Anthologia Davidica

Published in London by Rivington in 1846, Anthologia Davidica, or a Metrical Translation of the whole Book of Psalms was compiled by the Reverend Henry Latham, writing under the pseudonym Presbyter Cicestrensis. The volume opens with an extensive and insightful critical preface alongside a broad, though somewhat incomplete, bibliography of complete Psalters and partial metrical versions of the Psalms. The core text features 159 extracted psalm versions selected from thirty-one distinct authors, offering a comprehensive overview of historical English psalmody.

Although hymnologists praised Latham's overall selection of texts, many noted that the collection was somewhat weakened by his frequent editorial alterations to the original poetic lines. Latham provided some compensation for these editorial changes by supplying an appendix containing original readings for comparison. Despite its textual revisions, the anthology played a valuable role in nineteenth-century hymnody by preserving rare historical psalm paraphrases. Through this compilation, several older metrical renderings of individual Psalms were revived and successfully passed into general congregational usage in modern hymnals.