The Primitive Cistercian Breviary

I recently ran into this interesting find, offered by the University press of Fribourg.

The Primitive Cistercian Breviary
With Variants from The "Bernardine" Cistercian Breviary

by Chrysogonus Waddell, OCSO

728 pp
Fr. 125.- /EUR 80.-
ISBN 978-3-7278-1561-4

Collection: Spicilegium Friburgense, Volume 44

"The manuscript Ms. Lat. Oct. 402 from the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz is foremost among the sources for an understanding of the Cistercian Divine Office in its origins and in its l2th-century evolution. Dating from 1132, it is the sole extant breviary known to have survived the massive liturgical reform carried out in the Cistercian Order under the general direction of St. Bernard and his collaborators, a reform which ended around 1147. For the first time we have the means of knowing exactly the texts used in the Divine Office in the early days of the Order; and for the first time we have a means of identifying precisely the texts revised by Bernard and his fellow-editors. We can thus gain an insight into the mind and spirit of those responsible for the shaping up of the Order’s Office."

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