Difference between revisions of "Liturgia: Seu Liber Precum Communium"

Revision as of 14:12, 24 September 2024

by the Church of England

Book of Common Prayer (Latin)
Title not held by The Wolf Law Library at the College of William & Mary.
Author	Church of England
Editor
Translator
Published	Londini: Typis G. Bowyer, Impensis J. & J. Bonwicke
Date	1744
Edition
Language
Volumes	volume set
Pages
Desc.

The Book of Common Prayer is the liturgical book of the Anglican Church.^[1] First compiled in 1549, after the English Reformation and the separation of the Anglican Church from the Catholic Church in Rome,^[2], it was primarily the work of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury under Henry VIII.^[3] Within one volume, the Book of Common Prayer set out "the forms of service for daily and Sunday worship… morning prayer, evening prayer, the Litany, and Holy Communion ... the orders for baptism, confirmation, marriage, 'prayers to be said with the sick' and a funeral service."^[4]

The influence of the Book of Common Prayer reaches beyond the Anglican Church: its prayers have been adapted by other Protestant denominations, and its marriage and burial rights are particularly well-known.^[5] It is the second most frequently cited book in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after the Bible.^[6] Its influence on the English language is almost as great as that of the authorized King James version of the Bible and William Shakespeare's works.^[7]

Despite one of the original purposes of the book of common prayer to be a move away from Latin, the book was surprisingly translated into Latin so that it could be better understood by theological students on the continent. It was also used in colleges and universities where it was expected at the time that all would know Latin. The 1662 Book was first translated into Latin by Jean Durel in 1670. ^[8]

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

Listed in the Jefferson Inventory of Wythe's Library as "do. [Liturgia Anglicana] Lat. 12mo" and kept by Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson later sold a copy to the Library of Congress in 1815,^[9] which still exists but includes no markings to verify Wythe's prior ownership. It does include a partially obliterated inscription of "Isaac Walker" on the front flyleaf which may indicate the volume came from Wythe's maternal relatives. Both the Brown Bibliography^[10] and George Wythe's Library^[11] on LibraryThing list the 1744 edition of this title based on Thomas Jefferson's copy at the Library of Congress.

See also

• Biblos tēs Dēmosias Euchēs
• Jefferson Inventory
• Wythe's Library

References

1. ↑ Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, s.v. "Book of Common Prayer," accessed September 29, 2015.
2. ↑ "The BCP Story," The Prayer Book Society, September 29, 2015.
3. ↑ Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, s.v. "Book of Common Prayer."
4. ↑ "The BCP Story."
5. ↑ "The BCP Story."
6. ↑ Ibid.
7. ↑ Ibid.
8. ↑ The Book of Common prayer, s.v. "[1]," acessed September 29, 2015.
9. ↑ E. Millicent Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson (Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress, 1952-1959), 2:113-114 [no.1509].
10. ↑ Bennie Brown, "The Library of George Wythe of Williamsburg and Richmond," (unpublished manuscript, 2024) Microsoft Word file.
11. ↑ LibraryThing, s.v. "Member: George Wythe," accessed on September 24, 2024.