted on the Baronius website (Bishop Fabian Fabian Bruskewitz) is not an indication of the quality of the finished volumes’ proofreading.
I’ve looked over it a couple of times. What’s the typo?
http://www.baroniuspress.com/images/breviary/p.viii_1.jpg
“For me this is just another indicator that Traditional Catholocism is only for the rich, FSSP seminarians are required to pay $7000 a year in tuition fees, half decent vestments cost an arm and a leg etc etc.
bang go my hope as a working class lad of ever becoming a Traditional priest.”
So become a Catholic priest, instead.
Kid, everything’s expensive these days, and leather-bound books have always been. So has tuition. If there are doctors and lawyers who started out poor and middle class, and there are plenty, then it can hardly be necessary for traditionally-oriented clergy to be born with silver spoons in their mouths.
@Centristian
If you were a traditionally minded Priset would you seriously contemplate offering the Holy sacrifice of the Mass in day-glo vestments thare are common in parishes especially the Usas Antiqutor?
Becoming a traditional priest from a working class background is not the same as becoming a lawyer or doctor; these two professions pay extraordinarally well (the sister of an acquiatence who is a doctor will be able to buy a house outright in a few years) wheras the stipend of your average parish priest is extraordinarally modest by comparison. (as I’m sure the priest readers and Fr Z can testify.)
Add to the fact that my neither my parents (fairly poor) nor my home parish (Very old and Very working class) are in a position to support me.
“Kid, everything’s expensive these days”
So what are you one of those ‘market forces’ Catholics who worship mammon at a side altar?, just becasue something is expenseive doesn’t mean that its right that it is expensive. I guess you think that its a crime to be poor? [Not only is this a rabbit hole, which I am now closing with irritation, it was OTT. And stand a little closer to a spell-checker. GRRRR.]
“So become a Catholic priest, instead.”
Amen.
That was meant in jest, incidentally.
“For me this is just another indicator that Traditional Catholocism is only for the rich, FSSP seminarians are required to pay $7000 a year in tuition fees, half decent vestments cost an arm and a leg etc etc. “
I think it would be incorrect to assume that most traditional seminarians come from well-to-do families who can or will pay the freight. Or to assume that traditional priests ordinarily pay personally for the (typically beautiful and sometimes expensive) vestments they wear to celebrate the traditional Mass.
@Henry Edwards
Your point about vestments would be valid if I could find a Traditional Congregation/Socity of Apostolic life that would have me; as it is the local FSSP priest has said that I ‘wouldn’t fit in’, his deputy despite not having an opinion is blindly say ‘he’s the superior’ Added to this a traditional monastary will not have me becuase of a slight developmental disability which I have outgrown and has said that other traddy monastaries will say the same.
Therefore I am left with the diocesan priesthood as my only option and quite frankly I do not want to have to rely on the satorial discernment of the parishes I would be roated around; in addition (I belive) priests/decons who read this blog have also commented on the fact that they needed to buy their own vestments in order to avoid wearing the dayglo type.
Jack, I really don’t think the cost of vestments at some point years in the future should be an impediment to a vocation. Actually, the price of traditional vestments has declined greatly during the Benedictine era — due economy of scale attracting production in low cost areas (e.g., India) — so some quite presentable ones can even be afforded on a parish assistant’s salary. (Less, for instance, than this Baronius breviary.)
HEY! Danny from College Station/Bryan TX–I would love to be part of a group learning Latin so I have no doubt you could find plenty of people where you are located.
Have you tried contacting the home school groups? yahoo has a home school Catholic group for our area: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BVCatholicHS/
Have you tried putting up a notice (with permission of course) in whichever parish you attend regularly?
I am seriously considering this set of books because I would like to develop the discipline of praying this daily AND I dream of learning to read Latin. The price tag is very steep and a bit off putting but if it garners good reviews from people who are using it I’ll manage the cost.
Meanwhile I limp along with the one volume Christian Prayer while I wait for a better translation.
KAS
Henry Edwards
Vestments are only part of my problem; I have absolutely no Idea where I’d find the money to support myself through six years of Seminary; let alone buy all the textbooks, clerical attire (apparently needed after January of the 1st year in the North American Collage) and other stuff essential for Seminary.
This assumes I go to a non -traditional seminary; if you want to be an ICKSP or FSSP Priest then you have to pay through the nose for the privillige. [It might be best to stop talking about seminary and start submitting to a program now.]
@ Dr. Fratantuono… I don’t see the typo you’re referring to?
I am very tired of waiting for these. It always seems they are about to publish, and then nothing. When, Oh Lord?
When the pdfs first appeared online, the Decree page read “Bishop Fabian Fabian Bruskewitz.” Someone corrected it.