Changes in the arrangement of the Responsories in the Tridentine Breviary - A guest article by Thomas O'Sullivan - Part 3

 While the proper of Saints has seen the most new compositions in subsequent editions of the breviary, there are very few other changes to be noted to the existing arrangement of responsories. The Vatican 1568 is at odds with the other editions for the feasts of the Chair of St Peter, directing one to use the responsories of 29 June, while other editions (including the alternative 1568) give two proper texts, Petre amas me and Elegit te Dominus for the sixth and eighth responsories, the others being the first three and last three of St Peter’s principal feast. The other change is for the feast of St Mary Magdalen. The first three responsories are always Maria Magdalene, Congratulamini and Tulerunt Dominum, taken from Paschaltide; the remaining ones are taken from the Common of Non Virgins. The older breviaries use the second, third, fourth, fifth and eighth, while from 1610, the fourth to eighth are used. Again, this looks like a ‘tidying up’: it seems to make sense to use the fourth in the fourth place, etc., and the same was already the case for the feast of St Clement, who has three proper responsories, followed by those of the Common of One Martyr beginning with the fourth. There are, however, other feasts where other arrangements are used and were left unchanged. For example, St Lucy has three proper responsories, while the last five are taken from the first and second nocturns, not the second and third. The Beheading of St John the Baptist has three propers, then uses those of the Common of One Martyr, beginning with the second, not the fourth, but in this case using the sixth, not the eighth, as the last. 

The most difficult changes to explain are the discrepancies between the two 1568 editions, especially as they were both printed in Rome by the same printer, but perhaps work continued on the reform after the editio princeps was published. This may also be suggested by the places where the 1570 marks a change from the 1568 (and there are other differences between these three editions, but they go beyond the scope of this article).

It can be seen that several of the changes in the arrangement of the responsories took place between 1592 and 1610. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to examine the 1602 edition of the breviary, but given that Clement VIII issued a revision of the breviary that year, it seems reasonable to make a hypothesis that this is when those changes occurred. For those that occurred between 1580/1587 and 1592, it is tempting to think the same pontiff was responsible, but editions from the intervening years would need to be checked to confirm that. What can be stated is that, except for the addition of new propers for various feasts, the arrangement of the responsories found in 1610 remained unchanged and is found as late as a 1906 edition of the breviary. In fact, all the changes examined remained the same in the post Divino afflatu breviary.