Monday, May 12, 2008

Documenta Latina

Documenta Latina is the official Latin page of the Sancta Sedes (or Holy See) of the Vatican. Here you will find many documents of the Roman Catholic Church in Latin, including the Code of Canon Law, the Constitutions, Declarations and Decrees of Vatican II, the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Nova Vulgata (New Vulgate) version of the Biblia Sacra (Holy Bible), as well as Latin language encyclicals, letters, homilies and other papers of recent pontiffs since Pope John XXIII.

The Nova Vulgata (translation commissioned during Vatican II, published 1979) is the official Latin Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. There have been several Latin versions of the Vulgate used by the Catholic Church. The Nova Vulgata is the most recent. Your blogger bought a print copy of the Novum Testamentum (New Testament) based upon the Nova Vulgata from the Vatican a few years ago with facing Greek and Latin.

Perusing the Vatican Publishing House to find a current price for a print copy of the Novum Testamentum Graece et Latine, it is apparent you can even download a Latin language copy of their catalog in PDF format! Wow! Your blogger found a listing for the the Novum Testamentum Graece et Latine in that very Latin language catalog and it will set you back 46 Euros! (1 Euro = $1.54 USD these days, ouch!) If you don't need a print copy, the online version is available for free and you get the Old Testament as a bonus.

That being said, the print copy is quite nice and does include the Greek text.

There are also copies of the Latin Vulgate at the Latin Library as well as at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (downloadable in Adobe Acrobat Reader format, Microsoft Word and Palm Ebook, even) though these public domain versions are likely much older versions than the more recent translation at the Vatican site.

The Vatican Radio has been broadcasting liturgical programs online for a while now -- if you're interested, there's a Holy Mass in Latin every day as well as Lauds (Morning Prayer), the Angelus (mid-day prayer), the Rosary (all four sets of mysteries), Vespers (Evening Prayer), and Compline (the Night Prayer.)