A Newly Typeset Dominican Breviary from the Humbert Codex

This Breviary follows the Dominic tradition as codified by Bl. Humbert of Romans, the fifth master-general of the Dominican Order. As Fr. William Bonniwell, O.P. writes in his A History of the Dominican Liturgy, St. Dominic was "an ardent lover of the liturgy" and believed that for "preaching to be fruitful it must needs be sustained and vivified by prayer (sic)." The Dominican Rite, more properly, the Dominican Use, is a variant of the Roman Rite with medieval variations, and is but one example of the colorful and manifold varieties of liturgy during the Age of Faith.

This Breviary preserves the ancient Roman Psalter distribution and cursus, from twelve Psalms at ferial Matins, to eighteen Psalms and three nocturns at Sunday Matins, to the daily use of Psalm 118 at the minor hours, and fixed Psalms at Compline. The antiphons, feasts, and Kalendar also differ by many respects, being proper to the Dominican Rite, and thus cannot be easily adapted to the 1962 Roman Breviary without causing great harm to both traditions.

This Breviary contains the medieval Divine Office, which differs from the Liturgy of the Hours in several aspects, from seven canonical hours (vs. five), a weekly Psalter (instead of a four-week Psalter), and different rubrical logic concerning the structure of feasts, for example, ranks and rules regarding First Vespers and Octaves.

Yes, this Breviary contains all the canonical hours for every day of the year in a single volume.

Yes. It contains the complete Matins lessons of the 13th-century Dominican Office, utilizing the internal rubrical system of lessons from the Commons and Dominical repetitions.

This Breviary uses the Kalendar as given in the Humbertian prototype, that is, the Dominican Rite Kalendar of the 13th century. The Kalendar is balanced between Temporal and Sanctoral feasts, and is simple to follow.

Yes. A companion Yearly Ordo has been published and is available below! It provides instructions on which Office is said for each day, and includes an English translation of the rubrics, along with two full specimen Offices.

The layout of this Breviary follows the source Codex of Santa Sabina XIV L1. While the medieval layout differs somewhat from modern breviaries, it mirrors the traditional structure of printed Dominican Breviaries, such as the 1894 edition, as found online.

To keep pagecount low, chant notation is not included in this Breviary. While LaTeX supports chant notation, music is outside the scope of this project. That being said, this is a Dominican Breviary, so anyone with Dominican Chant Books can sing them in their proper melodies.

Medieval Latin. This is the Latin of the Catholic Church. Considering the international audience, and for fidelity to the medieval source, Latin will be the only option. Latin ensures that anyone with Dominican Chant Books can sing them in their proper melodies. Those looking for English may find the Ordo companion helpful with English rubrics.

For authenticity and fidelity to the text, the Latin orthography is based directly on the source manuscript, with modern distinction between u's and v's. This style of Latin was the norm for nearly 1,000 years, before the Humanists of the Renaissance standardized Latin orthography.

If there is demand, other publishers will be considered for hardcover, as Amazon KDP is limited in options when it comes to hardcover publishing and is not conducive to the flipping of pages in daily use.

Yes. The complete LaTeX repository is open-source and hosted on GitHub. Anyone can inspect the code, compile their own PDF, or fork the repository to compile their own Breviary or Liturgical Book. The source is available at AlanL399/BreviaryTypesetting

Compared to competing offerings, this Breviary is a class of its own, being a full, one-volume Breviary with no excised content. Other Breviary options are either expensive, multi-volume sets, or are one-volume truncated editions with omitted material, e.g. diurnals or beginner editions.

By utilizing free software, such as LaTeX and GitHub, and modern technologies, namely, print-on-demand (POD) publishing, the immense overhead, boardrooms, and marketing budgets of corporate publishing houses can be easily bypassed. Under an economical mindset, gold-gilt and fine leather options were skipped, costs have been kept low, leaving the focus on the publishing alone.

Compared to publishers offering a monthly subscription for a selection of the Divine Office, this Breviary is more economical as a one-time purchase than a whole year's subscription for a reduced selection of disposable, landfill-bound monthly prayer booklets. This volume has zero recurring fees, zero corporate subscriptions, and zero waste.

This edition is published as a historical and devotional Breviary for private recitation and scholarship.

For laypersons, private prayer does not require any ecclesiastical approval. As Pope Benedict XVI once said, "What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church's faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place." Clerics or those living under a rule should consult their competent religious superiors about use of this volume to fulfill their canonical obligation.

Accordingly, this book makes no claim to ecclesiastical approbation for public liturgy.