I am currently engaged in a project of translating certain Church documents that are not generally available in English (sorry, but this is not one of the Secret Projects, or I wouldn’t be telling you about it). Chief among these documents are the "front matter" of the Roman Missal as it existed before the reform of the liturgy that followed the Second Vatican Council.
This "front matter" corresponds loosely to the present General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) and certain other associated documents.
By translating them, I want to not only make available more of the riches of the former rite of Mass to English speakers but also to provide a tool that can be used to track the development of liturgical law between the change in the two orders of Mass.
But I don’t want to waste my time if I don’t need to. Hence this bleg.
I wanted to ask my readers–who are a very well-informed bunch, as is obvious–if they are aware of English translations of the front matter of the previous Roman Missal, particularly the 1962 edition, which was the last before the Council’s reforms began to kick in.
I know that there were English translations of some documents from this period because I happen to have an English translation of the Roman Ritual (not the same as the Roman Missal) that came out back then. I’m wondering if there was a simlar translation (available online or not) of the Roman Missal in its entirety, or just its front matter.
Specifically, the documents I am wondering about are titled in the 1962 edition as follows:
- Pius Episcopus (servus servorum dei, ad perpetuam rei memoriam)
- Clemens Papa VIII (ad perpetuam rei memoriam)
- Urbanus Papa VIII (ad perpetuam rei memoriam)
- Litterae Apostolicae (moto proprio datae; novum rumbricarum breviarii et missalis romani corpus appprobatur. Johannes PP. XXIII)
- Sacra Congregatio Rituum (decretum generale; quo novus rubricarm breviarii ac missalis romani codex promulgatur)
- Rubricae Generales (chiefly concerned with the calendar)
- Rubricae Generales Missalis Romani
- De Anno et Eius Partibus
- Tabula Paschalis Antiqua Reformata
- Tabula Temporaria
- Calendarium Missalis Romani
- Ritus Servandus in Celebratione Missae
- De Defectibus in Celebratione Missae Occurentibus
- Praeparatio ad Missam
- Gratiarum Actio post Missam
- Ordo Incensandi Oblata
If you are aware of an English translation of any of these (a 1962 edition or an earlier one), in print or online, whether in whole or in part, please let me know by combox or e-mail.
The one exception is De Defectibus in Celebratione Missae Occurrentibus ("On Defects Occurring in the Celebration of Mass"). This document–about liturgical abuses–has already been translated into English and is available on a number of web sites (mostly those of radical traditionalists). I have freshly translated it into English, however, because the existing translation does not seem to be very good. I don’t know what Latin original they were working from (clearly it was not that of the 1962 edition), but this version seems to be a startlingly loose and squishy translation, and I felt that a more literal one was warranted.
This translation should be appearing online soon. I’ll let you know when and where.
Thanks much, folks!
I think this would provide some of what you are looking for, although I’ve seen only the bibliographic record for the work and not the work itself, so I don’t know the exact contents.
Title: Rubrics of the Roman Breviary and Missal. With the Motu Proprio of Pope John XXIII and other pertinent documents …
Author: Leonard J Doyle; Catholic Church. Congregatio Sacrorum Rituum.; Catholic Church. Pope (1958-1963 : John XXIII).; National Catholic Welfare Conference.
Publisher: Washington, D.C., National Catholic Welfare Conference [1960]
OCLC Accession Number: 13901458
I found the record at worldcat.org which is OCLC’s public version of the WorldCat library records database. The accession number is used for InterLibrary Loan requests. According to WorldCat, UCLA has this somewhere, although St. John’s Seminary and University of San Diego have an edition published by Liturgical Press.
I’d recommend playing around with the Worldcat website (or asking a librarian–do you have access to a theological library down there?). You could try WorldCat searches such as <"catholic church" and rubrics> or <"catholic church" and missale>, and limiting your results to English.
The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter has a publication at their website http://www.fssp.com/main/publications.html
entitled “General Rubrics of the 1962 Missal” with a subtitle “An English translation of the rubrics of the Missale Romanum.”
Maybe the information in that booklet would help.
This may or may not be helpful in this particular instance, but Google has available the full text of many books that have fallen out of copyright at http://books.google.com/
Select ‘Full View Books’ beneath the search box and the search will bring up results that allow you to read any page of the book.
Searching “Catholic” brings up some interesting results.
I can’t help directly, but the gang at The New Liturgical Movement would be a great resource.
(Fearless Leader) Shawn Tribe is in England for a conference, but emailing your bleg to the other contributors might get it posted there. The posters there are very well imformed as well.
I have a photocopy of the front matter of an English translation of the Tridentine breviary. That suggests that somewhere out there exists what you are looking for….