Latin Psalters

The Latin Psalters are the translations of the Book of Psalms into the Latin language. They are the premier liturgical resource used in the Liturgy of the Hours of the Latin Rites of the Roman 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 Gothic period were the type of book most often chosen to be richly illuminated by the clergy.

Versions

The Latin Church has a diverse selection of more-or-less different translations of the psalms. Three of these translations, the Romana, Gallicana, and juxta Hebraicum, are traditionally ascribed to Jerome, the author of the Latin Vulgate. Two of these translations, the Pian and New Vulgate versions, were made in the 20th century.

Many of these translations are actually quite similar to each other, especially in style: the Roman, Gallican, Ambrosian, and Mozarabic psalters have relatively few differences between them. The concord among these similar psalters is attributable to a common original translation from the Greek Septuagint. The New Vulgate psalter, though stylistically similar to these, diverges rather more from these traditional psalters insofar as it more closely follows the Hebrew Masoretic text. Two of these psalters stand apart as independent translations from the Hebrew: Jerome's juxta Hebraicum and the Pian version.