I had a question from a reader inquiring if I knew of an Anglican version/edition of the Little Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
I’m occasionally intrigued by the Little Hours of the BVM and the accompanying Little Hours of the Cross which were often said after the regular office in Cluniac and other monasteries in my period and which would later form the core of the Books of Hours. However, I’ve never delved into them deeply. I keep thinking I’ll get around to them one of these days and just haven’t yet.
I’m aware of: The Hypertext Book of Hours which, to my mind, is the premiere spot on the web for the Little Offices,
Also the Baronius Press Little Hours of the BVM with chant,
But I don’t know of an Anglican version. Does anyone else?
I’m not sure what’s meant by an “Anglican” version–would the content be different, or would it just be a translation using the Coverdale Psalter, etc.?
One of our seminarians is working on a primer that includes the Little Hours of the BVM translated using the Coverdale Psalter. I’m not sure when it’ll be available from our press, but hopefully in the next six months or so…
Yes, Anglican in the sense of Coverdale Psalter and Cranmerian prose—style of not authorship…
IIRC, There were both Sarum and York versions of the Little Hours, but I don’t know them well enough to know if there were any or substantial differences from the “typical” Roman version.
Actually, here’s one more to throw into the mix… It’s not Cranmer’s English—it predates him and a good 150 years. It’s the Prymer from the EETS (PDF warning)! Middle English. Just remember that the ‘thorns’ are th’s and the youghs are y’s and the spelling is *all* phoentic…
There are some rather minor differences, from what I understand, between the Sarum and Roman versions of the Little Office (the Sarum Use probably, in some respects, representing something closer to what the Roman Rite version was in an earlier century — but that would be an issue for an expert on liturgical history to comment on [yes, Paul Goings, this means you] — and there are both pre- and post-1911 Little Offices in print with differences in Lauds based on the 1911 psalter scheme and elimination of daily recitation of psalms 148 – 150 — but I digress). The primer coming out from Rene Vilatte Press will actually have the Sarum version of the Little Office and Office of the Dead.
The Little Office with classic Anglican translations and style… much like the Saturday office of the BVM in Douglas’ Monastic Diurnal and the Anglican Breviary. Nice.