Latin Psalters
There exist a number of translations of the Book of Psalms into the Latin language. They are a resource used in the Liturgy of the Hours and other forms of the canonical hours in the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church.
These translations are typically placed in a separate volume or a section of the breviary called the psalter, in which the psalms are arranged to be prayed at the canonical hours of the day. In the Middle Ages, psalters were often lavish illuminated manuscripts, and in the Romanesque and early Gothic period were the type of book most often chosen to be richly illuminated.
Versions
The Latin Church has a number of more or less different full translations of the psalms into Latin. Three of these translations, the Romana, Gallicana, and juxta Hebraicum, have been traditionally ascribed to Jerome, the author of most of the Latin Vulgate; however, the Romana was not produced by Jerome. Two other translations, the Pian and Nova Vulgata versions, were made in the 20th century.''Versio Vetus Latina''
Also called the Psalterium Vetus, the psalter of the Vetus Latina Bible. Quotations from the Psalms in Latin authors show that a number of related but distinct Old Latin recensions were circulating in the mid-4th century. These had by then substantially replaced the older Latin 'Cyprianic Psalter', a recension found in the works of Cyprian of Carthage that only survived in the 4th-century writings of the Donatists; and are all thought to be revisions of a lost common early 3rd-century version.A 12th-century Latin bible from Monte Cassino preserves, alongside the Roman, Gallican and Iuxta Hebraeos psalters, a fourth complete version of the psalms extensively corrected with reference to the columns of the Hexapla Greek, possibly using a columnar transcription of the Hexapla psalter similar to that surviving in Milan. The underlying Latin text for this manuscript is believed to correspond with an early 3rd-century 'Cyprianic Psalter'.
''Versio Ambrosiana''
This is the version used in the Ambrosian rite for use in Milan.''Versio Mozarabica''
This is the version used in the Mozarabic rite for use in Toledo.''Versio Romana''
The Roman Psalter, called also the Versio Romana or Psalterium Romanum, was traditionally identified with Jerome's first revision of the psalms completed in 384; which was thought to have been made from the Versio Vetus Latina, with cursory corrections to bring it more in line with the psalms in the common Greek text of the Septuagint. More recent scholarship rejects this theory. The Roman Psalter is indeed one of five known revised versions of the mid-4th century Old Latin Psalter; but, compared with the four others the revisions in the Roman Psalter are in clumsy Latin and signally fail to follow Jerome's known translational principles, especially in failing to correct harmonised readings. Nevertheless, it is clear from Jerome's correspondence that he was familiar with this psalter text, albeit without ever admitting any responsibility for it; and consequently it is assumed that the surviving Versio Romana represents the minimally revised Roman text as Jerome had found it.The Roman version is retained in the Roman Missal and is found in the writings of Pope Gregory the Great, but for the Divine Office, it was, from the 9th century onwards, replaced throughout most of the west by Jerome's so-called "Gallican" version. It lived on in England where it continued to be used until the Norman Conquest and in Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome and fragments of it were used in the Offices at St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice from at least 1609 until 1807.
''Versio Gallicana''
The Versio Gallicana or Psalterium Gallicanum, also known as the Gallican Psalter has traditionally been considered Jerome's second Latin translation of the Psalms, which he made from the Greek of the Hexapla between 386 and 389. This became the psalter of the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate bible.This most influential psalter has a distinctive style which is attributable to its origins as a translation of the Septuagint. Following the Septuagint, it eschews anthropomorphisms. For instance, the term rock is applied to God numerous times in the Hebrew Psalter, but the Latin term petra does not occur as an epithet for God in the gallicana. Instead more abstract words like refugium, "refuge"; locus munitus, "place of strength"; or adiutor, "helper" are used.
''Versio juxta Hebraicum''
The versio juxta Hebraicum or versio iuxta Hebraeos was the last made by Jerome. It is often informally called the "Hebrew Psalter" despite being written in Latin. Rather than just revise the Gallicana, he translated these psalms anew from the Hebrew, using pre-Masoretic manuscripts ca. 392. This psalter was present in the Bibles until Alcuin's reforms linked to the Carolingian liturgical reform: Alcuin replaced the versio juxta Hebraicum by a version of the psalter used in Gaul at the time. The latter became known as the Gallican psalter, and it superseded the versio juxta Hebraicum. The versio juxta Hebraicum was kept in Spanish manuscripts of the Vulgate long after the Gallican psalter had supplanted it elsewhere. The versio juxta Hebraicum was never used in the liturgy.''Versio Piana''
Under Pius XII, a new Latin translation of the psalms, known as Versio Piana, Psalterium Vaticanum or Novum Psalterium, was published by the Pontifical Biblical Institute. This version is sometimes called the Bea psalter after its author, Augustin Bea. In 1945, its use was officially permitted by the pope through the motu proprio ''In cotidianis precibus'', but not required.''Versio Nova Vulgata''
In 1969, a new psalter was published which translated the Masoretic Text while keeping much of the poetry and style of the Gallican psalter. The 1969 psalter deviates from the previous versions in that it follows the [|Masoretic numbering] of the psalms, rather than the Septuagint enumeration. It is the psalter used in the edition of the Roman Office published in 1986.Comparison
Below is a comparison of Jerome's two versions of the first three verses of the psalm Venite exsultemus with the Vetus Latina, Ambrosiana, Mozarabica, Romana, Gallicana, and Hebraicum versions, as well as the two 20th century versions, which illustrates some of the distinctions noted above:| Versio Vetus Latina | Versio Ambrosiana | Versio Mozarabica | Versio Romana | Versio Gallicana | Versio juxta Hebraicum | Versio Piana | Versio Nova Vulgata |
| Psalmus 94 | Psalmus 94 | Psalmus 94 | Psalmus 94 | Psalmus 94 | Psalmus 94 | Psalmus 94 | Psalmus 94 |
| Venite, exultemus in Domino: jubilemus Deo salutari nostro. | Venite, exultemus Domino: jubilemus Deo salutari nostro. | Venite, exultemus in domino, iubilemus deo saluatori nostro. | Venite, exsultemus Domino; iubilemus Deo salutari nostro. | Venite, exsultemus Domino; jubilemus Deo salutari nostro; | Venite laudemus Dominum iubilemus petrae Iesu nostro | Venite, exsultemus Domino, Acclamemus Petrae salutis nostrae: | Venite, exsultemus Domino; iubilemus Deo salutari nostro. |
| Præveniamus vultum ejus in confessionem: et in psalmis jubilemus ei. | Præveniamus faciem ejus in confessione: et in psalmis jubilemus illi. | Preoccupemus faciem eius in confessione, et in psalmis iubilemus ei. | Præoccupemus faciem eius in confessione, et in psalmis iubilemus ei. | præoccupemus faciem ejus in confessione, et in psalmis jubilemus ei: | praeoccupemus vultum eius in actione gratiarum in canticis iubilemus ei | Accedamus in conspectum eius cum laudibus, Cum canticis exsultemus ei. | Praeoccupemus faciem eius in confessione et in psalmis iubilemus ei. |
| Quia Deus magnus est, et rex magnus super omnes deos: quia non repelet Dominus populum suum. | Quoniam Deus magnus Dominus: et Rex magnus super omnes deos. | Quoniam deus magnus dominus, rex magnus super omnem terram. | Quoniam Deus magnus Dominus, et rex magnus super omnes deos. | quoniam Deus magnus Dominus, et rex magnus super omnes deos. | quoniam fortis et magnus Dominus et rex magnus super omnes deos | Nam Deus magnus est Dominus, Et Rex magnus super omnes deos. | Quoniam Deus magnus Dominus, et rex magnus super omnes deos. |
Enumeration
The enumeration of the psalms differs in the Nova Vulgata from that used in the earlier versions. The earlier versions take their enumeration from the Greek Septuagint. The Versio Nova Vulgata takes its enumeration from the Hebrew Masoretic Text.- Psalms 9 and 10 in the Nova Vulgata are together as Psalm 9 in the older versions
- Psalms 114 and 115 in the Nova Vulgata are Psalm 113 in the older versions
- Psalms 114 and 115 in the older versions appear as Psalm 116 in the Nova Vulgata
- Psalms 146 and 147 in the older versions form Psalm 147 in the Nova Vulgata
- Psalms 10–112 and 116–145 in the older versions are numbered lower by one than the same psalm in the Nova Vulgata.
- Psalms 1–8 and 148–150, 11 psalms in total, are numbered the same in both the old versions and the new one.