NOTTURNO (Vigiliae nocturna, Nocturna laus)
The canonical nighttime hour was already in use in the early Christian centuries (Tertullian, *Ad uxorem*, II, 4: “nocturnis convocationibus”), practiced in imitation of Our Lord in the Sunday and cemetery vigils (i.e., spent beside the tombs of martyrs on their anniversaries), in weekday and daily vigils especially in the monasteries of ascetics and virgins, and organized from the 4th century onward in almost all Churches (Antioch, Caesarea, Jerusalem, Constantinople, Rome, Milan). The monks recited psalms as preliminary prayer, sometimes interspersed with collects; the readings formed the principal part, followed by responsories. These three well-ordered elements are called the N. (vigiliae nocturnae, laus nocturna: Rule of St Benedict, chs. 9–10).
The N. was recited all at once without interruption, either from midnight or toward sunrise. On Sundays and feast days, to increase the prayers, a second N. (Caesarius, Aurelian) and a third (distinguished by “tripartite offices”: Cassian) were added.
The Roman Sunday and feast-day nocturnal praise, since the reform of Pius X, consists of three N.s, each with three psalms, three readings, and three responsories; the ferial and simple feast-day office has one N. with nine psalms (instead of twelve before the reform) and two readings. The monastic-Benedictine ferial cursus retains the ancient number of twelve psalms, divided into two N.s; on Sundays and feast days a third N. of three canticles is added, each N. having four readings.
From the 12th century the N. is called Matins, because it was said before sunrise. Another custom was to anticipate the N. or Matins on the evening of the preceding day (G. Beleth, *Explic. div. off.* cap. 20; Ord. Rom. XIV, 82); this anticipation gradually extended almost to midday. Normally, except by special privilege, the recitation of the N. may not be anticipated before 2 p.m.