About this edition

Lancelot Andrewes (1555–1626) kept a book of private prayers in his own hand, in Greek, Latin and Hebrew. He left it to a friend at his death; it was printed after it, and has been edited and reprinted many times since. This is the text of the 1853 Parker edition, which reprints the 1675 Sheldonian, set beside a new English translation.

What is here

The whole volume: Part I’s week of daily prayers in Greek with the Latin beside it, Part II’s Preces Quotidianae, and Part III’s Creed and penitential prose, printed from MS Harley 6616 and new in 1853. The Hebrew stands where the plate sets it.

With the text: the apparatus — 1,676 notes anchored to the lines they belong to, and the collation ledgers behind them; a scripture index of 2,267 references the 1853 prints and 94 more it never marks; and a synopsis setting Part III’s recension beside the Part II matter it rewrites.

How to read the parallel

The columns are keyed by sense-line, not by page: line 12 is the same line of the same prayer in all three languages, which is what makes the parallel honest rather than approximate. Every line carries an anchor, so printed 34, line 27 cites identically in this edition and in the printed book — and the printed book’s own citations work here.

The 1853’s references and its errors are kept as printed and flagged, never silently mended. Where it cites a psalm by the Vulgate’s numbering, or the Prayer Book’s, or the Authorised Version’s — and it does all three, and a hybrid of two — the figure stands as the plate sets it and a note says which it is.

The Latin

One caution the printed edition answers in its introduction and this site should not leave unsaid: for printed pages 1–250 the Latin may be an editor’s rather than Andrewes’ own. The question is set out at The Latin Question, and it is open.

The book

There is a printed edition — the same text and apparatus, set as a Loeb with the originals verso and the English recto, and carrying an introduction and preface that are not reproduced here. This site is the free home of the English.