Error in Magnificat?
  • priorstf
    Posts: 460
    While transcribing the Magnificat into a worship aid for our upcoming First Friday Vespers, I noticed that the second line includes the phrasein Deo salutari meo, for which the common English translation is "in God who saved me." "Salutari" seems more like "salute" or "greet". The "Salutari" seems constant throughout the Magnificats I searched (Liber Cantualis, Jubilate Deo, de Lasso, etc.) but lo and behold, in the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Latin is shown as ...in Deo salvatore meo.

    So now I'm left wondering which is correct. Do we have a typo in the modern age or a monko in the ancient?
  • incantuincantu
    Posts: 989
    The NV for Luke 1:47 has "salvatore" (savior). True, "saluto, salutare" means "to greet," but in the sense that in greeting someone you wish them "salus, salutis" (health, wellbeing). "Salutari" in this case could be translated "salvation." The one who gives salvation might be called "savior." So really, either Latin word could be the source for the traditional English translation. Why it should appear one way in the gospel reading and another way in the chant, I do not know. Maybe the same monk that preferred "Ubi caritas et amor" to "Ubi caritas est vera" took it upon himself to change it.
  • David Sullivan
    Posts: 355
    This seems to be a difference between the New Vulgate and older usage. The only other difference I see is that the new has "in progenies et progenies", but the older use (LU) has "a progenies in progenies". I was curious that the Liber Cantualis would have the older version, so I checked copyright dates. The New Vulgate gives promulgation dates of 1979 and 1986, but LC has 1978, so I guess the older version was still current.

    I couldn't begin to guess why these changes were made.
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