Breviary

BREVIARY. - It is the liturgical book that contains the divine office (v.) according to the rite of the Roman Church. The term b. (brief note, compendium), already used in theological language (Breviarium fidei), administrative language (Breviarium imperii, of Augustus), and juridical language (Breviarium extravagantium), in liturgical language originally indicated a sheet or booklet placed at the beginning of the psalter, which noted the divine offices to be performed at a determined time, and the respective formularies with their references.

In its current arrangement the b. consists of the following parts: 1) The bulls (Quod a nobis of St. Pius V of 9 July 1568, in which are set forth the reasons for the publication of the new text and the work done to ensure its correction, as we shall see below, and Divino afflatu of 1 Nov. 1911 with which Pius X orders a new arrangement of the psalter for weekdays. 2) The little treatise De anno et eius partibus, which is a collection of brief astronomical notions, necessary in ancient times when everyone had to make these calculations for himself, but by now superfluous for the use of the Ordo divini Officii which is published every year with all the norms necessary for the recitation of the b. 3) The Calendar with all the feasts to be celebrated with their proper rite. 4) The general Rubrics, which are a novelty in the b. of St. Pius V. They were corrected and increased under Clement VIII and Urban VIII (1602 and 1635), and form the text of the norms that regulate the recitation of the divine office. Other particular norms are scattered throughout the body of the b. A precious source for the rubrics are the ancient Ordines or Ordinarii (v.). 5) The Ordinary of the divine office contains the general framework of the individual canonical hours with those formulas (hymns, chapters, responsories...) that are said daily throughout the year, or at least in its principal liturgical divisions: Advent, ordinary time after Epiphany and after Pentecost, called per annum, Lent, Passiontide, Easter time. 6) The Psalter, a fundamental element of the b., in ancient times was said according to the order given by Sacred Scripture (Psalterium non feriatum). Under the influence of the monks and the Popes certain psalms were chosen for determined canonical hours, at first simply indicated with notes in the margin, then according to the order of the office (Psalterium feriatum). The current psalter contains the psalms and canticles distributed according to the days of the week, with the hymns of the hours for ordinary time. It follows the text of the Vulgate, emended by St. Jerome in 389 and adopted first in Gaul, and therefore called Psalterium gallicanum; the Psalterium romanum, that is, the version of the Vetus latina, in use until the times of St. Pius V in the Roman basilicas and in almost the whole Latin Church, was preserved at St. Peter's in Rome, at St. Mark's in Venice, in Milan and in a few other churches. Pius XII with a Motu proprio of 24 March 1945 permitted in the public and private recitation of the psalms the use of the very recent critical version from the original Hebrew text, prepared by the Pontifical Biblical Institute and arranged according to the disposition given to the psalter by Pius X. 7) The Proper of the Time, with the parts proper to each day of the Christological cycle, begins with the first Sunday of Advent (v. TEMPORALE), followed by the Proper of the Saints, with the parts proper to the feasts of the saints, which begins with the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle, the closest to the first Sunday of Advent (v. SANTORALE). Both cycles, according to the order of the days and months, go up to the last week after Pentecost (v. ANNO LITURGICO). 8) The Commune Sanctorum offers the common parts for all the offices of the saints that do not have their own, and is arranged according to the order of the litany of the saints: Apostles, Evangelists, one or more Supreme Pontiffs, single or multiple Martyrs, Confessor Pontiffs, Doctors, Abbots, Confessors who are not Pontiffs, Virgins, non-Virgins; in addition the Common of the feasts of the Dedication of a Church, of the Madonna and the Office of the dead. 9) Finally, some formulas of collects and common blessings necessary or useful in priestly practice are added, the gradual and penitential psalms with the litany of the saints.

The b. was formed slowly, and every century has contributed to it. The authority of the Pontiffs intervened in it only rather late, more to protect its progress and developments than to halt them.

Three principal periods can be distinguished: 1) the period of formation up to the first plenary b. (11th cent.); 2) from the 11th cent. to St. Pius V; 3) from 1568 to the present. At the beginning, for the recitation of the divine office several books were needed: the canticles were taken from the psalter or from the antiphonary, the hymns from a special hymnal, the passages of Sacred Scripture directly from its codex or from a special lectionary, the readings of the Fathers from the sermonary or homiliary, the histories of the saints from the passionary (v.); the prayers to be recited at the end of the individual Hours or, at first, of the individual psalms, were taken from the sacramentary (v.) or from special collections (collectarium [v.], orationary). When, however, the recitation of the divine office began to be made obligatory for ecclesiastics not only in the choir of a church but also privately, with the further obligation of adhering to the form followed in common recitation, then the gathering of all these books into a single volume became indispensable. To the psalters were first added the antiphons, the versicles and the prayers. Cod. Vat. Reg. 11 (8th-9th cent.) is the oldest example of a psalter with a hymnal. In the 11th and 12th centuries the plenary breviaries began to take shape, and they soon became of common use. With the multiplication of rural parishes, moreover, the need made itself felt to shorten the office, in order to obviate the inconvenience of having to carry many books with one for its recitation. The Roman Curia set the example. Indeed, says Radulf of Tongres, whether by order of the Pope or on their own initiative, the clerics constantly shortened the office, and often modified it according to the convenience of the cardinals (PL 87, 1273 ff.). Thus there arose in the 12th century the Breviarium secundum consuetudinem Romanae Curiae, which had wide diffusion because it was also adopted by the Order of Friars Minor, when it was founded and spread throughout the West. This new form of breviary is one of an impoverished liturgy, made not to be sung solemnly in abbey or cathedral churches, but to be recited privately by those attached to the Curia, in the intervals of their office work, by students and professors of the universities, amid the labors of the apostolate and during pauses in travel. Nevertheless the ancient liturgical office still seemed intact in its entirety: the Roman Curia and the Franciscans had done nothing but make it shorter. Later, however, the suppression or shortening of certain traditional parts of the office gave occasion for the introduction of other secondary elements, such as the multiplication and development of particular feasts, of local devotions, of new hymns, of the daily office of the Madonna, of the office of the dead, of the penitential and gradual psalms. In the second half of the 15th century triumphant humanism attempted to transform the breviary, replacing the usual Latin with a classical one, while some even, for reasons of taste, preferred to recite it in Greek. The hymns too were brought back to the classical system. The premature death of Leo X prevented the spread of this current. Clement VII, however, permitted the private use of the new hymns. In the face of the contrary current of the traditionalists who defended the ancient rites and forms, the moderates prevailed, among whom were Cardinals Francesco Quiñonez, Sadoleto, Contarini and Gregorio Cortese. Quiñonez was given the task of preparing a new breviary, faithful in all things to the institutions of the Holy Fathers, neither difficult nor long. It appeared in 1535 and was called Breviarium Sanctae Crucis, from the cardinalitial title of Quiñonez, which, if it had merits, also had defects, especially that of having broken too much with tradition and given access to many novelties on liturgical ground. After only a few years of use, Paul IV in 1558 forbade its reprinting. In 1562 the question of a complete reform of the breviary was placed before the Council of Trent, and a commission, appointed for the purpose, prepared one which St. Pius V published in 1568 with the bull Quod a nobis. This new breviary returned decisively to the ancient one, while nevertheless taking account of changed circumstances: it abolished every other existing breviary, excepting only those that went back more than 200 years of life or had been directly approved by the Holy See. Thus the right to ordain or change the breviary was reserved to the Holy See itself, and the principle of the unity of the office in the Latin Church was established. Despite universal approval, this reform raised some criticism for the suppression of certain feasts and the deficient correction of historical errors. Gregory XIII and Sixtus V restored certain suppressed feasts, and the latter in 1588 instituted the Sacred Congregation of Rites for the purpose of regulating the whole Latin liturgy and the liturgical books. Clement VIII published in 1602 a new edition of the breviary with additions and corrections. Finally Urban VIII with the bull Divinam Psalmodiam, of 25 January 1632, ordered another edition with emendations and with the correction of the hymns prepared by himself and by certain Jesuit fathers. This breviary has remained until the present, save for the addition of new feasts made by the successors of Urban VIII. Meanwhile in almost all of France various particular breviaries had come into use which too much reflected the ideas of their compilers imbued with Jansenism or Gallicanism. Those of Msgr. De Harlay of 1680 and of Cardinal De Ventimille prepared in 1736 had greater vogue. At the beginning of the 19th century, after the concordat of 1801, in the confusion caused by the new circumscription of the dioceses, the French bishops thought of unifying the liturgy of France, but full agreement was lacking; thus other novelties came forth, which ended by producing a reaction. Meanwhile the need to conform to Rome made itself felt more and more. The first to adopt the Roman breviary was Msgr. Parisis, bishop of Langres in 1840, followed then by Cardinal Gousset, archbishop of Reims, and very soon by all the other French bishops, so much so that Pius IX in 1853 was able to congratulate the French episcopate on the return of France to the unity of the Roman liturgy. A attempt at reform had meanwhile been made by Benedict XIV, who appointed a special commission for the purpose, but owing to many circumstances the desired conclusion was not reached. Further reforms were considered by Pius IX, Leo XIII and Pius X who, with the bull Divino afflatu of 1 November 1911, ordered a new arrangement of the psalter so that during the week all the psalms would be recited.

Manuscript breviaries are found more or less everywhere. One of the oldest, of the 11th century, is kept in the Vatican Library (lat. 7018), where are also preserved the one used by Francesco Petrarch (Vat. Borg. 364), and the other made for Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary (Vat. Urbinate 112). In general the choir breviaries are more illustrated than the portable ones. Those of princes, bishops, abbots and other dignitaries are illuminated; thus, for example, that of John of Amboise contains 172 miniatures (15th cent.); that of Philip the Good 134, that of Charles V 186, that of the duke of Bedford some thousands. In Italy the oldest are due to the Cassinese Benedictines; the most important were those of the pontifical court: Breviarium de Camera, Breviarium secundum usum Curiae Romanae, established at least from the time of Innocent III (1198-1216). The subject of the miniatures is taken from Holy Scripture, from the liturgical theme of the day, or they are symbolic attributes of the months, scenes of religious and profane life, ornaments. A list of the first breviaries printed between the years 1468-1543 in Enc. Ital., VII, p. 838.

For the divine Office and its various parts, v. ORE CANONICHE.

THE BREVIARY IN ART

The illustrations of the breviary are linked to the various artistic schools. Those of medieval breviaries do not differ substantially from the miniatures of evangeliaries or bibles; at the end of the 14th century, however, a type of illustration proper to the breviary was born, informed by the liturgy of Paris (or more precisely of the royal chapel of the 15th century, derived in turn, for the most part, from the cathedral of Notre-Dame). The names of the first miniaturists of this category are largely unknown. To the artistic center that formed in the second half of the 15th century at the court of Burgundy belongs the school of Bruges, to which is owed the breviary of Philip the Good (library of Brussels) illuminated by Vrelant and by J. le Tavernier before 1467, and the Grimani breviary of the Marciana Library in Venice. This breviary, which is the most precious of all those known, was illuminated around 1510 by various artists, among them Horenbout, Gossart and the Bening, who sought to surpass even the «livre d'heures» of the Limbourg brothers of Chantilly. Three beautiful miniatures by Paul of Limbourg from the breviary of John the Fearless are preserved in the British Museum.

After the invention of printing the use of the breviary spread ever more widely; but the illustrations, which nevertheless, also on account of their rarity, are notable documents for the history of engraving, are poor in iconographic value. - See Pl. V.