We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.
Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.Help Now >
Psalterium
FREE Catholic Classes
The Psalterium, or Book of the Psalms, only concerns us here in so far as it was transcribed and used for liturgical purposes. As a manual of private devotions it has already been sufficiently discussed under P RAYER -B OOKS . In its liturgical use the Psalterium contained the bulk of the Divine Office . The other books associated with it were the Lectionary, the Antiphonary, and Responsoriale, and the Hymnary. The Psalterium contained primarily all the text of the Psalms, and it may be noted that for some centuries the Western Church used two different Latin versions, both due to St. Jerome. The earlier of these was a mere revision of the pre-existing Latin translation which closely followed the Septuagint. St. Jerome undertook this revision in 383 at the request of Pope Damasus , and the text thus corrected was retained in use at Rome for many centuries afterwards. In 392, however, when at Bethlehem, the saint set about the same task much more seriously with the aid of the Hexapla. He produced what was almost a new version, and this being circulated in Gaul, through a copy sent to Tours in the sixth century, became commonly known as the "Psalterium Gallicanum", and in the end entirely supplanted the Roman. A precious manuscript at the Vatican (Regin. 11), of the sixth or seventh century, contains the "Psalterium Gallicanum" upon the left-hand page, and a version made from the Hebrew upon each page facing it. The Psalter proper is here followed, as nearly always in these liturgical books, by the principal canticles, e.g. the Canticle of the Three Children, the Canticle of Moses etc. and, what is not so general a feature, though sometimes found, by a collection of hymns or Hymnarium . These last were more commonly written in a book apart. The oldest Psalter of the British Museum, which comes from St. Augustine's, Canterbury, and which was long supposed to have been one of the actual books brought by St. Augustine to England, also contained the Canticles with two or three hymns.
We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.
Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.Help Now >
In other similar books we find the Gloria, Credo, Quicumque vult, and the Litany of the Saints ; at the beginning usually stands a calendar. Many of the more ancient psalteria which survive, as for example the "Psalterium Aureum", of St. Gall and the "Utrecht Psalter", both of them probably of the ninth century, are very richly illuminated or illulstrated–a fact which has probably had much to do with their preservation. A certain tradition tended to establish itself at an early date with regard to the subjects and position of these embellishments. In particular the custom spread widely of dividing the whole Psalter into three parts containing fifty psalms each. Hence the first psalm, the fifty-first psalm, and the hundred and first psalm are usually introduced by a full-page miniature or by a richly-illuminated initial letter. Thus also in penitential codes and monastic documents of both England and Ireland during the early Middle Ages, it is common to find allusions to the recitation of "two fifties" or "three fifties", meaning two or three of the divisions of the Psalter. With regard to the Divine Office the recitation of the Psalms was in primitive times so arranged that the whole Psalter was gone through in the course of the Sunday and ferial Office each week. In many psalteria marginal notes indicated which psalms belonged to each day and hour. Less commonly the psalms were not arranged in their numerical order, but, as in a modern Breviary, according to the order of their occurrence in the ferial Office. Both these classes of books were called psalteria feriata . In medieval cathedral chapters it was common to assign two or three psalms to each prebend for daily recitation, the psalms being so distributed that the bishop and canons got through the whole Psalterium between them. The repetition of the entire Psalter was, as many necrologies and monastic custumals show, a favourite form of suffrage for the dead.
We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.
Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.Help Now >
Join the Movement
When you sign up below, you don't just join an email list - you're joining an entire movement for Free world class Catholic education.
-
Mysteries of the Rosary
-
St. Faustina Kowalska
-
Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary
-
Saint of the Day for Wednesday, Oct 4th, 2023
-
Popular Saints
-
St. Francis of Assisi
-
Bible
-
Female / Women Saints
-
7 Morning Prayers you need to get your day started with God
-
Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Sacrifices of Faith: The Pro-Life Legacies of St. Gianna and Jessica Hanna
-
How to love God by caring for our bodies
-
Pope Francis calls for negotiations to End Russia-Ukraine War
-
Pope Francis Contemplates Return to U.S. for United Nations Assembly Address
-
Pope Francis Calls on Faithful to Embrace Faith, Hope, and Charity in New Teaching Series
Daily Catholic
- Daily Readings for Monday, April 29, 2024
- St. Catherine of Siena: Saint of the Day for Monday, April 29, 2024
- Prayer for the Dead # 3: Prayer of the Day for Monday, April 29, 2024
- Daily Readings for Sunday, April 28, 2024
- St. Peter Chanel: Saint of the Day for Sunday, April 28, 2024
- Prayer before a Crucifix: Prayer of the Day for Sunday, April 28, 2024
Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of Catholic Online and are protected under U.S. and International copyright laws, © Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. Any unauthorized use, without prior written consent of Catholic Online is strictly forbidden and prohibited.
Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law.