Biblos tēs Dēmosias Euchēs: Kai Yeleseōs Mystēriōn kai tōn Allōn Thesmōn kai Teletōn tēs Ekklēsias: Kata to Eth[os] tēs Agglikanēs Ekklēsias: Pros [de] t[ou]tois Typos k[ai] Tropos tēs Katagaseōs, Cheirotonias, kai Kathierōseōs Episkopōn Presbyterōn k[ai] Diakonōn
by The Church of England
| Book of Common Prayer in Greek | |
|
[[File:|center|border|300px]] Title page from Biblos tēs Dēmosias Euchēs, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary. | |
| Author | Church of England |
| Published | En tē Kantabrigia: Exetypōthē par' Iōannou Phieldou ... |
| Date | 1665 |
| Language | Greek |
| Pages | [36], 126, [2] |
| Desc. | 8vo. (17 cm.) |
The Book of Common Prayer is the liturgical book of the Anglican Church.[1] It was first compiled in 1549, after the English Reformation and the separation of the Anglican Church from the Catholic Church in Rome,[2] and was primarily the work of Thomas Cranmer, the archbishop of Canterbury.[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 Book of Common Prayer was altered significantly in 1552 in order to align it more definitively with Protestant traditions. Further revisions were made in 1559, 1604, and 1662.[5] Later proposals to alter it were unsuccessful, and the version used today is substantially similar to that of 1662.[6]
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.[7] It is the second most frequently cited book in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after the Bible.[8] Its influence on the English language is almost as great as that of the Authorized King James Bible and Shakespeare’s works.[9]
In 1665, James Duport, Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, edited a verbatim Greek translation of the Book of Common Prayer, intended primarily for use in college and universities.[10] Duport (1606-1679) was a tutor at Trinity College for over thirty years, and was particularly known for taking on royalist students.[11] His other works included “a Homeric paraphrase of the book of Job,” and Homeri gnomologia, a collection of Homeric aphorisms annotated with quotations from the Bible and other texts.[12]
Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library
Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy
Bound with: Psaltērion tou David. (En Kantabrigia: Etypothē par' Iōannou tou Fieldou, tou tēs Akadēmias typothetou, 1664).
View the record for this book in William & Mary's online catalog.
References
- ↑ Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, s.v. "Book of Common Prayer," accessed June 8, 2015.
- ↑ "The BCP Story," The Prayer Book Society, accessed June 8, 2015.
- ↑ Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, s.v. "Book of Common Prayer."
- ↑ "The BCP Story."
- ↑ Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, s.v. "Book of Common Prayer."
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ "The BCP Story."
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ Ibid.
- ↑ William Muss-Arnolt, "Chapter V: Latin and Greek Translations, II," in The Book of Common Prayer Among the Nations of the World (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1913).
- ↑ Rosemary O'Day, "Duport, James (1606-1679)" in Oxford English Dictionary of National Biography, accessed June 8, 2015.
- ↑ Ibid.
