A Note About my Sources.

A Note about my Sources.

I started this project with a fundamental misunderstanding: I thought that the Book of Common Prayer used by the Church of England had not changed since 1662. When I wanted to create a web version, I went to my bookshelf, pulled down a copy, and started typing. My fingers got very tired very quickly, so I borrowed a copy with larger type from my local library, and started scanning. That worked much better, but I soon discovered that there were differences between the two texts.

Which version should I use? I dithered, I dug out a few other copies from storage in my mother's basement and from the library, and compared. I finally decided to get my hands on a copy of the 1662 edition, and go with that. That idea lasted for about an hour after I started dealing with the 17th-century spelling and punctuation. So I finally decided to use the most current version I could find as my base text, and to include links for the major differences.

In addition to using several different printed sources for scanning or typing, I also downloaded as much as I could of the American Book of Common Prayer in different editions, and re-modified them to match my base text. I downloaded the Psalter and the Epistles and Gospel lessons from on-line sources as well, which saved my poor fingers a lot of work, but means the finished product is even more of a compilation. I have put it through a spell-checker and proofread against my standard text, so it should stand up to general need. I don't recommend it for scholarly use, although I have done my best to be accurate.

Within the United Kingdom, the current text of the Book of Common Prayer and the Authorized Version of the Bible are the property of the Crown in perpetuity, and rights to it are exercised by the Crown Printer. My understanding is that this does not pose a problem for this site because it is not located in the United Kingdom (it's in Seattle, Washington, USA). As far as I know, none of the other materials on this site are protected by copyright or other restrictions. Please let me know if you believe you have found any protected material on this site.

Barry, The Rt. Rev. Alfred, Teacher's Prayer Book: Being the Book of Common Prayer, with Introductions, Analyses, Notes, and a Commentary upon the Psalter. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, [date unknown].
I love this book. It has the text of the Prayer Book interleaved with very readable commentary and explanation. I used this as my base text for the first two thirds of the project, and then re-checked everything against my later standard. The Notes on the Festivals are taken from this book. My copy isn't dated, but it is probably from the first (1882) or second (1884) edition.
Bible Gateway. http://www.biblegateway.com/.
I cut and pasted the Epistle and Gospel lessons from the Authorized (or King James) Version on this online service and edited them to match the printed versions in my standard text. I have also used this service to create live links for the canonical lessons.
Booty, John E., Ed. The Book of Common Prayer 1559: The Elizabethan Prayer Book. Charlottesville: Virginia UP, 1976. [ISBN 0-8139-0503-6]
This was my source for the Act of Uniformity because it was the first place I found it in a large enough type that I could scan it.
Church of England. Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church According to the Use of the Church of England. New York: Holt, 1992. [ISBN 0-8050-2284-8]
This book is beautifully illuminated, but it does not include the Psalter or the Ordinal. I used this for scanning most of the original text, and proofread it as I scanned against the Teacher's Prayer Book.
Church of England. Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church According to the Use of the Church of England Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David Pointed as they are to be Sung or Said in Churches and the Form or Manner of Making, Ordaining, and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1989 [?].
This text seems to be the same as the 1987 edition, but does not include the Tables of Alternative Lessons. It was my source for the How to follow the Service charts. [I had already decided to use the 1987 edition as my standard text before this edition arrived through Interlibrary Loan; I decided it wasn't worth rechecking everything at that point.]
Church of England. Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church According to the Use of the Church of England Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David Pointed as they are to be Sung or Said in Churches and the Form or Manner of Making, Ordaining, and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1987 [?].
This was my final "standard text". It includes the modifications introduced by the Clergy (Ordination and Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure, 1964; Prayer Book (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure, 1965; and Prayer Book (Further Provisions) Measure, 1968. When the problem with my version of the Psalter was pointed out to me, I went back to this source for the correct version.
Church of England. Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church According to the Use of the Church of England Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David Pointed as they are to be Sung or Said in Churches and the Form or Manner of Making, Ordaining, and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, [date unknown].
This version is bound with Hymns Ancient and Modern and was my source for the Revised Tables of Lessons (1922). It is undated, but my copy is inscribed 'Xmas, 1945', so I assume it was published around that time.
Church of England. Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church According to the Use of the Church of England Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David Pointed as they are to be Sung or Said in Churches and the Form or Manner of Making, Ordaining, and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. London: by His Ma^ties Printers, 1662.
This was my source for the 1662 Act for the Uniformity of Publick Prayers and for versions of the state services for January 30, May 29, and November 5. The original (now in Huntington Library and listed in Wing's Short-Title Catalogue as number B3622) was microfilmed by UMI in 1976 and is now available in Proquest's Early English Books Online database (http://wwwlib.umi.com/eebo). I worked from the online version. Handwritten statements on the reverse of the title page say that:
"All the Amendments made with the pen in this Booke are made according to the Amendments made with the Pen, in one other Booke belonging to the Library of Bridgewater-house in Barbacan, the Amendments in which Booke were made according to the Amendments made with the Pen (by the Examiners appointed for that Purpose) in one of the Bookes Preserved for a Record by Virtue of the Act of Parliament for Uniformity; which Amendments so made in that Booke were Examined the Six and twentieth day of January 1662, and the Amendments made in this Booke according to the Amendments so made in that Booke were Examined the two and twentieth day of September: 1663. By [seal] [illegible signature and] [seal] Robert Scott
"The Record by which the Booke belonging to the Library at Bridgewater-house was Examined (which Booke this Booke was Examined by) was sent to the Earle of Bridgewater by the then Bishop of London, who is now Arch-Bishop of Canterbury."
In my transcription, I used the corrected text, rather than trying to show the printed errors and their corrections. The majority of the text was printed in the black letter, with sections in Roman letters and occasional words (typically Latin words or proper nouns) in italics. I transcribed everything that was not in black-letter as italics, and the rest in regular Roman text.
Church of England. The Book of Common Prayer as Revised and Settled at the Savoy Conference Anno 1662. 14 Charles II. Reprinted from the Sealed Book in the Tower of London. London: William Pickering, 1844.
The spelling and punctuation is much more modern than the other reprint I tried to use, but it's printed in the black letter, so it's still not very easy to read. I found one version of the service for the 29th of May here.
Church of England. The Book of Common Prayer from the Original Manuscript Attached to the Act of Uniformity of 1662, and now preserved in the House of Lords. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1892.
This claims to be an exact printed version of the original manuscript, and its spelling and punctuation bear that out. I was going to use this as my base text until I decided it was too much work to modify my scanned text to match. Primarily, this was my source for the Julian Table to find Easter, and the original Table of Lessons.
Church of England. The First Prayer-Book of King Edward VI. London: Griffith, 1882.
According to the introduction, "The following volume is a reprint, verbatim et literatim, of the First English Liturgy of the National Church. There are several editions in the British Museum Library, with slight verbal variations. . . several editions were printed simultaneously, some by Whitchurch, some by Grafton, and there were a few others. The present is from one of the three or four editions printed by Grafton." This was my source for the Communion service of 1549 (original spelling). I've done my best, but I can't promise that my typing is as verbatim et literatim as the original reprint.
Frere, Walter Howard. A New History of the Book of Common Prayer with a Rationale of its Offices. London: Macmillan, 1919.
This was my source for the Service of Touching for the King's Evil.
Gloucester, Bishop of, Ed. First and Second Prayer-Books of Edward VI. New York: Dutton, 1920.
This was my source for the Holy Communion services of 1549 (modernized spelling) and 1552, as well as the readings for St. Mary Magdalene.
Jeffreys, William H. Dates of Easter, Rosh Hashanah, and Passover. http://quasar.as.utexas.edu/BillInfo/ReligiousCalendars.html.
This was one of the resources I used in developing my script to calculate Easter.
Koh, Gavin, Ed. The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion. http://www.members.tripod.com/~gavvie/39articles/articles.html.
I downloaded the text of the 39 Articles from this site.
Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. 1928 Book of Common Prayer. http://www.episcopalnet.org/1928bcp/index.html.
This was my original source for the Psalter (until someone pointed out its differences from the English version) and one of the American versions of the Book of Common Prayer from which I culled sections. The on-line version is maintained by the Anglican Province of Christ the King.
Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. 1979 Book of Common Prayer. http://www.mit.edu/~tb/anglican/
The American version of the Book of Common Prayer was originally based on the English version, so many passages are still similar enough to have saved me from having to retype them. This was one of the American versions I used. [As of 9/12/1999, this resource seems to have disappeared. If anyone knows where it went, please let me know and I'll update my link.]
Royal Observatory Greenwich. "The Date of Easter: Information Leaflet No. 57". http://www.rog.nmm.ac.uk/leaflets/easter/easter.html.
This was one of the resources I used in developing my script to calculate Easter. It contains tables to find the Golden Numbers, the Epact, and the date of Easter under the Gregorian Calendar. It also provides an algorithm to calculate the date of Easter for any date between 1900 and 2099.
Talicom Software. HTML PowerTools for Windows. http://www.tali.com/.
Not precisely a source in the same sense as my other listings, this is the suite of HTML tools that I used to standardize and validate my HTML code and links throughout the site. Since I don't use any kind of HTML editor to create the pages, these tools were invaluable for catching syntax errors and broken links as the site has evolved.
Tøndering, Claus. The Calendar FAQ. http://www.tondering.dk/claus/calendar.html
This was my main source for the formulae to use in the script that calculates Easter and the other holy-days.
United Church of England and Ireland. Book of Common Prayer according to the Use of the United Church of England and Ireland. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1844.
Simon Kershaw kindly provided me with an electronic text of the Form of Prayer for the Thirtieth of January taken from this book.
Woods, Steve D., Ed. The Deuterocanonical Books of the Bible: The Apocrypha. http://web2.airmail.net/webchap/apoc/.
The Authorized (King James) Version of the Apocrypha was not available through the Bible Gateway, so I originally used this site to create live links for the apocryphal lessons. The site seems to have gone out of business, however, so these lessons are now on my own site.