The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate or Clementine Vulgate () is the edition
promulgate
Promulgation is the formal proclamation or the declaration that a new statutory or administrative law is enacted after its final approval. In some jurisdictions, this additional step is necessary before the law can take effect.
After a new law ...
d in 1592 by
Pope Clement VIII
Pope Clement VIII ( la, Clemens VIII; it, Clemente VIII; 24 February 1536 – 3 March 1605), born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1592 to his death in March 1605.
Born ...
of the
Vulgate
The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible.
The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...
—a 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible that was written largely by
Jerome
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is co ...
. It was the second edition of the Vulgate to be authorised by the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, the first being the
Sixtine Vulgate
The Sixtine Vulgate or Sistine Vulgate () is the edition of the Vulgate—a 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible that was written largely by Jerome—which was published in 1590, prepared by a commission on the orders of Pope Sixtus V a ...
. The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate was used officially in the Catholic Church until 1979, when the ''
Nova Vulgata
The ''Nova Vulgata'' (complete title: ''Nova Vulgata Bibliorum Sacrorum Editio'', ; abr. ''NV''), also called the Neo-Vulgate, is the official Classical Latin translation of the original-language texts of the Bible published by the Holy See. It ...
'' was promulgated by
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
.
The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate is a revision of the Sixtine Vulgate; the latter had been published two years earlier under
Sixtus V
Pope Sixtus V ( it, Sisto V; 13 December 1521 – 27 August 1590), born Felice Piergentile, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 24 April 1585 to his death in August 1590. As a youth, he joined the Franciscan order ...
. Nine days after the death of Sixtus V, who had issued the Sixtine Vulgate, the
College of Cardinals
The College of Cardinals, or more formally the Sacred College of Cardinals, is the body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church. its current membership is , of whom are eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope. Cardinals are app ...
suspended the sale of the Sixtine Vulgate and later ordered the destruction of the copies. Thereafter, two commissions under
Gregory XIV were in charge of the revision of the Sixtine Vulgate. In 1592,
Clement VIII
Pope Clement VIII ( la, Clemens VIII; it, Clemente VIII; 24 February 1536 – 3 March 1605), born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1592 to his death in March 1605.
Born ...
, arguing printing errors in the Sixtine Vulgate, recalled all copies of the Sixtine Vulgate still in circulation; some suspect his decision was in fact due to the influence of the
Jesuits
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders = ...
. In the same year, a revised edition of the Sixtine Vulgate was published and promulgated by Clement VIII; this edition is known as the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate, or Clementine Vulgate.
History
Sixtine Vulgate
The
Sixtine Vulgate
The Sixtine Vulgate or Sistine Vulgate () is the edition of the Vulgate—a 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible that was written largely by Jerome—which was published in 1590, prepared by a commission on the orders of Pope Sixtus V a ...
prepared under
Pope Sixtus V was published in 1590; it was "accompanied by a Bull
'Aeternus Ille'' in which
..Sixtus V declared it was to be considered the ''authentic'' edition recommended by the
Council of Trent
The Council of Trent ( la, Concilium Tridentinum), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation, it has been described a ...
, that it should be taken as the standard of all future reprints, and that all copies should be corrected by it". The
College of Cardinals
The College of Cardinals, or more formally the Sacred College of Cardinals, is the body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church. its current membership is , of whom are eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope. Cardinals are app ...
was dissatisfied with the Sixtine Vulgate; on 5 September 1590, nine days after Pope Sixtus V's death, they ordered the suspension of its sales, withdrew as many copies as possible,
and shortly afterwards ordered the destruction of the printed copies.
Gregory XIV's two pontifical commissions
An official version of the Vulgate was still needed. Therefore,
Pope Gregory XIV in 1591 created a fourth commission to revise the Sixtine Vulgate, which was subsequently reorganised as the fifth and final commission later the same year. The fourth commission was created by Gregory XIV on 7 February 1591. It was presided over by
M. A. Colonna and comprised six other cardinals working on the revision. Ten other people were part of the commission as advisors, including
Robert Bellarmine
Robert Bellarmine, SJ ( it, Roberto Francesco Romolo Bellarmino; 4 October 1542 – 17 September 1621) was an Italian Jesuit and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was canonized a saint in 1930 and named Doctor of the Church, one of only 37. ...
. These last commissions decided to make only the changes which were really necessary: to do so, the commission would consult ancient manuscripts in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. It was also decided to restore the passages unduly removed by Sixtus V, remove the additions, examine the other passages and correct them if needed, and revise the punctuation.
The fourth commission worked slightly more than one month; during this time the revision of the
Book of Genesis
The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning" ...
was completed and on 18 March the revision of
Exodus began. However, the commission was progressing slowly, and the revision was expected to take a year. Due to this slowness, the size of the commission was reduced, its mode of operation changed, and its workplace moved to the villa of M. A. Colonna in
Zagarolo
Zagarolo is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Rome, in the region of Lazio of central Italy. It lies southeast of Rome, and it borders the municipalities of Colonna, Gallicano nel Lazio, Monte Compatri, Palestrina, Rome, San Cesar ...
.
Two people were members of this commission: M. A. Colonna, its president,
and
William Allen William Allen may refer to:
Politicians
United States
*William Allen (congressman) (1827–1881), United States Representative from Ohio
*William Allen (governor) (1803–1879), U.S. Representative, Senator, and 31st Governor of Ohio
*William ...
. This commission also comprised eight other people as advisors:
Bartholomew Miranda
Bartholomew (Aramaic: ; grc, Βαρθολομαῖος, translit=Bartholomaîos; la, Bartholomaeus; arm, Բարթողիմէոս; cop, ⲃⲁⲣⲑⲟⲗⲟⲙⲉⲟⲥ; he, בר-תולמי, translit=bar-Tôlmay; ar, بَرثُولَماو ...
,
Andrea Salvener
Andrea is a given name which is common worldwide for both males and females, cognate to Andreas, Andrej and Andrew.
Origin of the name
The name derives from the Greek word ἀνήρ (''anēr''), genitive ἀνδρός (''andrós''), that re ...
,
Antonius Agellius
Antonius Agellius, C.R. or Antonio Agellio (1532–1608) was bishop of Acerno ''(in Latin)'' ''(in Latin)'' and a member of the Theatines, born in Sorrento. He was an editor of the Clementine edition of the Latin Vulgate.''Illustrations of Bibl ...
,
Robert Bellarmine
Robert Bellarmine, SJ ( it, Roberto Francesco Romolo Bellarmino; 4 October 1542 – 17 September 1621) was an Italian Jesuit and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was canonized a saint in 1930 and named Doctor of the Church, one of only 37. ...
,
Bartholomew Valverde
Bartholomew (Aramaic: ; grc, Βαρθολομαῖος, translit=Bartholomaîos; la, Bartholomaeus; arm, Բարթողիմէոս; cop, ⲃⲁⲣⲑⲟⲗⲟⲙⲉⲟⲥ; he, בר-תולמי, translit=bar-Tôlmay; ar, بَرثُولَماو ...
,
Lelio Landi,
Petrus Morinus, and
Angelo Rocca
Angelo Rocca (1545, in Rocca, near Ancone – 8 April 1620, in Rome) was an Italian humanist, librarian and bishop, founder of the Angelica Library at Rome, afterwards accessible from 1604 as a public library.
Biography
Angelo Rocca is also kn ...
.
![Codex_Carafianus](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Codex_Carafianus.png)
Supposedly, the work of revision was finished in nineteen days thanks to the guidance of the ''Codex Carafianus''—the codex which contained the propositions made to Sixtus V by
the commission presided over by Cardinal Carafa, which is a 1583 edition of the
Leuven Vulgate
The Leuven Vulgate or Hentenian Bible () is an edition of the Vulgate which was edited by Hentenius (1499–1566) and published in Louvain in 1547. This edition was republished several times, and in 1574 a revised edition was published.
The 1 ...
that had been
emended by the third commission under Carafa—and the experience of four members of the commission who had previously taken part in the work to produce the Sixtine edition (Landi, Valverde, Agellius, and Rocca). The work was completed either after 19 days on 23 June,
or on 5 July or before, or in early October, 1591.
Brooke Foss Westcott notes that "even if it can be shown that the work extended over six months, it is obvious that there was no time for the examination of new authorities, but only for making a rapid revision with the help of the materials already collected".
The basis of the commission's work was the ''Codex Carafianus''.
Francis J. Thomson considers that the work of revision was rather entrusted to the
Congregations for the Index under the leadership of
M. A. Colonna. Thomson adds that the Congregation included among others the cardinals ,
Ascanio Colonna,
William Allen William Allen may refer to:
Politicians
United States
*William Allen (congressman) (1827–1881), United States Representative from Ohio
*William Allen (governor) (1803–1879), U.S. Representative, Senator, and 31st Governor of Ohio
*William ...
,
Frederico Borromeo as well as Robert Bellarmine and
Francisco de Toledo
Francisco Álvarez de Toledo ( Oropesa, 10 July 1515 – Escalona, 21 April 1582), also known as ''The Viceroyal Solon'', was an aristocrat and soldier of the Kingdom of Spain and the fifth Viceroy of Peru. Often regarded as the "best of P ...
. Thomson states that the "old idea that a special commission was entrusted with the work of revision
f the Sixtine Vulgateis incorrect".
Gregory XIV died on 15 October 1591; his direct successor,
Innocent IX, died on 30 December the same year, less than two months after his election. In January 1592,
Clement VIII
Pope Clement VIII ( la, Clemens VIII; it, Clemente VIII; 24 February 1536 – 3 March 1605), born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1592 to his death in March 1605.
Born ...
became pope. Clement VIII resumed work on the revision to produce a final edition; he appointed Francisco de Toledo,
Agostino Valier
Agostino Valier (7 April 1531 – 24 May 1606), also Augustinus Valerius or Valerio, was an Italian cardinal and bishop of Verona. He was a reforming bishop, putting into effect the decisions of the Council of Trent by means of administrative and ...
and Federico Borromeo as editors, with Robert Bellarmine,
Antonius Agellius
Antonius Agellius, C.R. or Antonio Agellio (1532–1608) was bishop of Acerno ''(in Latin)'' ''(in Latin)'' and a member of the Theatines, born in Sorrento. He was an editor of the Clementine edition of the Latin Vulgate.''Illustrations of Bibl ...
,
Petrus Morinus and two others to assist them.
"Under Clement VIII's leadership, the commission's work was continued and drastically revised, with the Jesuist scholar Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542–1624) bringing to the task his lifelong research on the Vulgate text."
Clement VIII's recall of the Sixtine Vulgate
In January 1592, Clement VIII became pope and immediately recalled all copies of the
Sixtine Vulgate
The Sixtine Vulgate or Sistine Vulgate () is the edition of the Vulgate—a 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible that was written largely by Jerome—which was published in 1590, prepared by a commission on the orders of Pope Sixtus V a ...
as one of his first acts. The reason stated for the recall was printing errors, although the Sixtine Vulgate was mostly free of those.
According to
James Hastings
James Hastings (26 March 1852 – 15 October 1922) was a Scottish United Free Church minister and biblical scholar. He is best known for producing major reference works, including a 5-volume '' Dictionary of the Bible'' and a 13-volume ''Encyc ...
, "
e real reasons for the recall of the editions must have been partly personal hostility to
Sixtus, and partly a conviction that the book was not quite a worthy representative of the Vulgate text".
Eberhard Nestle
Eberhard Nestle (1 May 1851, Stuttgart – 9 March 1913, Stuttgart) was a German biblical scholar, textual critic, orientalist, editor of the '' Novum Testamentum Graece'', and the father of Erwin Nestle.
Life
Nestle was a son of the upper t ...
suggests that the revocation was really due to the influence of the Jesuits, whom Sixtus had offended by putting one of Bellarmine's books on the ''
Index Librorum Prohibitorum'' (list of banned books).
Frederic G. Kenyon writes that the Sixtine Vulgate was "full of errors" but that Clement VIII was also motivated in his decision to recall the edition by the Jesuits, "whom Sixtus had offended".
Metzger believes that the inaccuracies may have been a pretext and that the attack against this edition had been instigated by the
Jesuits
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders = ...
, "whom Sixtus had offended
by putting one of Bellarmine's books on the 'Index', and took this method of revenging themselves." Sixtus regarded the Jesuits with disfavour and suspicion. He considered making radical changes to their constitution, but his death prevented this from being carried out. Sixtus V objected to some of the Jesuits' rules and especially to the title "Society of Jesus", and was on the point of changing them when he died. Sixtus V "had some conflict with the Society of Jesus more generally, especially regarding the Society’s concept of blind obedience to the
General
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...
, which for Sixtus and other important figures of the Roman Curia jeopardized the preeminence of the role of the pope within the Church."
According to
Jaroslav Pelikan
Jaroslav Jan Pelikan Jr. (December 17, 1923 – May 13, 2006) was an American scholar of the history of Christianity, Christian theology, and medieval intellectual history at Yale University.
Early years
Jaroslav Jan Pelikan Jr. was born on Dec ...
, the Sixtine Vulgate "proved to be so defective that it was withdrawn".
Publication
![Sixto-Clementine Vulgate (1598) 3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Sixto-Clementine_Vulgate_%281598%29_3.jpg)
The Clementine Vulgate was printed on 9 November 1592, in
folio
The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...
format, with an anonymous preface written by Cardinal Robert Bellarmine.
It was issued containing the
Papal bull ''Cum Sacrorum'' of 9 November 1592, which asserted that every subsequent edition must be assimilated to this one, that no word of the text may be changed and that variant readings may not be printed in the margin. Most of the misprints of this edition were removed in a second (1593) and a third (1598) edition.
The 1593 and 1598 editions were in
quarto
Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...
.
The 1593 and 1598 editions contained references in the margin, and "various prefaces"; the 1592 edition did not.
This new official version of the Vulgate, known as the ''Clementine Vulgate'',
or Sixto-Clementine Vulgate,
became the official Bible of the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
.
Textual characteristics
The Appendix to the Clementine Vulgate contained additional apocryphal books:
Prayer of Manasseh
The Prayer of Manasses, also known as the Prayer of Manasseh is a short work of 15 verses recording a penitential prayer attributed to king Manasseh of Judah.
Its canonicity is disputed. The majority of scholars believe that the Prayer of Manass ...
,
3 Esdras, and
4 Esdras
2 Esdras (also called 4 Esdras, Latin Esdras, or Latin Ezra) is an apocalyptic book in some English versions of the Bible. Tradition ascribes it to Ezra, a scribe and priest of the , but scholarship places its composition between 70 and .
It ...
.
Its version of the
Book of Psalms was the
Psalterium Gallicanum and not the ''
versio juxta Hebraicum''. The 1592 edition did not contain
Jerome's prologues, but those prologues were present at the beginning of the volume of the 1593 and 1598 editions.
The Clementine Vulgate contains texts of
Acts 15:34, the
Johannine Comma
The Johannine Comma ( la, Comma Johanneum) is an interpolated phrase (comma) in verses of the First Epistle of John.
The text (with the comma in italics and enclosed by square brackets) in the King James Bible reads:
It became a touchpoint f ...
, and
1 John 5:7. The new system of
verse enumeration introduced by the
Sixtine Vulgate
The Sixtine Vulgate or Sistine Vulgate () is the edition of the Vulgate—a 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible that was written largely by Jerome—which was published in 1590, prepared by a commission on the orders of Pope Sixtus V a ...
was replaced by the system of division of verses enumeration of the 1551 edition of the Bible of
Robertus Stephanus.
The text of the Clementine Vulgate was close to the
Hentenian edition of the Bible, which is the
Leuven Vulgate
The Leuven Vulgate or Hentenian Bible () is an edition of the Vulgate which was edited by Hentenius (1499–1566) and published in Louvain in 1547. This edition was republished several times, and in 1574 a revised edition was published.
The 1 ...
;
this is a difference from the Sixtine edition,
which had "a text more nearly resembling that of Robertus Stephanus than that of John Hentenius".
The Clementine Vulgate used the verse enumeration system of Stephanus and the Leuven Vulgate. The text of the Sixtine Vulgate left an "eternal mark" in the details of the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate: in the latter's "spelling, especially that of the proper nouns, and in its corrections of details, even the less justified ones". The situation concerning the deeper modification Sixtus had made to the Leuven Vulgate text is totally different. The editors tried to make the Clementine Vulgate as similar as possible to the Sixtine Vulgate: titles and frontispieces were similar, and the page numbering of the Sixtine and Clementine editions was identical.
Title
Scrivener
A scrivener (or scribe) was a person who could read and write or who wrote letters to court and legal documents. Scriveners were people who made their living by writing or copying written material. This usually indicated secretarial and ad ...
notes that to avoid the appearance of a conflict between the two popes, the Clementine Bible was published under the name of Sixtus, with a preface by Bellarmine. This preface asserted that Sixtus had intended to publish a new edition due to errors that had occurred in the printing of the first, but had been prevented from doing this by his death, and that now, in accordance with his desire, the work was completed by his successor.
The full name of the Clementine Vulgate was ''Biblia sacra Vulgatae Editionis, Sixti Quinti Pont. Max. iussu recognita atque edita''
(translation: ''The Holy Bible of the Common/Vulgate Edition identified and published by the order of Pope Sixtus V''). Because the Clementine edition retained the name of Sixtus on its title page, the Clementine Vulgate is sometimes known as the ''Sixto-Clementine Vulgate''.
E. Nestle notes that "the first edition to contain the names of both the Popes
ixtus V and Clement VIIIupon the title page is that of 1604. The title runs: 'Sixti V. Pont. Max. iussu recognita et Clementis VIII. auctoritate edita.
An analysis also shared by Scrivener and Hastings. Hastings adds that "
e regular form of title in a modern Vulgate Bible—'Biblia Sacra Vulgatae Editionis Sixti V. Pont. Max. jussu recognita et Clementis VIII. auctoritate edita cannot be traced earlier than 1604. Up until that time Sixtus seems to have been alone on the title-page; after this date, "Clement occasionally figures by himself".
This addition of Clement VIII on the title page in 1604 is due to the printing press of
Guillaume Rouillé.
Differences from the Sixtine Vulgate
The Clementine edition of the Vulgate differs from the Sixtine edition in about 3,000 places according to
Carlo Vercellone,
James Hastings
James Hastings (26 March 1852 – 15 October 1922) was a Scottish United Free Church minister and biblical scholar. He is best known for producing major reference works, including a 5-volume '' Dictionary of the Bible'' and a 13-volume ''Encyc ...
,
Eberhard Nestle
Eberhard Nestle (1 May 1851, Stuttgart – 9 March 1913, Stuttgart) was a German biblical scholar, textual critic, orientalist, editor of the '' Novum Testamentum Graece'', and the father of Erwin Nestle.
Life
Nestle was a son of the upper t ...
,
F. G. Kenyon,
the ''Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church'',
and
Bruce M. Metzger
Bruce Manning Metzger (February 9, 1914 – February 13, 2007) was an American biblical scholar, Bible translator and textual critic who was a longtime professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and Bible editor who served on the board of the ...
; 4,900 according to
Michael Hetzenauer,
and Bruce M. Metzger &
Bart D. Ehrman
Bart Denton Ehrman (born 1955) is an American New Testament scholar focusing on textual criticism of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the origins and development of early Christianity. He has written and edited 30 books, including t ...
in their co-written book; and "roughly five thousand" according to
Kurt and
Barbara Aland.
Some examples of text changes include, for example in
Exodus 2, where the text of the Sixtine Vulgate "constituit te" (2:14), "venerant" (2:16), "et eripuit" (2:22), and "liberavit" (2:25) is replaced in the Clementine Vulgate respectively by "te constituit", "venerunt", "eripuit", and "cognovit".
Criticism
Research later made after the printing of the Clementine Vulgate "has shown that the Clementine edition departs at many points from Jerome's text
he Vulgate.
Contemporary critiques
The differences between the Sixtine and Clementine editions of the Vulgate have been criticised by
Protestants;
Thomas James
Thomas James (c. 1573 – August 1629) was an English librarian and Anglican clergyman, the first librarian of the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
Life
He was born about 1573 at Newport, Isle of Wight. In 1586 he was admitted a scholar of Winchest ...
in his ''
Bellum Papale sive Concordia discors'' (London, 1600) "upbraids the two Popes on their high pretensions and the palpable failure of at least one, possibly both of them". He gave a long list of about 2,000 differences between these two editions. In the preface to the first edition of the
King James Version
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...
(1611), translators accused the pope of perversion of the Holy Scripture.
Modern critiques
James Hastings
James Hastings (26 March 1852 – 15 October 1922) was a Scottish United Free Church minister and biblical scholar. He is best known for producing major reference works, including a 5-volume '' Dictionary of the Bible'' and a 13-volume ''Encyc ...
said he "willingly admit
that "on the whole
..the Clementine text is critically an improvement upon the Sixtine".
According to
Frederic G. Kenyon, "
cannot be pretended that the Clementine text is satisfactory from the point of view of history or scholarship"; he also said the changes that differentiate the Clementine edition from the Sixtine edition "except where they simply remove an obvious blunder, are, for the most part, no improvement".
Henri Quentin
Dom Henri Quentin (7 October 1872, Saint-Thierry - 4 February 1935, Rome) was a French Benedictine monk. A philologist specializing in biblical texts and martyrologies, he was the creator of an original method of textual criticism (sometimes ca ...
wrote: "Overall, the Clementine edition is a little better than the Sixtine, but it does not mark considerable progress".
Kurt and
Barbara Aland wrote that "neither the
edition of 1590 nor that of 1592
..succeeded in representing either Jerome's original text
..or its Greek base with any accuracy."
Monsignor Roger Gryson, a
patristics scholar at the
Catholic University of Louvain
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, asserts in the preface to the 4th edition of the
Stuttgart Vulgate (1994) that the Clementine edition "frequently deviates from the manuscript tradition for literary or doctrinal reasons, and offers only a faint reflection of the original Vulgate, as read in the ''
pandecta'' of the first millennium." By the same token however, the great extent to which the Clementine edition preserves contaminated readings from the medieval period can itself be considered to have critical value; Frans Van Liere states: "for the medieval student interested in the text as it was read, for instance, in thirteenth century Paris, the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate might actually be a better representative of the scholastic biblical text than the modern critical editions of the text in its pre-
Carolingian form." Houghton states that "
e Clementine Vulgate is often a better guide to the text of the
mediaeval Vulgate than critical editions of the earliest attainable text."
Later printings
![Prologus_Ioanni_Vulgata_Clementina](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Prologus_Ioanni_Vulgata_Clementina.jpg)
In the early 20th century, more people became aware of the inadequacies of the Clementine Vulgate, and in 1906 a new edition of the Clementine Vulgate edited by
Michael Hetzenauer was published (''Biblia sacra vulgatae editionis: ex ipsis exemplaribus vaticanis inter se atque cum indice errorum corrigendorum collatis critice''); his edition was based on the 1592, 1593, and 1598 printings of the Clementine Vulgate, and includes authorised corrections. The 1946 edition by
Alberto Colunga Cueto Alberto Colunga Cueto O.P. (Noreña
Noreña is a municipality in the Autonomous Community of the Principality of Asturias, Spain. It is surrounded by the municipality of Siero. It is the smallest municipality in Asturias and the second smallest ...
and is the current standard reference edition of the Clementine Vulgate, and a version of it is available online.
In critical editions of the Bible text
The 1592 edition of the Clementine Vulgate is cited in the
Nestle-Aland
(''The New Testament in Greek'') is a critical edition of the New Testament in its original Koine Greek, forming the basis of most modern Bible translations and biblical criticism. It is also known as the Nestle–Aland edition after its mos ...
, where it is designated by the ''
siglum
Scribal abbreviations or sigla ( singular: siglum) are abbreviations used by ancient and medieval scribes writing in various languages, including Latin, Greek, Old English and Old Norse. In modern manuscript editing (substantive and mechani ...
'' vg
cl,
and in the
Oxford Vulgate New Testament (also known as the Oxford Vulgate), where it is designated by the ''siglum'' .
The 1592, 1593 and 1598 editions are cited in the
Stuttgart Vulgate, where they are collectively designated by the ''siglum'' .
''Nova Vulgata''
The Clementine Vulgate remained the standard Bible of the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
until 1979, when the ''
Nova Vulgata
The ''Nova Vulgata'' (complete title: ''Nova Vulgata Bibliorum Sacrorum Editio'', ; abr. ''NV''), also called the Neo-Vulgate, is the official Classical Latin translation of the original-language texts of the Bible published by the Holy See. It ...
'' was promulgated by
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
.
See also
*
Bible translations into Latin The Bible translations into Latin date back to classical antiquity.
Latin translations of the Bible were used in the Western part of the former Roman Empire until the Reformation. Those translations are still used along with translations from Lat ...
*
Douay–Rheims Bible
The Douay–Rheims Bible (, ), also known as the Douay–Rheims Version, Rheims–Douai Bible or Douai Bible, and abbreviated as D–R, DRB, and DRV, is a translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English made by member ...
*
Latin Psalters
The Latin Psalters are the translations of the Book of Psalms into the Latin language. They are the premier liturgical resource used in the Liturgy of the Hours of the Latin Rites of the Roman Catholic Church.
These translations are typically ...
*
Vulgate
The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible.
The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...
*
Sixtine Vulgate
The Sixtine Vulgate or Sistine Vulgate () is the edition of the Vulgate—a 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible that was written largely by Jerome—which was published in 1590, prepared by a commission on the orders of Pope Sixtus V a ...
*''
Nova Vulgata
The ''Nova Vulgata'' (complete title: ''Nova Vulgata Bibliorum Sacrorum Editio'', ; abr. ''NV''), also called the Neo-Vulgate, is the official Classical Latin translation of the original-language texts of the Bible published by the Holy See. It ...
''
Notes
References
Works cited
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Further reading
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External links
Original editions
Scan of the 1592 editionan
text of the 1592 editionby the ''Instituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento'' (Click on "metadati" if the image does not load)
1592 edition on Google books*
Scan of the 1598 edition
Editions
* (edition of the 1592 version of the Vulgate with variations from the two other subsequent editions (1593 and 1598) as well as of the 1590
Sixtine Vulgate
The Sixtine Vulgate or Sistine Vulgate () is the edition of the Vulgate—a 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible that was written largely by Jerome—which was published in 1590, prepared by a commission on the orders of Pope Sixtus V a ...
)
*
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Vulgata Clementina– VulSearch & the Clementine Vulgate project
The Clementine Vulgate fully searchable, with the ability to compare with both the Douay Rheims and Knox Bibles side by side.
Translations
Catholic Public Domain Version 2009 (
open source translation of the Clementine Vulgate into English)
Miscellaneous
* Notice of the 1593 edition on the website of the
Morgan Library and Museum
The Morgan Library & Museum, formerly the Pierpont Morgan Library, is a museum and research library in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is situated at 225 Madison Avenue, between 36th Street to the south and 37th S ...
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16th-century Latin books
16th-century Catholicism
16th-century Christian texts
Documents of Pope Clement VIII
Early printed Bibles
Editions of the Vulgate
Catholic bibles