P R A E F A T I O

Ad Lectorem.

 

IN multis, magnifq. beneficijs, quæ per sacram Tridentinam Synodum Ecclesiæ suæ Deus contulit, id in primis numerandum videtur, quòd inter tot Latinas editiones Diuinarum Scripturarum, solam veterem ac vulgatam, quæ longo tot sæculorum vsu in Ecclesia probata fuerat, grauissimo Decreto authenticam declarauit. Nam, ut illud omittamus, quòd ex recentibus editionibus non paucæ ad hæreses huius temporis confirmandas licenter detortæ videbantur: ipsa certe tanta versionum varietas, atque diuersitas magnam in Ecclesia Dei confusionem parere potuisset. Iam enim hac nostra ætate illud fere euenisse constat, quod sanctus Hieronymus tempore suo accidisse testatus est, scilicet fuisse exemplaria, quot codices; cum unusquisque pro arbitrio suo adderet, vel detraheret. Huius autem veteris ac vulgatæ Editionis tanta semper fuit auctoritas, tamq. excellens præstantia, ut eam ceteris omnibus Latinis editionibus longe anteferendam esse, apud æquos Iudices in dubium reuocari non posset. Qui namque in ea Libri continentur (ut a maioribus nostris quasi per manus traditum nobis est) partim ex sancti Hieronymi translatione, vel emendatione suscepti sunt; partim retenti ex antiquissima quadam editione Latina, quam sanctus Hieronymus communem & Vulgatam, sanctus Augustinus Italam, sanctus Gregorius Veterem translationem appellat. Ac de Veteris quidem huius, siue Italæ editionis sinceritate atque præstantia præclarum sancti Augustini testimonium extat in secundo Libro de Doctrina Christiana, ubi Latinis omnibus editionibus, quæ tunc plurimæ circumferebantur, Italam præferendam censuit, quòd esset, ut ipse loquitur, verborum tenacior cum perspicuitate sententiæ. De sancto vero Hieronymo multa extant veterum Patrum egregia testimonia: eum enim sanctus Augustinus hominem doctissimum, ac trium linguarum peritissimum vocat, atque eius translationem ipsorum quoque Hebræorum testimonio veracem esse confirmat. Eundem sanctus Gregorius ita prædicat, ut eius translationem, quam

Marginal Notes:
* Præf. in Iosuæ.
* S. Hieron. in cap. 49. Isaiæ.
* S. August. Lib. 2. Doctri. Christ. c. 14.
* S. Greg. Epist. Dedic. ad Leādrū c. 5. in fin.
* S. August. ubi supra.
* Lib. 18. de Ciuit. Dei. c. 43.
* Lib. 20. Moral. 24.

 

quam nouam appellat, ex Hebræo eloquio cuncta verius transfudisse dicat: atque idcirco dignissimam esse, cui fides in omnibus habeatur. Sanctus autem Isidorus non vno in loco Hieronymianam versionem ceteris omnibus anteponit, eamq. ab ecclesijs Christianis communiter recipi ac probari affirmat, quòd sit in verbis clarior, & veracior in sententijs. Sophronius quoque, vir eruditissimus, sancti Hieronymi translationem non Latinis modo, sed etiam Græcis valde probari animaduertens, tanti eam fecit, vt Psalterium & Prophetas ex Hieronymi versione in Græcum eleganti sermone transtulerit. Porro qui secuti sunt, viri doctissimi, Remigius, Beda, Rabanus, Haymo, Anselmus, Petrus Damiani, Richardus, Hugo, Bernardus, Rupertus, Petrus Lombardus, Alexander, Albertus, Thomas, Bonauentura, ceteriq. omnes, qui his nongentis annis in Ecclesia floruerunt, sancti Hieronymi versione ita sunt vsi, vt ceteræ, quæ pene innumerabiles erant, quasi lapsæ de manibus Theologorum, penitus obsoleuerint. Quare non immerito Catholica Ecclesia sanctum Hieronymum Doctorem maximum, atque ad Scripturas sacras interpretandas diuinitus excitatum ita celebrat, vt iam difficile non sit illorum omnium damnare iudicium, qui vel tam eximij Doctoris lucubrationibus non acquiescunt, vel etiam meliora, aut certe paria præstare se posse confidunt. Ceterum ne tam fidelis translatio, tamq. in omnes partes Ecclesiæ vtilis, vel iniuria temporum, vel impressorum incuria, vel temere emendantium audacia, vlla ex parte corrumperetur, eadem sacrosancta Synodus Tridentina illud Decreto suo sapienter adiecit, vt hæc ipsa vetus ac vulgata Editio emendatissime, quoad fieri posset, imprimeretur: neque vlli liceret eam sine facultate & approbatione Superiorum excudere. Quo Decreto simul typographorum temeritati ac licentiæ modum imposuit, & Pastorum Ecclesiæ in tanto bono quàm diligentissime retinendo, & conferuando, vigilantiam, atque industriam excitauit. Et quamuis insignium Academiarum Theologi in Editione vulgata pristino suo nitori restituenda magna cum laude laborauerint; quia tamen in tanta re nulla potest esse nimia diligentia, & codices manuscripti complures & vetustiores Summi Pontificis iussu conquisti, atque in Vrbem aduecti erant; & demum, quoniam executio generalium Conciliorum, & ipsa Scripturarum integritas ac puritas ad curam Apostolicæ Sedis potissimum pertinere cognoscitur; ideo Pius IV. Pontifex Maximus pro sua in omnes Ecclesiæ partes incredibili vigilantia, lectissimis aliquot sanctæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ Cardinalibus, alijsq. tum Sacrarum litterarum, tum variarum linguarum peritissimis viris, eam prouinciam demandauit, vt vulgatam editionem Latinam, adhibitis antiquissimis codicibus manuscriptis, inspectis quoque Hebraicis, Græcisq. Bibliorum fontibus; consultis denique veterum Patrum commentarijs, accuratissime castigarent. Quod itidem institutum Pius V. prosecutus est. Verum Conuentum

Marginal Notes:

* Lib. 6. Etymol. c. 5.*

* Lib. 1. de Diuin. off. 12.

 

uentum illum ob varias, grauissimasq. Sedis Apostolicæ occupationes iamdudum intermissum, Sixtus V. diuina prouidentia ad summum Sacerdotium euocatus, ardentissimo studio reuocauit, & opus tandem confectum typis mandari iussit. Quod cum iam esset excusum, & vt in lucem emitteretur, idem Pontifex operam daret, animaduertens non pauca in sacra Biblia præli vitio irrepsisse, quæ iterata diligentia indigere viderentur, totum opus sub incudem reuocandum censuit atque decreuit. Id vero cum morte præuentus præstare non potuisset, Gregorius XIIII. qui post Vrbani VII. duodecim dierum Pontificatum Sixto successerat, eius animi intentionem executus perficere aggressus est, amplissimis aliquot Cardinalibus, alijsq. doctissimis viris ad hoc iterum deputatis. Sed eo quoque, & qui illi successit, Innocentio IX. breuissimo tempore de hac luce subtractis; tandem sub initium Pontificatus Clementis VIII. qui nunc Ecclesiæ vniuersæ gubernacula tenet, opus, in quod Sixtus V. intenderat, Deo bene iuuante perfectum est. Accipe igitur Christiane Lector, eodem Clemente Summo Pontifice annuente, ex Vaticana Typographia veterem ac vulgatam sacræ Scripturæ Editionem, quanta fieri potuit diligentia castigatam: quam quidem sicut omnibus numeris absolutam, pro humana imbecillitate affirmare difficile est, ita ceteris omnibus, quæ ad hanc vsque diem prodierunt, emendatiorem, purioremq. esse, minime dubitandum. Et vero quamuis in hac Bibliorum recognitione in codicibus manuscriptis, Hebræis, Græcisq. fontibus, & ipsis veterum Patrum commentariis conferendis non mediocre studium adhibitum fuerit; in hac tamen peruulgata Lectione sicut nonnulla consulto mutata, ita etiam alia, quæ mutanda videbantur, consulto immutata relicta sunt; tum quòd ita faciendum esse ad offensionem populorum vitandam sanctus Hieronymus non semel admonuit: tum quòd facile fieri posse credendum est, vt maiores nostri, qui ex Hebræis, & Græcis Latina fecerunt, copiam meliorum, & emendatiorum librorum habuerint, quàm ij, qui post illorum ætatem ad nos peruenerunt, qui fortasse tam longo tempore identidem describendo minus puri, atque integri euaserunt; tum denique quia sacræ Congregationi Amplissimorum Cardinalium, alijsq. eruditissimis viris ad hoc opus a Sede Apostolica delectis propositum non fuit, nouam aliquam editionem cudere, vel antiquum Interpretem vlla ex parte corrigere, vel emendare; sed ipsam veterem, ac vulgatam Editionem Latinam a mendis veterum librariorum, necnon prauarum emendationum erroribus repurgatam, suæ pristinæ integritati, ac puritati, quoad eius fieri potuit, restituere; eaq. restituta, vt quàm emendatissime imprimeretur iuxta Concilij Oecumenici Decretum pro viribus operam dare. Porro in hac Editione nihil non canonicum, nihil adscititium, nihil extraneum apponere visum est: atque ea causa fuit, cur Liber tertius & quartus Esdræ inscripti, quos inter Canonicos libros sacra Tridentina Synodus

Marginal Notes:

* Ep. ad Suniam & Fretellā.

* Præf. Euāg. ad Damasum.

 

nodus non annumerauit, ipsa etiam Manassæ regis Oratio, quæ neque Hebraice, neque Græce quidem extat, neque in manuscriptis antiquioribus inuenitur, neque pars est vllius Canonici libri, extra Canonicæ Scripturæ seriem posita sint : & nullæ ad marginem concordantiæ (quæ posthac inibi apponi non prohibentur) nullæ notæ, nullæ variæ lectiones, nullæ denique præfationes, nulla argumenta ad librorum initia conspiciantur. Sed sicut Apostolica Sedes industriam eorum non damnat, qui concordantias locorum, varias lectiones, præfationes sancti Hieronymi, & alia id genus in alijs editionibus inseruerunt; ita quoque non prohibet, quin alio genere characteris in hac ipsa Vaticana editione eiusmodi adiumenta pro studiosorum commoditate, atque vtilitate in posterum adijciantur; ita tamen, vt lectiones variæ ad marginem ipsius Textus minime annotentur.

 

P R E F A C E

To the Reader.

 

Among the many and great benefits which God, through the holy Council of Trent, has bestowed upon His Church, this seems especially noteworthy: that among so many Latin editions of the Divine Scriptures, the Council declared by a most solemn Decree that the old and vulgate (common) edition alone—which had been approved in the Church by the long use of so many centuries—is to be held as authentic.
For, to say nothing of the fact that not a few recent editions seemed to be willfully distorted to support the heresies of these times, certainly such a great variety and diversity of versions could have produced great confusion in the Church of God. Indeed, it is well known that in our own age, that has occurred which Saint Jerome testified happened in his own time: namely, that there were as many different versions as there were manuscripts, since everyone added or subtracted according to his own judgment.
However, the authority of this old and vulgate Edition has always been so great, and its excellence so outstanding, that it could not be doubted by fair judges that it is to be preferred by far over all other Latin editions. For the Books contained within it (as they have been handed down to us by our ancestors as if from hand to hand) were partly taken from the translation or emendation of Saint Jerome, and partly retained from a certain very ancient Latin edition, which Saint Jerome calls the “Common and Vulgate,” Saint Augustine calls the “Itala,” and Saint Gregory calls the “Old translation.”
Regarding the integrity and excellence of this Old (or Itala) edition, a famous testimony of Saint Augustine exists in the second book of On Christian Doctrine, where he judged the Itala to be preferred over all the Latin editions then in wide circulation, because—as he himself says—it was “more tenacious of the words while maintaining clarity of meaning.”
Concerning Saint Jerome, many excellent testimonies from the ancient Fathers exist: for Saint Augustine calls him a most learned man and most skilled in three languages, and confirms that his translation is truthful even by the testimony of the Hebrews themselves. Saint Gregory likewise extols him, stating that his translation—which [he calls the “new” one…]

Marginal Notes:
* Preface to Joshua.
* St. Jerome on Isaiah, chapter 49.
* St. Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, Book 2, chapter 14.
* St. Gregory, Dedicatory Letter to Leander, chapter 5, at the end.
* St. Augustine, as cited above.
* City of God, Book 18, chapter 43.
* Moralia, Book 20, [chapter] 24.

 

…which he calls “new,” says that he translated everything more truly from the Hebrew tongue, and that it is therefore most worthy of being trusted in all matters. Furthermore, Saint Isidore, in more than one place, prefers the Hieronymian version to all others and affirms that it is commonly received and approved by Christian churches because it is clearer in its wording and more truthful in its meanings. Sophronius also, a most learned man, noticing that Saint Jerome’s translation was highly approved not only by Latins but even by Greeks, held it in such high esteem that he translated the Psalter and the Prophets from Jerome’s version into the Greek language with elegant style.
Furthermore, those most learned men who followed—Remigius, Bede, Rabanus, Haymo, Anselm, Peter Damian, Richard, Hugh, Bernard, Rupert, Peter Lombard, Alexander, Albert, Thomas, Bonaventure, and all the others who have flourished in the Church during these past nine hundred years—used Saint Jerome’s version in such a way that the others, which were almost innumerable, virtually fell from the hands of theologians and became entirely obsolete. Therefore, not without merit does the Catholic Church so celebrate Saint Jerome as a greatest Doctor, divinely raised up for interpreting the Holy Scriptures, that it is now not difficult to condemn the judgment of all those who either do not acquiesce to the labors of so eminent a Doctor, or who even trust that they can provide something better, or at least equal.
Moreover, lest so faithful a translation, and one so useful to all parts of the Church, should be corrupted in any way—whether by the injury of time, the carelessness of printers, or the rash audacity of those who emend without cause—the same holy Council of Trent wisely added to its Decree that this very old and vulgate Edition should be printed as correctly as possible. Nor was anyone permitted to print it without the permission and approval of Superiors. By this Decree, the Council at once set a limit to the rashness and license of printers and aroused the vigilance and industry of the Pastors of the Church in retaining and preserving so great a treasure with the utmost diligence.
And although theologians of distinguished Universities have labored with great praise to restore the vulgate Edition to its pristine luster; nevertheless, because in so great a matter no amount of diligence can be too much, and since many older manuscripts had been sought out by order of the Supreme Pontiff and brought to the City [Rome]; and finally, since it is recognized that the execution of general Councils and the very integrity and purity of the Scriptures pertain especially to the care of the Apostolic See; therefore Pius IV, Supreme Pontiff, out of his incredible vigilance toward all parts of the Church, entrusted that province to several most select Cardinals of the holy Roman Church and other men most skilled in both Sacred letters and various languages. Their task was to most accurately correct the Latin vulgate edition, employing the most ancient manuscripts, inspecting the Hebrew and Greek sources of the Bible, and finally consulting the commentaries of the ancient Fathers. Pius V likewise followed this same undertaking. But the assembly…

Marginal Notes:

* [Isidore], Etymologies, Book 6, chapter 5.
* [Isidore], On Divine Offices, Book 1, [chapter] 12.

 

…which had long been interrupted due to various and most weighty occupations of the Apostolic See, was revived with most ardent zeal by Sixtus V, called by divine providence to the supreme Priesthood; he finally ordered the completed work to be committed to type. But when it had already been printed, and as the same Pontiff was laboring to have it released, he noticed that not a few errors had crept into the Holy Bible through the fault of the press which seemed to require renewed diligence; he therefore judged and decreed that the entire work should be brought back “under the anvil” (re-evaluated).
However, since he was prevented by death from fulfilling this, Gregory XIV, who had succeeded Sixtus after the twelve-day pontificate of Urban VII, set out to complete the task by carrying out Sixtus’s intention, having again deputed several most distinguished Cardinals and other most learned men for this purpose. But since he too, and his successor Innocent IX, were removed from this light in a very short time; finally, at the beginning of the pontificate of Clement VIII, who now holds the rudder of the universal Church, the work which Sixtus V had intended was, with God’s gracious help, perfected.
Receive, therefore, Christian Reader, with the approval of the same Supreme Pontiff Clement, from the Vatican Press, the old and vulgate Edition of the Holy Scripture, corrected with as much diligence as was possible. While it is difficult, given human frailty, to claim it is perfect in every respect, it is nonetheless not to be doubted that it is more emended and purer than all others that have appeared up to this day.
And indeed, although no small zeal was employed in this revision of the Bible in comparing manuscripts and the Hebrew and Greek sources, as well as the commentaries of the ancient Fathers themselves; nevertheless, in this well-known Reading, just as some things were deliberately changed, so other things that seemed to require change were deliberately left unchanged. This was done partly because Saint Jerome advised more than once that this should be done to avoid giving offense to the people; partly because it is credible that our ancestors, who produced the Latin from the Hebrew and Greek, had access to a greater supply of better and more corrected books than those which have come down to us after their age—which perhaps, through being copied repeatedly over so long a time, emerged less pure and intact. Finally, it was because the purpose of the sacred Congregation of most distinguished Cardinals and other most learned men chosen for this work by the Apostolic See was not to forge some new edition, or to correct or emend the ancient Interpreter in any part, but to restore that very same old and vulgate Latin Edition to its pristine integrity and purity (as far as was possible), purged of the mistakes of ancient copyists and the errors of improper emendations; and, once restored, to labor with all their strength so that it might be printed as correctly as possible according to the Decree of the Ecumenical Council.
Furthermore, in this Edition it was decided to include nothing that is not canonical, nothing added, and nothing extraneous; and that was the reason why the books titled the Third and Fourth Books of Esdras, which the holy Council of Trent [did not number] among the Canonical books…

Marginal Notes:

* Letter to Sunia and Fretela.
* Preface to the Gospels, to Damasus.

 

…did not include, as well as the Prayer of King Manasseh itself—which exists neither in Hebrew nor even in Greek, is not found in the older manuscripts, and is not part of any Canonical book—have been placed outside the series of Canonical Scripture.
Furthermore, let no marginal concordances (which are not prohibited from being placed there hereafter), no notes, no variant readings, and finally, no prefaces or summaries at the beginnings of the books be seen [in this edition]. But just as the Apostolic See does not condemn the industry of those who have inserted cross-references, variant readings, the prefaces of Saint Jerome, and other things of that kind in other editions; so also it does not prohibit such aids from being added in the future to this very Vatican edition, using a different type of character (font), for the convenience and utility of students. This is permitted, however, only on the condition that variant readings are by no means to be annotated in the margin of the Text itself.