The 1831 Nott Edition

Abstract

A new Italian edition of the Book of Common Prayer was published on behalf of the SPCK in Leghorn in 1831. The Italian text was once again taken from the 1685 translation, although it was comprehensively revised. The editor of this new edition was George Frederick Nott. Significantly, unlike the other editors of the translations published in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Nott was a clergyman rather than a publisher or scholar. However, the reasons that prompted him to become the promoter of this edition, at least initially, were almost certainly more related to his personal situation than to a religious propaganda project; under fire for being absent from his parishes, Nott wanted to justify his long stay in Italy by publishing the Anglican liturgy in Italian. The publication of the “new” translation was therefore the combined result of his personal reasons and the growing missionary ambitions of the SPCK.