Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin

As a canon lawyer and a Catholic traditionalist when it comes to the liturgy, I needed a good Latin-English dictionary that gives the ecclesiastical meaning of specific words. This has become the book I use. Unlike the other reviewers, I don't know how well it works with the Latin Vulgate, but I can attest that it works well with the Code of Canon Law and other canonical texts. It also works well with liturgical texts, whether we're talking rubrics, legal texts pertaining to the liturgy, or liturgical texts. This book should be in the library of every serious Catholic scholar.

It can be difficult to use a classical dictionary when translating ecclesiastical texts. This dictionary makes it so much easier by focusing on the words that are more common in later, ecclesiastical Latin. The translation of common ecclesiastical phrases is wonderful, too.I highly recommend it for those who are interested in Catholic theology, liturgy, or Canon Law.

I bought this dictionary solely for reading the Latin Vulgate, for the on-line Vulgate reading group that I run. Although I have some knowledge of Greek, I wanted a good and easy-to-use resource that provides the Latin translations. This dictionary succeeds admirably, although you should have a decent basic Latin dictionary like Cassell's also. I have never found a word in the Vulgate that was not defined in either Cassell's or this dictionary. Even "problem words" (usually directly transliterated into Latin from Greek) are there - for example, "telonium".In addition to good word coverage, it also explains idiomatic usages of words, especially with prepositions. Look at the example pages and you'll some examples of idiomatic uses of words with the preposition "ad".

If you want to read the Vulgate and don't have 180 dollars to spend on Lewis & Short, this is the dictionary for you. Neither Cassel's nor the Chambers-Murray nor even the Oxford Latin dictionary will suffice; their vocabularies are restricted to classical authors. This is the best inexpensive Latin-English dictionary I've seen that lists words from after the 5th century AD. It simply has no competition!

This is a very fine dictionary for scholarly or ecclesiastical use. Is is useful in working on Church documents and particularly the Vulgate. I highly recommend it for any persons working on Latin texts of an ecclesiastical nature.