Miserere Mei: The Penitential Psalms in Late Medieval and Early Modern England

Other Conventions

xv Other Conventions Textual Note For early works, I have silently expanded abbreviations and contractions . I have also removed double capitalization occurring at the beginning of sentences and updated obsolete characters (such as thorn and yogh, the long s, and ligatures). In general, however, I have kept modernization light. Translations for Non-English Sources Wherever possible, I give English translations for non-English sources (Augustine, Cassiodorus, Luther, and so on) from the standard versions . These translations are referenced in my notes. The remaining English renderings are mine. Quotations and Translations from the Vulgate Bible All quotations from the Vulgate Bible are taken from Biblia sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem, edited by Bonifatius Fischer et al., and revised by Robert Weber. It should be noted that the Fischer/Weber edition xvi Other Conventions­ includes two different Psalters translated by Jerome: the Psalterium Gallicanum and the Psalterium iuxta Hebraicum. I use the Psalterium Gal­ licanum, Jerome’s Latin version of the Septuagint Psalter, which circulated more widely than the Psalterium iuxta Hebraicum in the late Middle Ages. English translations of all Latin Vulgate Bible texts are from the Douay-Rheims Bible. I use the 1941 edition published by the Douay Bible House in New York, with the title The Holy Bible. Where necessary, I have amended this text from British to American spelling. Psalm Numbers There are two different systems for subdividing and numbering the psalms.The first is represented in the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate Bibles and their derivatives, including the Douay-Rheims Bible. The second is found in the Masoretic Text (the standard Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible, compiled between the seventh and the tenth centuries CE) as well as in most Protestant Bibles. In this book, I use the­ system relevant to the literature in question in any given chapter.Thus, for the medieval period I follow the Vulgate, and for the Reformation period, I follow the Masoretic Text. ...