Can anyone find the text for the original 1662 book? There are many versions implying that they are, but they often have the wrong monarch or latter additions in them. One that I thought I had found appeared to be incomplete.
It is difficult to find, as it went through minor revisions (and misprints) over the years, like KJV. This page has several copies of it throughout history: http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1662/1662.html The earliest copy with a working link there (I think) is this from 1669: https://archive.org/details/bookofcommonpray00chur_14/page/n65/mode/2up
Alternatively, if you just want to track the changes over time: http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/Variations.htm
Thanks Fr Brench for the 1669 link. The first things I noticed about it are; there is no 39 articles, or a list of whom I can't marry.
I have this saved, from 1666: https://archive.org/details/comy00chur That's pretty much as close as you're going get to the 1662 itself. I have several prized links for the previous prayer books as well, especially the 1590s and the 1630s, if you are interested.
Thanks JonahAF . I can see one reason why literacy was less than it is today. It's a physical struggle to read such small print. Anyone of ripper years could well have struggled to read it at all. They also seemed to think paragraphs were a sin and avoided them as much as possible. The font (is it Gothic?) is difficult for us but probably not an issue for the Stuart era. Fr Brench's copy seems a lot more easy to use than yours but there is something strange! Fr Brench's copy is a lot lot less dense (less words per page) than yours but they have a similar number of pages 536 verses 584 and the more condensed version has the more pages! Someone has either added to their prayer book or cut things from it. A bit of sleuthing for me to do and maybe others.
The font size is actually the same as in other Books of Common Prayer. The reason it seems so small was just that the book was so gigantic. You are looking at a Folio size, which is the size in which all majestic books were published during this period. It was not meant to be personally carried, but rather a titanic statement, meticulously and perfectly designed in the way that smaller (portable) books were not. Here is the first Spanish Bible by Cassiodoro de Reina (c. 1520 – 1594), a Spanish Reformer, and native of Seville, who escaped from Spain about 1577: http://bibles-online.net/flippingbook/1569/ Easily the most majestic Bible printed in the Spanish language, but that majesty could not be conveyed in a portable size such as you or I might be accustomed to. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_size Consequently when the Folio size had been abandoned, the majesty went along with it, and our Bibles today differ little from a pulp paperback.
Ah yes that makes sense. But! both the 1666 copy and 1669 have a similar number of pages although the 1669 has about one third to one quarter of the words per page as the 1666. So the 1666 has more content. At a cursory glance it may be the 1669 just lists what scripture passages to read, whereas the 1666 includes the actual passage. The 1666 includes; Orders of prayers to be used at sea and prayers for 3 days ,5 nov, 30 Jan and 29 May in the Contents page listed after the Psalter but I can't find them in the book.
Ok folks your wait is over. I know you have been hanging out to find out why the 1666 version of the prayer book has more content than the 1669 version. Now you no longer have to keep checking this thread every five minutes. The 1666 version includes the whole Bible plus the Apocrypha and straight after the Bible, in true British style there is 43 pages of psalms repeated again incase you missed them in the Bible section. I have trolled trawled through the book and will bring up some interesting thoughts soon.
That's probably because in the English tradition there are several classic translations of the Psalms. One is the Coverdale Psalter, which some people swear by. Another is the translation included in the Authorized Version (KJV), which has some of the most famous translations, eg. "The Lord is my shelter, I shall not want." Typically the Bibles will have the KJV psalms, while the BCPs will have the Coverdale psalter. When you combine both books into one, you'll have the same psalter delivered in two different ways.
You seem to know a bit about the B.o.C.P. So I'll learn ya some more Why is Berick upon Tweed mentioned in the Act of Uniformity? Why is Calais mentioned in earlier BoCPs? Pies are mentioned in "Concerning the service of the Church" We all of course all know these were banned under the "Putting away of books and images Act of 1549 but when were they made legal again in the UK? Why have I gone from an agnostic factory worker to a canon lawyer in a few months?
Not quite but a good try. I possibly wouldn't expect you to know what a Pie is as you don't have the Anglican Badge which says you assent to everything in the 1662 B.oC.P. , and all those people do of course read the fine print. But just for your edification here is what it says about Pies and they are talking about Psalms Now of late time a few of them have been daily said, and the rest utterly omitted. Moreover, the number and hardness of the Rules called the Pie, and the manifold changings of the Service, was the cause, that to turn the Book only was so hard and intricate a matter, that many times there was more business to find out what should be read, than to read it when it was found out.