View source for Vulgate

{{Short description|Translation of the Bible by Jerome}}
{{other uses}}
{{use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{use British English|date=March 2020}}

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The '''Vulgate''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|v|ʌ|l|g|eɪ|t|,_|-|g|ə|t}}){{efn|Also called {{lang|la|Biblia Vulgata}} ("Bible in common language"; {{IPA|la|ˈbɪbli.a wʊlˈɡaːta| lang}}), sometimes referred to as the '''Latin Vulgate'''}} is a late-4th-century [[Bible translations into Latin|Latin translation]] of the [[Bible]]. It is largely the work of Saint [[Jerome]] who, in&nbsp;382, had been commissioned by [[Pope Damasus I]] to revise the {{lang|la|[[Vetus Latina]]}} [[Gospel]]s used by the [[Diocese of Rome|Roman Church]]. Later, of his own initiative, Jerome extended this work of revision and translation to include most of the [[books of the Bible]]. 

The Vulgate became progressively adopted as the Bible text within the [[Western Church]]. Over succeeding centuries, it eventually eclipsed the {{lang|la|Vetus Latina}} texts.<ref>{{Cite web |title=vetuslatina.org |url=http://www.vetuslatina.org/ |access-date=2024-07-10 |website=vetuslatina.org}}</ref> By the 13th&nbsp;century it had taken over from the former version the designation {{lang|la|versio vulgata}} (the "version commonly used"<ref name="LewisShort">{{Cite web |last1=T. Lewis |first1=Charlton |author-link=Charlton Thomas Lewis |last2=Short |first2=Charles |title=A Latin Dictionary {{!}} vulgo |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=vulgo2 |access-date=5 October 2019 |website=Perseus Digital Library}}</ref>) or {{lang|la|vulgata}} for short.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Ackroyd |first1=Peter R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QnG2067meU0C |title=The Cambridge History of the Bible: Volume 1, From the Beginnings to Jerome |last2=Evans |first2=C. F. |last3=Lampe |first3=Geoffrey William Hugo |last4=Greenslade |first4=Stanley Lawrence |orig-year=1970|year=1980|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-09973-8 |volume=1 |language=en}}</ref> The Vulgate also contains some ''Vetus Latina'' translations that Jerome did not work on.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-06-14 |title=Vulgate {{!}} Description, Definition, Bible, History, & Facts {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vulgate |access-date=2024-07-10 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |language=en}}</ref>

The [[Catholic Church]] affirmed the Vulgate as its official [[Latin]] Bible at the [[Council of Trent]] (1545–1563), though there was no single authoritative edition of the book at that time in any language.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Metzger |first=Bruce M. |author-link=Bruce M. Metzger |title=The Early Versions of the New Testament |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1977 |location=Oxford |pages=348}}</ref> The Vulgate did eventually receive an official edition to be [[Promulgation (Catholic canon law)|promulgated]] among the Catholic Church as the [[Sixtine Vulgate]] (1590), then as the [[Clementine Vulgate]] (1592), and then as the ''[[Nova Vulgata]]'' (1979). The Vulgate is still currently used in the [[Latin Church]]. The Clementine edition of the Vulgate became the standard Bible text of the [[Roman Rite]] of the Catholic Church, and remained so until 1979 when the ''Nova Vulgata'' was promulgated.

== Terminology ==
The earliest known use of the term ''Vulgata'' to describe Jerome's "new" Latin translation was made by [[Roger Bacon]] in the 13th&nbsp;century.<ref name="ISBE">{{Cite web|url=http://www.bible-researcher.com/vulgate1.html|title=Latin Vulgate (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)|year=1915|website=bible-researcher.com|access-date=16 August 2019}}</ref> 

The term ''Vulgate'' was used in a 1538 edition Latin Bible by [[Robert Estienne]] which coupled the popular (i.e. the Vulgate) with the "most improved" (i.e., the recent new Latin translations of [[Pagninus]], [[Beza]] and Baduell): ''Biblia utriusque testamenti juxta vulgatam translationem  et eam, quam haberi potut, emendatissimam''.<ref name=":032">Canellis (2017), ch. "Introduction: From Jerome's...", pp. 216–7.</ref>

== Authorship ==
{{Bible sidebar |TM}}
While the majority of the Vulgate's translation is traditionally attributed to [[Jerome]], the Vulgate has a compound text that is not entirely Jerome's work.<ref>{{Cite book|publisher=[[Clarendon Press]]|last=Plater|first=William Edward|author2=Henry Julian White|title=A grammar of the Vulgate, being an introduction to the study of the latinity of the Vulgate Bible|location=Oxford|year=1926|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9BwFAQAAIAAJ|page=5}}</ref> Jerome's translation of the four Gospels are revisions of ''[[Vetus Latina]]'' translations he did while having the Greek as reference.<ref name=":02" /><ref name="Houghton 2016 41" />

The Latin translations of the rest of the [[New Testament]] are revisions to ''Vetus Latina'' texts, considered as being made by [[Pelagian]] circles or by [[Rufinus the Syrian]], or by [[Tyrannius Rufinus|Rufinus of Aquileia]].<ref name=":02">Canellis (2017), pp. 89–90, 217.</ref><ref name="Scherbenske 2013 183" /><ref name=":42" /> Several unrevised (deuterocanonical or non-canonical) books from ''Vetus Latina'' Old Testaments also commonly became included in the Vulgate. These are: [[1 Maccabees|1]] and [[2&nbsp;Maccabees]], [[Book of Wisdom|Wisdom]], [[Sirach|Ecclesiasticus]], [[Book of Baruch|Baruch]] and the [[Letter of Jeremiah]].<ref name=":03">Canellis (2017), ch. "Introduction: Revision...", p. 217.</ref><ref name="Bogaert 2005 286–342" />

Having separately translated the book of [[Psalms]] from the Greek ''[[Hexapla]] Septuagint'', Jerome translated all of the books of the [[Jewish Bible]]—the Hebrew book of Psalms included—from Hebrew himself. He also translated the books of [[Book of Tobit|Tobit]] and [[Book of Judith|Judith]] from [[Aramaic]] versions, the [[additions to the Book of Esther]] from the ''Common Septuagint'' and the [[additions to the Book of Daniel]] from the Greek of [[Theodotion]].<ref name=":034">Canellis (2017), ch. "Introduction: From Jerome's...", pp. 213, 217.</ref>

=== Content ===
The Vulgate is "a composite collection which cannot be identified with only Jerome's work," because the Vulgate contains ''[[Vetus Latina]]'' texts which are independent from Jerome's work.<ref name=":03" />

A famous historical edition of the Vulgate,  the [[Alcuin]]ian ''[[wiktionary:pandect#Noun|pandects]]'' from the end of the 700s, contain:<ref name=":03" />
* New Testament
** ''Revision of Vetus Latina'' by Jerome: the [[Four Gospels|Gospels]], corrected with reference to the [[New Testament manuscript|Greek manuscripts]] which Jerome considered the best available.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Chapman|first=John|year=1922|title=St Jerome and the Vulgate New Testament (I–II)|journal=[[The Journal of Theological Studies]]|series=o.s.|volume=24|issue=93|pages=33–51|doi=10.1093/jts/os-XXIV.93.33|issn=0022-5185}} {{Cite journal|last=Chapman|first=John|year=1923|title=St Jerome and the Vulgate New Testament (III)|journal=The Journal of Theological Studies|series=o.s.|volume=24|issue=95|pages=282–299|doi=10.1093/jts/os-XXIV.95.282|issn=0022-5185}}</ref><ref name=":03" />
** ''Revision of Vetus Latina'' perhaps by [[Rufinus the Syrian]], or by [[Rufinus of Aquileia]] or by so-called [[Pelagian]] groups: [[Acts of the Apostles|Acts]], [[Pauline epistles]], [[Catholic epistles]], and the [[Book of Revelation|Apocalypse]].<ref name=":02" /><ref name=":42">{{Cite book|last=Houghton|first=H. A. G.|title=The Latin New Testament; a Guide to its Early History, Texts and Manuscripts|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016|pages=36, 41}}</ref><ref name="Scherbenske 2013 183" />
* Old Testament
**''Translation from the Hebrew'' by Jerome: all the books from the [[Hebrew Bible|Hebrew canon]] except the [[Book of Psalms]].<ref name=":03" />
**''Translation from the [[Hexapla|Hexaplar Septuagint]]'' by Jerome: his [[Latin Psalters#Versio Gallicana|Gallican version]] of the Book of Psalms.<ref name=":02" />
* Deuterocanonicals and non-canonicals
** ''Translation from [[Aramaic]]'' by Jerome: the book of [[Book of Tobit|Tobit]] and the book of [[Book of Judith|Judith]].<ref name=":03" />
** ''Translation from the Greek of [[Theodotion]]'' by Jerome: the three additions to the [[Book of Daniel]]: the [[The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Holy Children|Song of the Three Children]], the [[Susanna (Book of Daniel)|Story of Susanna]], and the [[Bel and the Dragon|Story of Bel and the Dragon]]. Jerome marked these additions with an [[obelus]] before them to distinguish them from the rest of the text.<ref name=":05">Canellis (2017), pp. 132–133, 217.</ref> He says that because those parts "are spread throughout the whole world, [we] have appended by banishing and placing them after the spit (or "obelus"), so we will not be seen among the unlearned to have cut off a large part of the scroll."<ref name=":1" />
** ''Translation from the [[Septuagint|Common Septuagint]]'' by Jerome: the [[Book of Esther#Additions to Esther|Additions to Esther]]. Jerome gathered all these additions together at the end of the Book of Esther, marking them with an obelus.<ref name=":052">Canellis (2017), ch. "Introduction: Revision...", pp. 133–134.</ref>
**''Vetus Latina, wholly unrevised:'' [[Epistle to the Laodiceans#Latin Vulgate Epistle to the Laodiceans|Epistle to the Laodiceans]], [[Sirach]], [[Book of Wisdom|Wisdom]], [[1 Maccabees|1]]&nbsp;and [[2 Maccabees]].<ref name=":03" /><ref name="Bogaert 2005 286–342" /> The 13th-century [[Paris Bible]]s remove the [[Epistle to the Laodiceans#Latin Vulgate Epistle to the Laodiceans|Epistle to the Laodiceans]], but add:<ref name=":03" />
*** ''Vetus Latina, wholly unrevised'': [[Prayer of Manasses]], [[2 Esdras|4&nbsp;Ezra]], the [[Book of Baruch]] and the [[Letter of Jeremiah]]. The Book of Baruch and the [[Letter of Jeremiah]] were first excluded by Jerome as non-canonical, but sporadically included in Vulgate Bibles from the 9th&nbsp;century onward.<ref name=":03" /><ref name="Bogaert 2005 286–342">{{Cite journal|volume=115|issue=2|pages=286–342|last=Bogaert|first=Pierre-Maurice|title=Le livre de Baruch dans les manuscrits de la Bible latine. Disparition et réintégration|journal=[[Revue Bénédictine]]|year=2005|doi=10.1484/J.RB.5.100598}}</ref>
** ''Independent translation, distinct from the Vetus Latina'' (probably of the 3rd century): [[1 Esdras|3&nbsp;Ezra a.k.a. 1 Esdras]].<ref name=":03" /><ref>{{Cite journal|volume=26|issue=4|pages=253–302|last=York|first=Harry Clinton|title=The Latin Versions of First Esdras|journal=[[The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures]]|year=1910|jstor=527826|doi=10.1086/369651|s2cid=170979647}}</ref>

Jerome is connected to three different Latin versions of the Psalms, which were adopted in different Vulgate editions, regions or uses:

* ''Versio Romana'' [[#Psalter|formerly]] attributed to Jerome (384):  a [[Latin Psalters#Versio Romana|revision]] of the earlier ''[[Latin Psalters#Versio vetus latina|vetus latina]]''. It is still sung in Catholic Latin liturgies, in the [[Roman Missal]].
* ''Versio Gallicana'' by Jerome (386-389): a [[Latin Psalters#Versio Gallicana|translation of the Psalms from the Greek]] [[Hexapla]] became the most common version in Bibles.
* ''Versio juxta Hebraicum'' by Jerome (c.390 to 398):<ref name=":04">Canellis (2017), ch. "Introduction: Revision...", p. 98.</ref> a [[Latin Psalters#Versio juxta Hebraicum|translation of the Psalms from the Hebrew]].<ref name=":034"/> This translation of the Psalms was kept in Spanish manuscripts of the Vulgate long after the [[Gallican psalter]] had supplanted it elsewhere.<ref name=":62">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bibliasacraiuxta0000unse_d8t5|title=Biblia sacra : iuxta Vulgatam versionem|publisher=Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft|others=Oliver Wendell Holmes Library Phillips Academy|year=2007|isbn=978-3-438-05303-9|editor-last=Weber|editor-first=Robert|edition=5|location=Stuttgart|pages=VI, XV, XXV, XXXIV|chapter=Praefatio|editor-last2=Gryson|editor-first2=Roger|url-access=registration}}</ref>

== Jerome's work of translation ==
[[File:Hieronymus presents Vulgata.jpg|thumb|302x302px|Jerome presents the Vulgate to Pope Damasus; miniature from the <abbr>c.</abbr> 1150 Gospel Book of [[Lund Cathedral]] (Cod. Ups. 83)]]
Jerome did not embark on the work with the intention of creating a new version of the whole Bible, but the changing nature of his program can be tracked in his voluminous correspondence. 

He had been commissioned by [[Damasus&nbsp;I]] in 382 to revise the ''Vetus Latina'' text of the [[four Gospels]] from the best Greek texts.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Browning |first=W. R. F. |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Dictionary_of_the_Bible/icXNCQAAQBAJ?hl=en |title=A Dictionary of the Bible |date=2009-10-08 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-158506-7 |edition=2nd |pages=373 |language=en |quote=The translation of the Bible from the original languages into Latin by Jerome (from 383 to 405 CE) undertaken at the request of Pope Damasus to bring order into the various existing versions. |archive-url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofbibl0000unse_g3e2/page/372/mode/2up |archive-date=2023-06-20 |url-status=live}}</ref> By the time of Damasus' death in&nbsp;384, Jerome had completed this task, together with a more cursory revision from the Greek Common Septuagint of the ''Vetus Latina'' text of the Psalms in the Roman Psalter, a version which he later disowned and is now lost.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Goins|first=Scott|contribution=Jerome's Psalters|editor-last=Brown|editor-first=William P.|title=Oxford Handbook to the Psalms|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2014|page=188}}</ref> How much of the rest of the New Testament he then revised is difficult to judge,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Scherbenske|first=Eric W.|title=Canonizing Paul: Ancient Editorial Practice and the Corpus Paulinum|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2013|page=182}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Houghton|first=H. A. G.|title=The Latin New Testament; a Guide to its Early History, Texts and Manuscripts|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016|page=31}}</ref> but none of his work survived in the Vulgate text of these books. 

The revised text of the New Testament outside the Gospels is deemed the work of other scholars. [[Tyrannius Rufinus|Rufinus of Aquileia]] has been suggested, as has [[Rufinus the Syrian]] (an associate of [[Pelagius]]) and Pelagius himself, though without specific evidence for any of them;<ref name="Scherbenske 2013 183">{{Cite book|last=Scherbenske|first=Eric W.|title=Canonizing Paul: Ancient Editorial Practice and the Corpus Paulinum|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2013|page=183}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book|last=Houghton|first=H. A. G.|title=The Latin New Testament; a Guide to its Early History, Texts and Manuscripts|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016|page=36}}</ref> Pelagian groups have also been suggested as the revisers.<ref name=":02" /> This unknown reviser worked more thoroughly than Jerome had done, consistently using older Greek manuscript sources of [[Alexandrian text-type]]. They had published a complete revised New Testament text by 410 at the latest, when Pelagius quoted from it in his commentary on the letters of [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Scherbenske|first=Eric W.|title=Canonizing Paul: Ancient Editorial Practice and the Corpus Paulinum|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2013|page=184}}</ref><ref name="Houghton 2016 41">{{Cite book|last=Houghton|first=H. A. G.|title=The Latin New Testament; a Guide to its Early History, Texts and Manuscripts|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016|page=41}}</ref>

In Jerome's Vulgate, the Hebrew Book of [[Ezra–Nehemiah]] is translated as the single book of "Ezra". Jerome defends this in his Prologue to Ezra, although he had noted formerly in his Prologue to the Book of Kings that some Greeks and Latins had proposed that this book should be split in two. Jerome argues that the two books of Ezra found in the Septuagint and ''Vetus Latina'', [[1 Esdras|Esdras&nbsp;A]] and Esdras&nbsp;B, represented "variant examples" of a single Hebrew original. Hence, he does not translate Esdras&nbsp;A separately even though up until then it had been universally found in Greek and Vetus Latina Old Testaments, preceding Esdras&nbsp;B, the combined text of Ezra–Nehemiah.<ref>{{Cite journal|volume=1o5|pages=5–26|last=Bogaert|first=Pierre-Maurice|title=Les livres d'Esdras et leur numérotation dans l'histoire du canon de la Bible latin|journal=Revue Bénédictine|year=2000|issue=1–2|doi=10.1484/J.RB.5.100750}}</ref>

The Vulgate is usually credited as being the first translation of the Old Testament into Latin directly from the Hebrew [[Tanakh]] rather than from the Greek Septuagint. Jerome's extensive use of [[exegesis|exegetical]] material written in Greek, as well as his use of the [[Aquila of Sinope|Aquiline]] and Theodotiontic columns of the Hexapla, along with the somewhat [[paraphrase|paraphrastic style]]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Worth|first1=Roland H. Jr.|title=Bible Translations: A History Through Source Documents|pages=29–30}}</ref> in which he translated, makes it difficult to determine exactly how direct the conversion of Hebrew to Latin was.{{Efn|Some, following P. Nautin (1986) and perhaps E. Burstein (1971), suggest that Jerome may have been almost wholly dependent on Greek material for his interpretation of the Hebrew. A. Kamesar (1993), on the other hand, sees evidence that in some cases Jerome's knowledge of Hebrew exceeds that of his exegetes, implying a direct understanding of the Hebrew text.}}<ref>Pierre Nautin, article "Hieronymus", in: ''Theologische Realenzyklopädie'', Vol. 15, [[Walter de Gruyter]], Berlin – New York 1986, pp. 304–315, [309–310].</ref><ref>Adam Kamesar. ''Jerome, Greek Scholarship, and the Hebrew Bible: A Study of the Quaestiones Hebraicae in Genesim''. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1993. {{ISBN|978-0198147275}}. p. 97. This work cites E. Burstein, ''La compétence en hébreu de saint Jérôme'' (Diss.), Poitiers 1971.</ref> 

[[Augustine of Hippo]], a contemporary of Jerome, states in Book&nbsp;XVII ch.&nbsp;43 of his ''[[The City of God]]'' that "in our own day the priest Jerome, a great scholar and master of all three tongues, has made a translation into Latin, not from Greek but directly from the original Hebrew."<ref>''City of God'' edited and abridged by Vernon J. Bourke 1958</ref> Nevertheless, Augustine still maintained that the Septuagint, alongside the Hebrew, witnessed the inspired text of Scripture. He reminded Jerome of the need for the Latin church to be in sync with the Greek church, and practical difficulty in finding any Hebrew-reading Christian scholar who could check Jerome's translation from the Hebrew.<ref>{{cite web |title=CHURCH FATHERS: Letter 71 (Augustine) or 104 (Jerome) |url=https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102071.htm |website=newadvent.org}}</ref> He consequently pressed Jerome for complete copies of his Hexaplar Latin translation of the Old Testament, a request that Jerome ducked with the excuses that scribe were in short supply and the originals had been lost "through someone's dishonesty".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102172.htm|title=Church Fathers: Letter 172 (Augustine) or 134 (Jerome)|website=newadvent.org|access-date=26 June 2017}}</ref>

He used a novel layout technique ''per cola et commata'' which put each major clause on  new line.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lexicon - Per cola et commata |url=https://hmmlschool.org/lexicon/14667/ |website=hmmlschool.org |language=en}}</ref>
=== Prologues ===
<!-- This section is linked from [[Deuterocanonical books]] -->
Prologues written by Jerome to some of his translations of parts of the Bible are to the [[Pentateuch]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Genesis – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=214|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605171531/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=214|archive-date=5 June 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=bombaxo.com}}</ref> to [[Joshua]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Joshua – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=217|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110113021/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=217|archive-date=10 November 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=bombaxo.com}}</ref> and to [[Books of the Kingdoms|Kings]] (1–2 Kings and 1–2 Samuel) which is also called the ''[[Galeatum principium]]''.<ref name="bombaxo.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=218|title=Jerome's "Helmeted Introduction" to Kings – biblicalia|website=bombaxo.com|access-date=26 June 2017}}</ref> Following these are prologues to Chronicles,<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Chronicles – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=220|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140803043705/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=220|archive-date=3 August 2014|access-date=26 June 2017|website=bombaxo.com}}</ref> Ezra,<ref name="Jerome's Prologue to Ezra – biblica">{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Ezra – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=222|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605194417/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=222|archive-date=5 June 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=bombaxo.com}}</ref> Tobit,<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Tobias – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=223|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605202531/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=223|archive-date=5 June 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=bombaxo.com}}</ref> Judith,<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Judith – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=224|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131208131926/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=224|archive-date=8 December 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=bombaxo.com}}</ref> Esther,<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Esther – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=225|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131204113212/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=225|archive-date=4 December 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=bombaxo.com}}</ref> Job,<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Job – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=228|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131208003644/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=228|archive-date=8 December 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=bombaxo.com}}</ref> the [[Gallican Psalms]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Psalms (LXX) – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=229|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131204000922/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=229|archive-date=4 December 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=bombaxo.com}}</ref> Song of Songs,<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to the Books of Solomon – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=231|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203235652/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=231|archive-date=3 December 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=bombaxo.com}}</ref> Isaiah,<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Isaiah – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=232|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131208000012/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=232|archive-date=8 December 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=bombaxo.com}}</ref> Jeremiah,<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Jeremiah – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=233|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231002043/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=233|archive-date=31 December 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=bombaxo.com}}</ref> Ezekiel,<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Ezekiel – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=234|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231092906/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=234|archive-date=31 December 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=bombaxo.com}}</ref> Daniel,<ref name=":1">{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Daniel – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=235|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140101063508/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=235|archive-date=1 January 2014|access-date=26 June 2017|website=bombaxo.com}}</ref> the minor prophets,<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to the Twelve Prophets – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=236|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605173410/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=236|archive-date=5 June 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=bombaxo.com}}</ref> the gospels.<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to the Gospels – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=237|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110154542/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=237|archive-date=10 November 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=bombaxo.com}}</ref> The final prologue is to the [[Pauline epistles]] and is better known as {{lang|la|Primum quaeritur}}; this prologue is considered not to have been written by Jerome.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=238|title=Vulgate Prologue to Paul's Letters – biblicalia|website=bombaxo.com|access-date=26 June 2017}}</ref><ref name="Scherbenske 2013 183" /> Related to these are Jerome's ''Notes on the Rest of Esther''<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Notes to the Additions to Esther – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=226|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203014942/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=226|archive-date=3 December 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=bombaxo.com}}</ref> and his ''Prologue to the [[Latin Psalters#Versio juxta Hebraicum|Hebrew Psalms]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Jerome's Prologue to Psalms (Hebrew) – biblicalia|url=http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=230|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203001713/http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=230|archive-date=3 December 2013|access-date=26 June 2017|website=bombaxo.com}}</ref>

A theme of the [[Old Testament]] prologues is Jerome's preference for the ''Hebraica veritas'' (i.e., Hebrew truth) over the Septuagint, a preference which he defended from his detractors. After Jerome had translated some parts of the Septuagint into Latin, he came to consider the text of the Septuagint as being faulty in itself, i.e. Jerome thought mistakes in the Septuagint text were not all mistakes made by [[copyists]], but that some mistakes were part of the original text itself as it was produced by the [[Septuagint#Jewish legend|Seventy translators]]. Jerome believed that the Hebrew text more clearly prefigured [[Jesus Christ|Christ]] than the Greek of the Septuagint, since he believed some quotes of the Old Testament in the New Testament were not present in the Septuagint, but existed in the Hebrew version; Jerome gave some of those quotes in his prologue to the Pentateuch.<ref name=":0">Canellis (2017), ch. "Introduction: Revision...", pp. 99–109.</ref> In the ''Galeatum principium'' (a.k.a. {{lang|la|Prologus Galeatus}}), Jerome described an Old Testament canon of 22&nbsp;books, which he found represented in the 22-letter [[Hebrew Language|Hebrew]] alphabet. Alternatively, he numbered the books as&nbsp;24, which he identifies with the 24&nbsp;elders in the Book of Revelation casting their crowns before the [[Lamb of God|Lamb]].<ref name="bombaxo.com" /> In the prologue to Ezra, he sets the "twenty-four elders" of the Hebrew Bible against the "Seventy interpreters" of the Septuagint.<ref name="Jerome's Prologue to Ezra – biblica" />

In addition, many medieval Vulgate manuscripts included [[Jerome's first epistle to Paulinus|Jerome's epistle number&nbsp;53, to Paulinus bishop of Nola]], as a general prologue to the whole Bible. Notably, this letter was printed at the head of the [[Gutenberg Bible]]. Jerome's letter promotes the study of each of the books of the Old and New Testaments listed by name (and excluding any mention of the [[deuterocanonical books]]); and its dissemination had the effect of propagating the belief that the whole Vulgate text was Jerome's work.

The prologue to the Pauline Epistles in the Vulgate defends the Pauline authorship of the [[Epistle to the Hebrews]], directly contrary to Jerome's own views—a key argument in demonstrating that Jerome did not write it. The author of the {{lang|la|Primum quaeritur}} is unknown, but it is first quoted by Pelagius in his commentary on the Pauline letters written before&nbsp;410. As this work also quotes from the Vulgate revision of these letters, it has been proposed that Pelagius or one of his associates may have been responsible for the revision of the Vulgate New Testament outside the Gospels. At any rate, it is reasonable to identify the author of the preface with the unknown reviser of the New Testament outside the gospels.<ref name="Scherbenske 2013 183" />

Some manuscripts of the Pauline epistles contain short [[Marcionite]] prologues to each of the epistles indicating where they were written, with notes about where the recipients dwelt. [[Adolf von Harnack]], citing De Bruyne, argued that these notes were written by [[Marcion of Sinope]] or one of his followers.<ref>[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/harnack/origin_nt.v.i.html ''Origin of the New Testament - APPENDIX I (to § 2 of Part I, pp. 59 f.) The Marcionite Prologues to the Pauline Epistles''], Adolf von Harnack, 1914. Moreover, Harnack noted: "We have indeed long known that [[Marcionite]] readings found their way into the ecclesiastical text of the Pauline epistles, but now for seven years we have known that Churches actually accepted the Marcionite prefaces to the Pauline epistles! De Bruyne has made one of the finest discoveries of later days in proving that those prefaces, which we read first in [[Codex Fuldensis]] and then in numbers of later manuscripts, are Marcionite, and that the Churches had not noticed the cloven hoof."</ref> Many early Vulgate manuscripts contain a set of [[Monarchian Prologues|Priscillianist prologues to the gospels]].

== {{Anchor|Relation with the Old Latin Bible}}Relation with the ''Vetus Latina'' Bible ==
{{Main|Vetus Latina}}
The Latin biblical texts in use before Jerome's Vulgate are usually referred to collectively as the ''Vetus Latina'', or "Vetus Latina Bible". "Vetus Latina" means that they are older than the Vulgate and written in [[Latin Language|Latin]], not that they are written in [[Old Latin]]. Jerome, in his preface to the Vulgate gospels, commented that there were "as many [translations] as there are manuscripts"; subsequently noting the same in his preface to the Book of Joshua. 

The translations in the ''Vetus Latina'' had accumulated piecemeal over a century or more. They were not translated by a single person or institution, nor uniformly edited. The individual books varied in quality of translation and style, and different manuscripts and quotations witness wide variations in readings. Some books appear to have been translated several times. 

The Vulgate did not immediately supersede the ''Vetus Latina '' translations. Pandects from the Early Middle Ages sometimes had some books (e.g. deuterocanonicals, Acts, Revelation), or took phrases, or had glosses from the ''Vetus Latina'', but this declined through the High Middle Ages.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Houghton |first1=H.A.G. |chapter=The Tenth Century Onwards: Scholarship and Heresy |title=The Latin New Testament |date=1 February 2016 |pages=96–110 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198744733.003.0005}}</ref>

=== New Testament ===
Jerome's work on the Gospels was a revision of the ''Vetus Latina'' versions, and not an entirely new translation. The base text for Jerome's revision of the gospels was a Vetus Latina text similar to the [[Codex Veronensis]], with the text of the Gospel of John conforming more to that in the [[Codex Corbiensis]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Buron|first=Philip|title=The text of the New Testament in Contemporary Research; 2nd edn|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=2014|page=182}}</ref> 

The ''Vetus Latina'' gospels had been translated from Greek originals of the [[Western text-type]]. Comparison of Jerome's Gospel texts with those in Vetus Latina witnesses, suggests that his revision was concerned with substantially redacting their expanded "Western" phraseology in accordance with the Greek texts of better early [[Byzantine text-type|Byzantine]] and [[Alexandrian text-type|Alexandrian]] witnesses. For the Gospels "High priest" is rendered {{lang|la|princeps sacerdotum}} in Vulgate Matthew; as {{lang|la|summus sacerdos}} in Vulgate Mark; and as {{lang|la|pontifex}} in Vulgate John. 

In places Jerome adopted readings that did not correspond to a straightforward rendering either of the Vetus Latina or the Greek text, so reflecting a particular doctrinal interpretation; as in his rewording ''panem nostrum'' ''[[epiousios|supersubstantialem]]'' at [[Matthew&nbsp;6:11]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Houghton|first=H. A. G.|title=The Latin New Testament; a Guide to its Early History, Texts and Manuscripts|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016|page=33}}</ref>

One major change Jerome introduced was to re-order the Latin Gospels. Most Vetus Latina gospel books followed the "Western" order of Matthew, John, Luke, Mark; Jerome adopted the "Greek" order of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. His revisions became progressively less frequent and less consistent in the gospels presumably done later.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Houghton|first=H. A. G.|title=The Latin New Testament; a Guide to its Early History, Texts and Manuscripts|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2016|pages=32, 34, 195}}</ref> 

The unknown reviser of the rest of the New Testament shows marked differences from Jerome, both in editorial practice and in their sources. Where Jerome sought to correct the Vetus Latina text with reference to the best recent Greek manuscripts, with a preference for those conforming to the Byzantine text-type, the Greek text underlying the revision of the rest of the New Testament demonstrates the Alexandrian text-type found in the great [[Uncial script|uncial]] [[Codex|codices]] of the mid-4th&nbsp;century, most similar to the [[Codex Sinaiticus]]. The reviser's changes generally conform very closely to this Greek text, even in matters of word order—to the extent that the resulting text may be only barely intelligible as Latin.<ref name="Houghton 2016 41" />

=== Old Testament ===
Jerome himself uses the term "Latin Vulgate" for the ''Vetus Latina'' text, so intending to denote this version as the common Latin rendering of the [[Greek Vulgate]] or Common Septuagint (which Jerome otherwise terms the "Seventy interpreters"). This remained the usual use of the term "Latin Vulgate" in the West for centuries. On occasion Jerome applies the term "Septuagint" (''Septuaginta'') to refer to the Hexaplar Septuagint, where he wishes to distinguish this from the ''Vulgata'' or Common Septuagint.

According to Old Testament scholar [[Amanda Benckhuysen]]: "Jerome omits from the Vulgate the phrase “who was with her” in Genesis 3:6, making Eve doubly culpable for the fall and responsible for Adam’s sin. By implying Adam’s absence during the serpent’s conversation with Eve, the Vulgate portrays Eve as the seduced who becomes the seducer, beguiling a naive Adam to eat the forbidden fruit."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Benckhuysen |first1=Amanda W. |title=The Gospel According to Eve: A History of Women's Interpretation |date=October 29, 2019 |publisher=IVP Academic |isbn=9780830852277 |page=17}}</ref>

=== Psalter===
The Book of [[Latin Psalters|Psalms]], in particular, had circulated for over a century in an earlier Latin version (the Cyprianic Version), before it was superseded by the Vetus Latina version in the 4th&nbsp;century. 

After the Gospels, the most widely used and copied part of the Christian Bible is the Book of Psalms.  Consequently, Damasus also commissioned Jerome to revise the psalter in use in Rome, to agree better with the Greek of the Common Septuagint. Jerome said he had done this cursorily when in Rome, but he later disowned this version, maintaining that copyists had reintroduced erroneous readings. Until the 20th&nbsp;century, it was commonly assumed that the surviving Roman Psalter represented Jerome's first attempted revision, but more recent scholarship—following de Bruyne—rejects this identification. The Roman Psalter is indeed one of at least five revised versions of the mid-4th&nbsp;century Vetus Latina Psalter, but compared to the other four, the revisions in the Roman Psalter are in clumsy Latin, and fail to follow Jerome's known translational principles, especially in respect of correcting harmonised readings. Nevertheless, it is clear from Jerome's correspondence (especially in his defence of the Gallican Psalter in the long and detailed Epistle&nbsp;106)<ref>{{Cite book|last=Goins|first=Scott|contribution=Jerome's Psalters|editor-last = Brown|editor-first = William. P.|title=Oxford Handbook of the Psalms|publisher=OUP|year=2014|page=190}}</ref> that he was familiar with the Roman Psalter text, and consequently it is assumed that this revision represents the Roman text as Jerome had found it.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Norris|first=Oliver|contribution=Tracing Fortunatianus's Psalter|editor-last = Dorfbauer|editor-first = Lukas J.|title=Fortunatianus ridivivus|publisher=[[CSEL]]|year=2017|page=285}}</ref>
=== Deuterocanonials===
[[Book of Wisdom|Wisdom]], [[Book of Sirach|Ecclesiasticus]], [[Books of the Maccabees|1&nbsp;and 2&nbsp;Maccabees]] and [[Book of Baruch|Baruch (with the Letter of Jeremiah)]] are included in the Vulgate, and are purely ''Vetus Latina'' translations which Jerome did not touch.<ref name="Stuttgart">{{Cite book|title=Biblia Sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem|publisher=[[Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft]]|others=Robert Weber, Roger Gryson (eds.)|year=2007|edition=5|location=Stuttgart|page=XXXIII}}</ref>

In the 9th&nbsp;century the ''Vetus Latina'' texts of Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah were introduced into the Vulgate in versions revised by [[Theodulf of Orleans]] and are found in a minority of early medieval Vulgate ''[[wiktionary:pandect#Noun|pandect]]'' bibles from that date onward.<ref name="Bogaert 2005 286–342" /> After 1300, when the booksellers of Paris began to produce commercial single volume Vulgate bibles in large numbers, these commonly included both Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah as the ''Book of Baruch''. Also beginning in the 9th&nbsp;century, Vulgate manuscripts are found that split Jerome's combined translation from the Hebrew of [[Book of Ezra|Ezra]] and the [[Book of Nehemiah|Nehemiah]] into separate books called 1&nbsp;Ezra and 2&nbsp;Ezra. Bogaert argues that this practice arose from an intention to conform the Vulgate text to the authoritative canon lists of the 5th/6th&nbsp;century, where 'two books of Ezra' were commonly cited.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bogaert|first=Pierre-Maurice|year=2000|title=Les livres d'Esdras et leur numérotation dans l'histoire du canon de la Bible latin|journal=Revue Bénédictine|volume=110|issue=1–2|pages=5–26|doi=10.1484/J.RB.5.100750}}</ref>  Subsequently, many late medieval Vulgate bible manuscripts introduced a Latin version, originating from before Jerome and distinct from that in the ''Vetus Latina'', of the Greek Esdras&nbsp;A, now commonly termed [[1 Esdras|3&nbsp;Ezra]]; and also a Latin version of an Ezra Apocalypse, commonly termed [[2 Esdras|4&nbsp;Ezra]].

== Council of Trent and position of the Catholic Church ==
{{Catholic Church sidebar}}
In the early 1500s numerous new Catholic and Protestant biblical translations or revisions in Latin appeared, and theological disputes had arisen over the canonical status of books which e.g. supported doctrines that [[Luther's_canon|Luther]] disagreed with. The [[Council of Trent]] (1545–1563) both finalized the [[biblical canon]],<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sutcliffe|first=Edmund F.|year=1948|title=The Council of Trent on the ''authentia'' of the Vulgate|journal=The Journal of Theological Studies|series=o.s.|volume=49|issue=193–194|pages=35–42|doi=10.1093/jts/os-XLIX.193-194.35|issn=0022-5185}}</ref> and re-endorsed the Vulgate among Latin versions for public reading: it was to "be held as authentic".<ref name="bible-researcher.com">[http://www.bible-researcher.com/trent1.html Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, The Fourth Session], 1546</ref> (In liturgical use, this was not the case: the [[Roman Missal]] uses Psalms and Pater Noster taken from the ''vetus latina'' Latin versions.) 

The Council of Trent cited long usage in support of the Vulgate's [[Magisterium|magisterial authority]]:
<blockquote>Moreover, this sacred and holy Synod,—considering that no small utility may accrue to the Church of God, if it be made known which out of all the Latin editions, now in circulation, of the sacred books, is to be held as authentic,—ordains and declares, that the said old and vulgate edition, which, by the lengthened usage of so many years, has been approved of in the Church, be, in public lectures, disputations, sermons and expositions, held as authentic; and that no one is to dare, or presume to reject it under any pretext whatever.<ref name="bible-researcher.com" /></blockquote>The qualifier "Latin editions, now in circulation" and the use of "authentic" (not "inerrant") show the limits of this statement.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Akin|first=Jimmy|date=5 September 2017|title=Is the Vulgate the Catholic Church's Official Bible?|work=[[National Catholic Register]]|url=http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/is-the-vulgate-the-catholic-churchs-official-bible|access-date=15 May 2018}}</ref>

When the council listed the books included in the canon, it qualified the books as being "entire with all their parts, as they have been used to be read in the [[Catholic Church]], and as they are contained in the Vetus Latina vulgate edition". The fourth session of the Council specified 72&nbsp;canonical books in the Bible: 45&nbsp;in the Old Testament, 27&nbsp;in the New Testament with Lamentations not being counted as separate from Jeremiah.<ref>[http://www.bible-researcher.com/trent1.html Fourth Session, April 8 1546].</ref> On 2&nbsp;June 1927, [[Pope Pius XI]] clarified this decree, allowing that the [[Comma Johanneum]] was open to dispute.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Denzinger – English translation, older numbering|url=http://patristica.net/denzinger/#n2100|access-date=11 March 2020|website=patristica.net|quote=2198 [...] "This decree [of January 13, 1897] was passed to check the audacity of private teachers who attributed to themselves the right either of rejecting entirely the authenticity of the Johannine comma, or at least of calling it into question by their own final judgment. But it was not meant at all to prevent Catholic writers from investigating the subject more fully and, after weighing the arguments accurately on both sides, with that and temperance which the gravity of the subject requires, from inclining toward an opinion in opposition to its authenticity, provided they professed that they were ready to abide by the judgment of the Church, to which the duty was delegated by Jesus Christ not only of interpreting Holy Scripture but also of guarding it faithfully."}}</ref>

Later, in the 20th&nbsp;century, Pope Pius&nbsp;XII declared the Vulgate as "free from error whatsoever in matters of faith and morals" in his [[papal encyclical|encyclical]] ''[[Divino Afflante Spiritu]]'':

{{Blockquote
|text=Hence this special authority or as they say, authenticity of the Vulgate was not affirmed by the Council particularly for critical reasons, but rather because of its legitimate use in the Churches throughout so many centuries; by which use indeed the same is shown, in the sense in which the Church has understood and understands it, to be free from any error whatsoever in matters of faith and morals; so that, as the Church herself testifies and affirms, it may be quoted safely and without fear of error in disputations, in lectures and in preaching [...]"<ref name="w2.vatican.va">{{Cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_30091943_divino-afflante-spiritu.html|title=Divino Afflante Spiritu, Pope Pius XII, #21 (in English version)|website=w2.vatican.va|access-date=18 March 2020}}</ref>
|author=Pope Pius XII
}}

The [[Biblical inerrancy|inerrancy]] is with respect to faith and morals, as it says in the above quote: "free from any error whatsoever in matters of faith and morals", and the inerrancy is not in a [[philological]] sense:

{{Blockquote
|text=[...] and so its authenticity is not specified primarily as critical, but rather as juridical.<ref name="w2.vatican.va"/>}}

The Catholic Church has produced three official editions of the Vulgate: the [[Sixtine Vulgate]], the [[Sixto-Clementine Vulgate|Clementine Vulgate]], and the ''[[Nova Vulgata]]'' (see below).

== Variants ==
As with the ''vetus latina'' and the Greek [[Textual_criticism#New_Testament|text types]], manuscript versions of the Vulgate texts exhibit a considerable number of minor variations by scribes. [[Vulgate_manuscripts#History|Regular attempts]] were made over the centuries to conserve Jerome's text or to purify the text of obvious errors or substitutions from ''vetus latina'' phrases: attempts such as by [[Cassiodorus]] in the 6th century, [[Alcuin]] in the 8th, [[Stephen Harding]] in the 12th, [[Erasmus]] in the 16th, to the modern Stuttgart Vulgate.<ref>{{cite book|last1=McNamara |first1=Martin |last2=Martin |first2=Michael |title=The Bible in the Early Irish Church, A.D. 550 to 850 |date=2022 |doi=10.1163/9789004512139_011}}</ref> 

Scholars have identified families of variants, allowing tracing of influence or provenance of texts: for example, the Latin text of the [[Old_English_Bible_translations#Gospels_from_the_South,_East_and_North|Rushworth gospels]] belongs to the Insular or Irish family with characteristic inversions of word order.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tamoto |first1=Kenichi |title=The Macregol Gospels or The Rushworth Gospels (Introductory Part) |date=2019 |doi=10.13140/RG.2.2.14468.27527}}</ref>''{{rp|xlv}}''

== Influence on Western Christianity ==
[[File:Gutenberg_bible_Old_Testament_Epistle_of_St_Jerome.jpg|alt=|thumb|300x300px|First page of the first volume of the [[Gutenberg Bible]]: the [[Jerome's epistle to Paulinus (Gutenberg Bible preface)|epistle of Jerome to Paulinus]] from the University of Texas copy. The page has 40 lines.]]
For over a thousand years (c.&nbsp;AD&nbsp;400–1530), the Vulgate was the most commonly used edition of the most influential text in Western European society. Indeed, for most [[Western Christians]], especially [[Catholics]], it was the only version of the Bible as a publication ever encountered, only truly being eclipsed in the mid-20th century.<ref name=prince>{{cite web |title=Cataloging Biblical Materials |url=https://library.princeton.edu/departments/tsd/katmandu/bible/versions.html# |website=Princeton Library |publisher=Princeton University Library's Cataloging Documentation |access-date=19 May 2023}}</ref>

In about 1455, [[List of editiones principes in Latin|the first Vulgate published]] by the [[moveable type]] process was produced in [[Mainz]] by a partnership between [[Johannes Gutenberg]] and banker [[John Fust]] (or Faust).<ref name="skeen">{{cite book |last1=Skeen |first1=William |title=Early Typography |date=1872 |location=Colombo, Ceylon |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/57463}}</ref><ref name="bibbig">{{cite book |last1=E. C. Bigmore, C. W. H. Wyman |title=A Bibliography of Printing |date=2014 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge |pages=288 |isbn=9781108074322 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eYHsAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA288}}</ref><ref name="wattbib">{{cite book |last1=Watt |first1=Robert |title=Bibliotheca Britannica; or a General Index to British and Foreign Literature |date=1824 |publisher=[[Longman|Longman, Hurst & Co.]] |location=Edinburgh and London |page=452 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OkVhAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA452}}</ref> At the time, a manuscript of the Vulgate was selling for approximately 500[[Guilders|&nbsp;guilders]]. Gutenberg's works appear to have been a commercial failure, and Fust sued for recovery of his 2026&nbsp;guilder investment and was awarded complete possession of the Gutenberg plant. Arguably, the [[Reformation]] could not have been possible without the diaspora of biblical knowledge that was permitted by the development of moveable type.<ref name="bibbig" />

Aside from its use in prayer, liturgy, and private study, the Vulgate served as inspiration for [[Poor Man's Bible|ecclesiastical art and architecture]], [[hymn]]s, countless paintings, and popular [[mystery plays]].

=== Reformation ===
{{See also|Reformation}}
The fifth volume of [[Brian Walton (bishop)|Walton's London Polyglot]] of 1657 included several versions of the New Testament: in Greek, Latin (a Vulgate version and the version by [[Arius Montanus]]), Syriac, Ethiopic, and Arabic. It also included a version of the Gospels in Persian.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Daniell|first1=David|title=The Bible in English: its history and influence|url=https://archive.org/details/bibleinenglishit0000dani|url-access=registration|date=2003|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|location=New Haven|isbn=0-300-09930-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/bibleinenglishit0000dani/page/510 510]}}</ref>

The Vulgate Latin is used regularly in [[Thomas Hobbes]]' ''[[Leviathan (Hobbes book)|Leviathan]]'' of 1651; in the ''Leviathan'' Hobbes "has a worrying tendency to treat the Vulgate as if it were the original".<ref>{{Harv|Daniell|2003|p=478}}</ref>

=== Translations ===
Before the publication of [[Pius XII]]'s ''Divino afflante Spiritu'', the Vulgate was the source text used for many translations of the Bible into vernacular languages. In English, the interlinear translation of the [[Lindisfarne Gospels]]<ref>{{cite book|first1=Michelle P. |last1=Brown|title=The Lindisfarne Gospels: Society, Spirituality and the Scribe|volume=1}}</ref> as well as other [[Old English Bible translations]], the [[Wycliffe's Bible|translation]] of [[John Wycliffe]],<ref>{{cite book|first1=James E. |last1=Smith|title=Introduction to Biblical Studies|page=38}}</ref> the [[Douay–Rheims Bible]], the [[Confraternity Bible]], and [[Ronald Knox]]'s [[Knox's Translation of the Vulgate|translation]] were all made from the Vulgate.

=== Influence upon the English language ===
The Vulgate had significant cultural influence on literature for centuries, and thus the development of the English language, especially in matters of religion.<ref name=prince/> Many Latin words were taken from the Vulgate into English nearly unchanged in meaning or spelling: ''[[wikt:creation|creatio]]'' (e.g. [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]]&nbsp;1:1, Heb&nbsp;9:11), ''[[wikt:salvation|salvatio]]'' (e.g. Is 37:32,&nbsp;Eph 2:5), ''[[wikt:justification|justificatio]]'' (e.g. Rom&nbsp;4:25, Heb&nbsp;9:1), ''[[wikt:testament|testamentum]]'' (e.g. Mt&nbsp;26:28), ''[[wikt:sanctification|sanctificatio]]'' (1&nbsp;Ptr&nbsp;1:2, 1&nbsp;Cor&nbsp;1:30), ''[[wikt:regeneration|regeneratio]]'' (Mt&nbsp;19:28), and ''[[wikt:rapture|raptura]]'' (from a noun form of the verb ''rapere'' in 1&nbsp;Thes&nbsp;4:17). The word "[[publican]]" comes from the Latin ''publicanus'' (e.g., Mt&nbsp;10:3), and the phrase "[[:wikt:en:far be it#English|far be it]]" is a translation of the Latin expression ''absit.'' (e.g., Mt 16:22  in the [[King James Bible]]).<ref>{{bibleverse|Mt|16:22|KJV}}</ref> Other examples include ''[[wikt:apostle|apostolus]]'', ''[[wikt:ecclesial|ecclesia]]'', ''[[wikt:evangelical|evangelium]]'', ''[[wikt:paschal|Pascha]]'', and ''[[wikt:angel|angelus]]''.

== Critical value ==
In translating the 38&nbsp;books of the Hebrew Bible ([[Ezra–Nehemiah]] being counted as one book), Jerome was relatively free in rendering their text into Latin. Paleograher [[Frederic Kenyon]] notes that "the translation is of unequal merit; some parts are free to the verge of paraphrase, others are so literal as to be unintelligible."<ref name="Kenyon81"/> 

Jerome's translation has been regarded by scholars as very useful for reconstructing the state of the Hebrew text as it existed at his time, that being quite close to the [[Masoretic]] consonantal Hebrew  text version compiled nearly 600&nbsp;years after Jerome.<ref name="Kenyon81">{{cite book|last=Kenyon|first=Frederic G.|url=https://archive.org/stream/MN41613ucmf_0#page/n117/mode/2up|title=Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts|year=1939|edition=4th|place=London|page=81|author-link=Frederic George Kenyon|access-date=2011-01-06}}</ref>

== Manuscripts and editions ==
The Vulgate exists in many forms. The ''[[Codex Amiatinus]]'' is the oldest surviving complete manuscript from the 8th&nbsp;century. The [[Gutenberg Bible]] is a notable printed edition of the Vulgate by Johann Gutenberg in 1455. The [[Sixtine Vulgate]] (1590) is the first official Bible of the Catholic Church. The [[Clementine Vulgate]] (1592) is a standardized edition of the medieval Vulgate, and the second official Bible of the Catholic Church. The [[Stuttgart Vulgate]] is a 1969&nbsp;critical edition of the Vulgate. The ''[[Nova Vulgata]]'' is the third and latest official Bible of the Catholic Church; it was published in 1979, and is a translation from modern critical editions of original language texts of the Bible.

=== Manuscripts and early editions ===
{{Main|Vulgate manuscripts}}
[[File:Codex Amiatinus - Gospel of Mark, chapter 1.jpg|thumb|A page from the ''[[Codex Amiatinus]]'' containing the beginning of the [[Gospel of Mark]]]]
A number of [[Vulgate manuscripts|manuscripts containing or reflecting the Vulgate]] survive today. Dating from the 8th&nbsp;century, the [[Codex Amiatinus]] is the earliest surviving [[manuscript]] of the complete Vulgate Bible. The [[Codex Fuldensis]], dating from around&nbsp;545, contains most of the New Testament in the Vulgate version, but the four [[gospel]]s are harmonised into a continuous narrative derived from the ''[[Diatessaron]]''.

==== Carolingian period ====
{{See also|:de:Alkuin-Bibeln}}
"The two best-known revisions of the Latin Scriptures in the early medieval period were made in the [[Carolingian period]] by [[Alcuin of York]] ({{Circa|730}}–840) and [[Theodulf of Orleans]] (750/760–821)."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Linde|first=Cornelia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RxjGBwAAQBAJ|title=How to correct the Sacra scriptura? Textual criticism of the Latin Bible between the twelfth and fifteenth century|publisher=Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature|year=2011|isbn=978-0907570226|series=Medium Ævum Monographs 29|location=Oxford|pages=39|chapter=II.2 Medieval Editions}}</ref>

Alcuin of York oversaw efforts to make a Latin Bible, an exemplar of which was presented to [[Charlemagne]] in&nbsp;801. Alcuin's edition contained the Vulgate version. It appears Alcuin concentrated only on correcting errors of grammar, [[orthography]] and punctuation. "Even though Alcuin's revision of the Latin Bible was neither the first nor the last of the Carolingian period, it managed to prevail over the other versions and to become the most influential edition for centuries to come." The success of this Bible has been attributed to the fact that this Bible may have been "prescribed as the official version at the emperor's request." However, [[Bonifatius Fischer]] believes its success was rather due to the productivity of the scribes of [[Tours]] where Alcuin was abbot, at the [[Basilica of Saint Martin, Tours|monastery of Saint Martin]]; Fischer believes the emperor only favored the editorial work of Alcuin by encouraging work on the Bible in general.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Linde|first=Cornelia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RxjGBwAAQBAJ|title=How to correct the Sacra scriptura? Textual criticism of the Latin Bible between the twelfth and fifteenth century|publisher=Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature|year=2011|isbn=978-0907570226|series=Medium Ævum Monographs 29|location=Oxford|pages=39–41|chapter=II.2 Medieval Editions}}</ref>

"Although, in contrast to Alcuin, Theodulf [of Orleans] clearly developed an editorial programme, his work on the Bible was far less influential than that of hs slightly older contemporary. Nevertheless, several manuscripts containing his version have come down to us." Theodulf added to his edition of the Bible the Book of Baruch, which Alcuin's edition did not contain; it is this version of the Book of Baruch which later became part of the Vulgate. In his editorial activity, on at least one manuscript of the Theodulf Bible (S Paris, BNF lat. 9398), Theodulf marked variant readings along with their sources in the margin of the manuscripts. Those marginal notes of variant readings along with their sources "seem to foreshadow the thirteenth-century ''[[Correctories|correctoria]]''."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Linde|first=Cornelia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RxjGBwAAQBAJ|title=How to correct the Sacra scriptura? Textual criticism of the Latin Bible between the twelfth and fifteenth century|publisher=Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature|year=2011|isbn=978-0907570226|series=Medium Ævum Monographs 29|location=Oxford|pages=41–2|chapter=II.2 Medieval Editions}}</ref> In the 9th&nbsp;century the ''Vetus Latina'' texts of Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah were introduced into the Vulgate in versions revised by Theodulf of Orleans and are found in a minority of early medieval Vulgate ''[[wiktionary:pandect#Noun|pandect]]'' bibles from that date onward.<ref name="Bogaert 2005 286–342" />

[[Cassiodorus]], [[Isidore of Sevilla]], and [[Stephen Harding]] also worked on editions of the Latin Bible. Isidore's edition as well as the edition of Cassiodorus "ha[ve] not come down to us."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Linde|first=Cornelia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RxjGBwAAQBAJ|title=How to correct the Sacra scriptura? Textual criticism of the Latin Bible between the twelfth and fifteenth century|publisher=Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature|year=2011|isbn=978-0907570226|series=Medium Ævum Monographs 29|location=Oxford|pages=39, 250|chapter=II.2 Medieval Editions}}</ref>

By the 9th century, due to the success of Alcuin's edition, the Vulgate had replaced the ''Vetus Latina'' as the most available edition of the Latin Bible.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Linde|first=Cornelia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RxjGBwAAQBAJ|title=How to correct the Sacra scriptura? Textual criticism of the Latin Bible between the twelfth and fifteenth century|publisher=Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature|year=2011|isbn=978-0907570226|series=Medium Ævum Monographs 29|location=Oxford|pages=47|chapter=II.2 Medieval Editions}}</ref>

==== Late Middle Ages ====
{{See also|Paris Bible}}
The [[University of Paris]], the [[Dominican Order|Dominicans]], and the [[Franciscans]] assembled lists of ''correctoria''—approved readings—where variants had been noted.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Linde|first=Cornelia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RxjGBwAAQBAJ|title=How to correct the Sacra scriptura? Textual criticism of the Latin Bible between the twelfth and fifteenth century|publisher=Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature|year=2011|isbn=978-0907570226|series=Medium Ævum Monographs 29|location=Oxford|pages=42–47|chapter=II.2 Medieval Editions}}</ref>

=== Printed editions ===

==== Renaissance====
Though the advent of printing greatly reduced the potential of human error and increased the consistency and uniformity of the text, the earliest editions of the Vulgate merely reproduced the manuscripts that were readily available to publishers. Of the hundreds of early editions, the most notable today is the Mazarin edition published by [[Johann Gutenberg]] and [[Johann Fust]] in 1455, famous for its beauty and antiquity. In 1504, the first Vulgate with variant readings was published in Paris. One of the texts of the [[Complutensian Polyglot]] was an edition of the Vulgate made from ancient manuscripts and corrected to agree with the Greek.

[[Erasmus]] published an edition corrected to agree better with the Greek and Hebrew in 1516. Other corrected editions were published by [[Santes Pagnino|Xanthus Pagninus]] in 1518, [[Thomas Cardinal Cajetan|Cardinal Cajetan]], [[Agostino Steuco|Augustinus Steuchius]] in 1529, Abbot [[Isidoro Chiari|Isidorus Clarius]] ([[Venice]], 1542) and others. In 1528, [[Robert Estienne|Robertus Stephanus]] published the first of a series of critical editions, which formed the basis of the later Sistine and Clementine editions. [[Leuven Vulgate|John Henten's critical edition of the Bible]] followed in 1547.<ref name="ISBE"/>

In 1550, Stephanus fled to [[Geneva]], where he issued his final critical edition of the Vulgate in 1555. This was the first complete Bible with full [[Bible verses|chapter and verse divisions]] and became the standard biblical reference text for late-16th&nbsp;century [[Calvinism|Reformed]] theology.

==== Sixtine and Clementine Vulgates ====
{{Main|Canon of Trent|Sixtine Vulgate|Sixto-Clementine Vulgate}}
[[File:Frontispiece of the Sixtine Vulgate 3.png|alt=|thumb|Frontispiece of the original Sixtine Vulgate|276x276px]]
[[File:Frontispiece of the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate (1592).jpg|thumb|Frontispiece of the original 1592 Sixto-Clementine Vulgate|278x278px]]
After the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]], when the Catholic Church [[Counter-Reformation|strove to counter Protestantism]] and refute its doctrines, the Vulgate was declared at the Council of Trent to "be, in public lectures, disputations, sermons and expositions, held as authentic; and that no one is to dare, or presume to reject it under any pretext whatever."<ref name="bible-researcher.com" /> Furthermore, the council expressed the wish that the Vulgate be printed ''quam emendatissime''{{Efn|Literally "in the most correct manner possible"|name=|group=}} ("with fewest possible faults").<ref name=":12" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Berger|first=Samuel|url=https://archive.org/stream/labibleauseizim00berggoog#page/n129/mode/2up|title=La Bible au seizième siècle: Étude sur les origines de la critique biblique|year=1879|place=Paris|page=147 ff|language=fr|access-date=2011-01-23}}</ref>

In 1590, the [[Sixtine Vulgate]] was issued, under Sixtus V, as being the official Bible recommended by the Council of Trent.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Scrivener|first=Frederick Henry Ambrose|title=A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament|title-link=A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament|publisher=[[George Bell & Sons]]|year=1894|editor-last=Miller|editor-first=Edward|edition=4th|volume=2|location=London|page=64|chapter=Chapter III. Latin versions|author-link=Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener}}</ref><ref name=":52">{{Cite web|title=Vulgate in the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.|url=https://www.internationalstandardbible.com/V/vulgate.html|access-date=17 September 2019|website=International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Online|language=en}}</ref> On 27 August 1590, Sixtus&nbsp;V died. After his death, "many claimed that the text of the Sixtine Vulgate was too error-ridden for general use."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Pelikan|first=Jaroslav Jan|url=https://archive.org/details/reformationofbib0000peli|title=The reformation of the Bible, the Bible of the Reformation|date=1996|publisher=[[Yale University Press]]|others=Dallas : Bridwell Library; Internet Archive|location=New Haven|pages=98|chapter=Catalog of Exhibition [Item 1.14]|isbn=9780300066678|author-link=Jaroslav Pelikan}}</ref> On 5&nbsp;September of the same year, the [[College of Cardinals]] stopped all further sales of the Sixtine Vulgate and bought and destroyed as many copies as possible by burning them. The reason invoked for this action was printing inaccuracies in Sixtus&nbsp;V's edition of the Vulgate. However, [[Bruce M. Metzger|Bruce Metzger]], an American biblical scholar, believes that the printing inaccuracies may have been a pretext and that the attack against this edition had been instigated by the [[Jesuits]], "whom Sixtus had offended by [[Disputationes de Controversiis#Almost in the Index|putting one of Bellarmine's books on the 'Index']] ".<ref name=":24">{{Cite book|last=Metzger|first=Bruce M.|title=The Early Versions of the New Testament|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1977|location=Oxford|pages=348–349|author-link=Bruce M. Metzger}}</ref>

In the same year he became pope (1592), Clement&nbsp;VIII recalled all copies of the Sixtine Vulgate.<ref name=":32">{{Cite book|last=Scrivener|first=Frederick Henry Ambrose|title=[[A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament]]|author2=Edward Miller|publisher=[[George Bell & Sons]]|year=1894|edition=4|volume=2|location=London|page=64|author-link=Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite book|last=Hastings|first=James|title=A Dictionary of the Bible|year=2004|publisher=University Press of the Pacific|isbn=978-1410217295|volume=4, part 2 (Shimrath – Zuzim)|location=Honolulu, Hawaii|pages=881|language=en|chapter=Vulgate|author-link=James Hastings|orig-year=1898|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yk1CKgPRKtAC&q=Bull+Aeternus+ille&pg=PA881}}</ref> The reason invoked for recalling Sixtus&nbsp;V's edition was printing errors, however the Sixtine Vulgate was mostly free of them.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":52"/>

The Sistine edition was replaced by [[Pope Clement VIII|Clement&nbsp;VIII]] (1592–1605). This new edition was published in 1592 and is called today the [[Clementine Vulgate]]<ref name=":23">{{Cite book|last=Metzger|first=Bruce M.|title=The Early Versions of the New Testament|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1977|location=Oxford|pages=349|author-link=Bruce M. Metzger}}</ref><ref name=":8">{{Cite book|last=Pelikan|first=Jaroslav Jan|url=https://archive.org/details/reformationofbib0000peli|title=The reformation of the Bible, the Bible of the Reformation|date=1996|publisher=Yale University Press|others=Dallas : Bridwell Library; Internet Archive|location=New Haven|pages=14, 98|chapter=1 : Sacred Philology; Catalog of Exhibition [Item 1.14]|isbn=9780300066678|author-link=Jaroslav Pelikan}}</ref> or Sixto-Clementine Vulgate.<ref name=":8" /> "The misprints of this edition were partly eliminated in a second (1593) and a third (1598) edition."<ref name=":23" />

The Clementine Vulgate is the edition most familiar to Catholics who have lived prior to the [[Liturgical reforms of Pope Paul VI|liturgical reforms]] following [[Vatican II]]. Roger Gryson, in the preface to the 4th&nbsp;edition of the [[Stuttgart Vulgate]] (1994), asserts 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 ''[[wiktionary:pandect#Noun|pandecta]]'' of the first millennium."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bibliasacraiuxta0000unse_d8t5|title=Biblia sacra : iuxta Vulgatam versionem|publisher=Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft|others=Oliver Wendell Holmes Library, Phillips Academy|year=2007|isbn=978-3-438-05303-9|editor-last=Weber|editor-first=Robert|edition=5th|location=Stuttgart|pages=IX, XVIII, XXVIII, XXXVII|chapter=Praefatio|editor-last2=Gryson|editor-first2=Roger|url-access=registration}}</ref> However, historical scholar Cardinal [[Francis Aidan Gasquet]], in the [[Catholic Encyclopedia]], states that the Clementine Vulgate substantially represents the Vulgate which Jerome produced in the 4th century, although "it stands in need of close examination and much correction to make it [completely] agree with the translation of St. Jerome".<ref>Gasquet, F.A. (1912). [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15515b.htm Revision of Vulgate]. In the Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved July 25, 2022.</ref>

=== Modern critical editions ===
Most other later editions were limited to the New Testament and did not present a full critical apparatus, most notably [[Karl Lachmann]]'s editions of 1842 and 1850 based primarily on the Codex Amiatinus and the Codex Fuldensis,<ref>{{Cite book|publisher=Reimer|last=Lachmann|first=Karl|title=Novum Testamentum graece et latine|location=Berlin|year=1842–50}} (Google Books: [https://books.google.com/books?id=sxc-AAAAcAAJ Volume 1], [https://books.google.com/books?id=BVgPAAAAQAAJ Volume 2])</ref> Fleck's edition<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7R7rgfv_Fp0C&q=%22vulgatae+editionis%22&pg=PP7|title=Novum Testamentum Vulgatae editionis juxta textum Clementis VIII.: Romanum ex Typogr. Apost. Vatic. A.1592. accurate expressum. Cum variantibus in margine lectionibus antiquissimi et praestantissimi codicis olim monasterii Montis Amiatae in Etruria, nunc bibliothecae Florentinae Laurentianae Mediceae saec. VI. p. Chr. scripti. Praemissa est commentatio de codice Amiatino et versione latina vulgata|date=26 June 2017|publisher=Sumtibus et Typis C. Tauchnitii|access-date=26 June 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref> of 1840, and [[Constantin von Tischendorf]]'s edition of 1864. In 1906 [[Eberhard Nestle]] published ''Novum Testamentum Latine'',<ref>{{Cite book|publisher=Württembergische Bibelanstalt|last=Nestle|first=Eberhard|title=Novum Testamentum Latine: textum Vaticanum cum apparatu critico ex editionibus et libris manu scriptis collecto imprimendum|location=Stuttgart|year=1906|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_NIUNAAAAYAAJ}}</ref> which presented the Clementine Vulgate text with a critical apparatus comparing it to the editions of Sixtus&nbsp;V (1590), Lachman (1842), Tischendorf (1854), and Wordsworth and White (1889), as well as the Codex Amiatinus and the Codex Fuldensis.

To make a text available representative of the earliest copies of the Vulgate and summarise the most common variants between the various manuscripts, [[Anglican]] scholars at the [[University of Oxford]] began to [[Oxford Vulgate|edit the New Testament]] in 1878 (completed in 1954), while the [[Order of Saint Benedict|Benedictines]] of Rome began [[Benedictine Vulgate|an edition of the Old Testament]] in 1907 (completed in&nbsp;1995). The Oxford Anglican scholars's findings were condensed into [[Stuttgart Vulgate|an edition of both the Old and New Testaments, first published at Stuttgart in 1969]], created with the participation of members from both projects. These books are the standard editions of the Vulgate used by scholars.<ref>{{Cite journal|volume=28|issue=1|pages=56–58|last=Kilpatrick|first=G. D.|title=The Itala|journal=[[The Classical Review]]|series=n.s.|year=1978|jstor=3062542|doi=10.1017/s0009840x00225523|s2cid=163698896}}</ref>

==== {{anchor|Oxford Vulgate|Wordsworth and White (Oxford) New Testament|Oxford Vulgate New Testament}} Oxford New Testament ====
{{Main|Oxford Vulgate}}
As a result of the inaccuracy of existing editions of the Vulgate, in 1878, the delegates of the [[Oxford University Press]] accepted a proposal from classicist [[John Wordsworth]] to produce a critical edition of the New Testament.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wordsworth|first=John|title=The Oxford critical edition of the Vulgate New Testament|location=Oxford|year=1883|url=http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008730879|page=4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|publisher=Longmans, Green|last=Watson|first=E.W.|title=Life of Bishop John Wordsworth|location=London|year=1915|url=https://archive.org/details/a613342800watsuoft}}</ref> This was eventually published as ''Nouum Testamentum Domini nostri Iesu Christi Latine, secundum editionem sancti Hieronymi'' in three volumes between&nbsp;1889 and&nbsp;1954.<ref>{{Cite book|publisher=Clarendon Press|others=John Wordsworth, Henry Julian White (eds.)|title=Nouum Testamentum Domini nostri Iesu Christi Latine, secundum editionem sancti Hieronymi|location=Oxford|date=1889–1954}} 3 vols.</ref>

The edition, commonly known as the [[Oxford Vulgate]], relies primarily on the texts of the Codex Amiatinus, Codex Fuldensis (Codex Harleianus in the Gospels), [[Codex Sangermanensis I|Codex Sangermanensis]], Codex Mediolanensis (in the Gospels), and Codex Reginensis (in Paul).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Biblia Sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem|publisher=[[Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft]]|others=Robert Weber, Roger Gryson (eds.)|year=2007|edition=5|location=Stuttgart|page=XLVI}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Houghton|first=H. A. G.|title=The Latin New Testament; a Guide to its Early History, Texts and Manuscripts|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016|page=130}}</ref>  It also consistently cites readings in the so-called DELQR group of manuscripts, named after the ''[[siglum|sigla]]'' it uses for them: [[Book of Armagh]]&nbsp;(D), [[Breton Gospel Book (British Library, MS Egerton 609)|Egerton Gospels]]&nbsp;(E), [[Lichfield Gospels]]&nbsp;(L), [[Book of Kells]]&nbsp;(Q), and Rushworth Gospels&nbsp;(R).<ref>{{cite book|author1=H. A. G. Houghton|title=The Latin New Testament: A Guide to Its Early History, Texts, and Manuscripts|date=2016|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0198744733|page=74|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CXQqCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA74|access-date=5 June 2016}}</ref>

==== Benedictine (Rome) Old Testament ====
{{Main|Benedictine Vulgate}}
In 1907, Pope [[Pius&nbsp;X]] commissioned the [[Benedictine]] monks to prepare a critical edition of Jerome's Vulgate, entitled ''Biblia Sacra iuxta latinam vulgatam versionem''.<ref>{{Cite book|publisher=[[Libreria Editrice Vaticana]]|isbn=8820921286|others=Pontifical Abbey of St Jerome-in-the-City (ed.)|title=Biblia Sacra iuxta latinam vulgatam versionem|location=Rome|orig-year=1926|year=1995}} 18 vols.</ref> This text was originally planned as the basis for a revised complete official Bible for the Catholic Church to replace the Clementine edition.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|publisher=Robert Appleton Company|last=Gasquet|first=F.A.|title=Vulgate, Revision of|encyclopedia=[[The Catholic Encyclopedia]]|location=New York|year=1912|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15515b.htm}}</ref> The first volume, the Pentateuch, was completed in&nbsp;1926.<ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.1093/jts/os-XXIV.96.406|issn=0022-5185|volume=24|issue=96|pages=406–414|last=Burkitt|first=F.C.|title=The text of the Vulgate|journal=The Journal of Theological Studies|series=o.s.|year=1923}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|issn=0017-1417|volume=37|issue=8|pages=777–781|last=Kraft|first=Robert A.|title=Review of Biblia Sacra iuxta Latinam vulgatam versionem ad codicum fidem iussu Pauli Pp. VI. cura et studio monachorum abbatiae pontificiae Sancti Hieronymi in Urbe ordinis Sancti Benedicti edita. 12: Sapientia Salomonis. Liber Hiesu Filii Sirach|journal=[[Gnomon (journal)|Gnomon]]|year=1965|jstor=27683795}} {{Cite journal|volume=13|issue=1|pages=70–71|last=Préaux|first=Jean G.|title=Review of Biblia Sacra iuxta latinum vulgatam versionem. Liber psalmorum ex recensione sancti Hieronymi cum praefationibus et epistula ad Sunniam et Fretelam|journal=Latomus|year=1954|jstor=41520237}}</ref>  For the Pentateuch, the primary sources for the text are the [[Codex Amiatinus]], the Codex Turonensis (the [[Ashburnham Pentateuch]]), and the Ottobonianus Octateuch.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Weld-Blundell|first=Adrian|year=1947|title=The Revision of the Vulgate Bible|url=http://biblicalstudies.gospelstudies.org.uk/pdf/scripture/02-4_100.pdf|journal=Scripture|volume=2|issue=4|pages=100–104}}</ref>  For the rest of the Old Testament (except the [[Book of Psalms]]) the primary sources for the text are the [[Codex Amiatinus]] and [[La Cava Bible|Codex Cavensis]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Biblia Sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem|publisher=[[Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft]]|others=Robert Weber, Roger Gryson (eds.)|year=2007|edition=5|location=Stuttgart|page=XLIII}}</ref>

Following the Codex Amiatinus and the Vulgate texts of Alcuin and Theodulf, the Benedictine Vulgate reunited the Book of Ezra and the Book of Nehemiah into a single book, reversing the decisions of the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate.

In 1933, Pope Pius&nbsp;XI established the [[Pontifical Abbey of St Jerome-in-the-City]] to complete the work. By the 1970s, as a result of liturgical changes that had spurred the Vatican to produce a new translation of the Latin Bible, the ''[[Nova Vulgata]]'', the [[Benedictine edition of the Vulgate|Benedictine edition]] was no longer required for official purposes,<ref name="scripturarum">{{cite web|title=Scripturarum Thesarurus, Apostolic Constitution, 25 April 1979, John Paul II|url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_jp-ii_apc_19790425_scripturarum-thesaurus_en.html|publisher=Vatican: The Holy See|access-date=19 December 2013}}</ref> and the abbey was suppressed in 1984.<ref>{{cite web|last=Pope John Paul II|title=Epistula Vincentio Truijen OSB Abbati Claravallensi, 'De Pontificia Commissione Vulgatae editioni recognoscendae atque emendandae'|url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/letters/1984/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_19840115_truijen_lt.html|publisher=Vatican: The Holy See|access-date=19 December 2013}}</ref> Five monks were nonetheless allowed to complete the final two volumes of the Old Testament, which were published under the abbey's name in 1987 and 1995.<ref>{{cite web|title=Bibliorum Sacrorum Vetus Vulgata|url=http://www.libreriaeditricevaticana.com/it/catalogue/catalogo.jsp?cat=B38|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20131219183331/http://www.libreriaeditricevaticana.com/it/catalogue/catalogo.jsp?cat=B38|archive-date=19 December 2013|access-date=19 December 2013|website=Libreria Editrice Vaticana}}</ref>

==== {{Anchor|Stuttgart edition|Weber-Gryson (Stuttgart) edition}}Stuttgart Vulgate ====
{{Main|Stuttgart Vulgate}}[[File:Concordance of Stuttgart Latin Vulgate Bible.jpg|thumb|Concordance to the Vulgate Bible for the Stuttgart Vulgate|242x242px]]Based on the editions of Oxford and Rome, but with an independent examination of the manuscript evidence and extending their lists of primary witnesses for some books, the Württembergische Bibelanstalt, later the [[Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft]] (German Bible Society), based in Stuttgart, first published a critical edition of the complete Vulgate in 1969. The work has continued to be updated, with a fifth edition appearing in 2007.<ref name="Stuttgart5">{{Cite book|edition=5|publisher=Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft|isbn=978-3-438-05303-9|others=Robert Weber, Roger Gryson (eds.)|title=Biblia Sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem|location=Stuttgart|year=2007}}</ref> The project was originally directed by Robert Weber, OSB (a monk of the same Benedictine abbey responsible for the Benedictine edition), with collaborators [[Bonifatius Fischer]], [[Jean Gribomont]], Hedley Frederick Davis Sparks (also responsible for the completion of the Oxford edition), and Walter Thiele. Roger Gryson has been responsible for the most recent editions. It is thus marketed by its publisher as the "Weber-Gryson" edition, but is also frequently referred to as the Stuttgart edition.<ref>{{cite web|title=Die Vulgata (ed. Weber/Gryson)|url=http://www.bibelwissenschaft.de/online-bibeln/biblia-sacra-vulgata/informationen-zur-bibelausgabe/|publisher=bibelwissenschaft.de|access-date=9 November 2013}}</ref>

The Weber-Gryson includes of Jerome's prologues and the [[Eusebian Canons]].

It contains two Psalters, the ''[[Gallican psalter|Gallicanum]]'' and the ''[[juxta Hebraicum]]'', which are printed on facing pages to allow easy comparison and contrast between the two versions. It has an expanded [[Biblical apocrypha|Apocrypha]], containing Psalm&nbsp;151 and the Epistle to the Laodiceans in addition to&nbsp;3 and&nbsp;4&nbsp;Ezra and the [[Prayer of Manasses]]. In addition, its modern prefaces in Latin, German, French, and English are a source of valuable information about the history of the Vulgate.

=== ''Nova Vulgata'' ===
{{Main|Nova Vulgata}}

The ''[[Nova Vulgata]]'' (''Nova Vulgata Bibliorum Sacrorum Editio''), also called the Neo-Vulgate, is the official Latin edition of the Bible published by the [[Holy See]] for use in the contemporary [[Roman rite]]. It is not a critical edition of the historical Vulgate, but a revision of the text intended to accord with modern critical Hebrew and Greek texts and produce a style closer to Classical Latin.<ref>{{Cite journal|volume=25|issue=1|pages=67–81|last=Stramare|first=Tarcisio|title=Die Neo-Vulgata. Zur Gestaltung des Textes|journal=Biblische Zeitschrift|year=1981|doi=10.30965/25890468-02501005|s2cid=244689083}}</ref>

In 1979, the ''Nova Vulgata'' was promulgated as "typical" (standard) by [[Pope John Paul II|John Paul&nbsp;II]].<ref name="scripturarum2">{{cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_jp-ii_apc_19790425_scripturarum-thesaurus_en.html|title=Scripturarum Thesarurus, Apostolic Constitution, 25 April 1979, John Paul II|publisher=Vatican: The Holy See|access-date=19 December 2013}}</ref>

=== {{Anchor|Electronic versions}}Online versions ===
The title "Vulgate" is currently applied to three distinct online texts which can be found from various sources on the Internet. The text being used can be ascertained from the spelling of [[Eve]]'s name in Genesis&nbsp;3:20:<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://taylormarshall.com/2012/03/which-latin-vulgate-should-you-purchase.html|title=Which Latin Vulgate Should You Purchase?|last=Marshall|first=Taylor|date=23 March 2012|website=[[Taylor Marshall]]|language=en-US|access-date=2019-08-16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CXQqCwAAQBAJ&q=noun+as+eva&pg=PA132|title=The Latin New Testament: A Guide to Its Early History, Texts, and Manuscripts|last=Houghton|first=H. A. G.|date=2016|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0198744733|pages=133|language=en}}</ref>

* '''Heva''': the [[Clementine Vulgate]]
* '''Hava''': the [[Stuttgart edition of the Vulgate]]
* '''Eva''': the ''[[Nova Vulgata]]''

== See also ==
=== Related articles ===
* [[Bible translations into Latin]]
* [[Biblia Pauperum]]
* [[Books of the Vulgate]]
* [[Ferdinand Cavallera]]
* ''[[Divino afflante Spiritu]]''
* [[Gutenberg Bible]]
* [[Jerome]]
**[[Paula of Rome|Paula]] and [[Eustochium]], Catholic saints, important collaborators of Jerome<ref>[https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=2945 ''Woman's Work in Bible Study and Translation''], [[John Augustine Zahm|Zahm, John Augustine]] ("A.H. Johns") (1912), in ''[[The Catholic World]]'', New York, Vol. 95/June 1912 (bibliographic details see [https://books.google.com/books?id=pIAuDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA224 here] and [https://books.google.com/books?id=2tPCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA105 here]), via CatholicCulture.org. Retrieved 4 Sept 2021.</ref><ref name=HSee>{{cite web |title= St. Paula, Roman Matron |publisher=[[Vatican News]] |url= https://www.vaticannews.va/en/saints/01/26/st--paula--roman-matron-.html |access-date= 6 September 2021}}</ref><ref name=Nancy>{{cite journal |last= Hardesty |first= Nancy |title= Paula: A Portrait of 4th Century Piety |journal=[[Christian History]] |publisher=[[Christian History Institute]] |location= Worcester, PA |number= 17, "Women In The Early Church" |year= 1988 |url= https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/article/paula-a-portrait-of-4th-century-piety |access-date= 5 September 2021}}</ref>
* [[Latin Psalters]]
* [[The Philobiblon]]
* [[Poor Man's Bible]]

=== Selected manuscripts ===
* [[Codex Amiatinus]]
* [[Codex Complutensis I]]
* [[Codex Fuldensis]]
* [[Codex Gigas]]
* [[Codex Sangallensis 1395]]
* [[List of New Testament Latin manuscripts]]
* [[Vulgate manuscripts]]

== Notes ==
<references group="lower-alpha" responsive="1"></references>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{refbegin}}
* {{Cite book|editor-last=Canellis|editor-first=Aline|title=Jérôme : Préfaces aux livres de la Bible|trans-title=Jerome : Preface to the books of the Bible|lang=fr|year=2017|publisher=[[Éditions du Cerf]]|location=Abbeville|isbn=978-2-204-12618-2}}
**Chapter "Introduction : Révision et retourn à l''{{'}}Hebraica veritas''" ('Introduction: Revision and return to ''Hebraica veritas'' ')
**Chapter "Introduction : Du travail de Jérôme à la Vulgate ('Introduction: From Jerome's work to the Vulgate')
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==

* {{cite book |first=Samuel |last=Berger |url=https://archive.org/stream/histoiredelavul00berggoog#page/n12/mode/2up |title=Histoire de la Vulgate pendant les premiers siècles du Moyen Age |location=Paris |publisher=Librarie Hachette et C. |year=1893}}
* {{cite book |first=R. |last=Draguet |chapter=Le Maître louvainiste, [Jean] Driedo, inspirateur du décret de Trente sur la Vulgate |title=Festschrift volume, ''Miscellenea historica in honorem Alberti de Meyer'' |location=Louvain |publisher=Bibliothèque universitaire |year=1946 |pages=836–854}}
* {{cite book |editor-first=Richard |editor-last=Gameson |title=The Early Medieval Bible |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1994}}
* {{cite book |editor-first=H. A. G. |editor-last=Houghton |title=The Oxford Handbook of the Latin Bible |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2023}}
* {{cite book |editor-first=G. W. M. |editor-last=Lampe |title=The Cambridge History of the Bible |volume=2 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1969}}
* {{cite book|last1=Lang |first1=Bernhard |title=Handbook of the Vulgate Bible and its reception |series=Vulgata in Dialogue |year=2023 |url=https://vulgata-dialog.ch/ojs/index.php/vidbor/issue/view/98 |issn=2504-5156}}
* {{cite book |first=Richard |last=Marsden |title=The Text of the Old Testament in Anglo-Saxon England |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1995}}
* Schmid Pfändler, Brigitta; Fieger, Michael (2023). ''[https://www.peterlang.com/document/1351960 Nicht am Ende mit dem Latein. Die Vulgata aus heutiger Sicht].'' Lausanne/Berlin: Lang, {{ISBN|978-3-0343-4744-0}} (Open Access).
* {{cite book |first=C. H. |last=Turner |url=https://archive.org/stream/MN41398ucmf_6#page/n5/mode/2up |title=The Oldest Manuscript of the Vulgate Gospels |publisher=The Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |year=1931}}
* {{cite book |first=Frans |last=Van Liere |title=Introduction to the Medieval Bible |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2014}}
* {{Cite web|url=https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=7470|title=The History of the Latin Vulgate|last=Steinmeuller|first=John E.|year=1938|website=CatholicCulture|publisher=Homiletic & Pastoral Review|pages=252–257|access-date=18 September 2019}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Gallagher|first=Edmon|author-link=Edmon L. Gallagher|year=2015|title=Why Did Jerome Translate Tobit and Judith?|url=https://www.academia.edu/14345165|journal=Harvard Theological Review|language=en|volume=108|issue=3|pages=356–75|doi=10.1017/S0017816015000231|s2cid=164400348|via=Academia.edu}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Vulgate}}

'''Clementine Vulgate'''

*[http://www.catholicbible.online The Clementine Vulgate], fully searchable and possible to compare with both the Douay Rheims and Knox Bibles side by side.
*[http://www.sacredbible.org/vulgate1822/ Clementine Vulgate 1822, including Apocrypha]
*[http://www.sacredbible.org/vulgate1861/ Clementine Vulgate 1861, including Apocrypha]
*[http://vulsearch.sourceforge.net/html/ The Clementine Vulgate, searchable]. Michael Tweedale, ''et alii''. Other installable modules include Weber's Stuttgart Vulgate. Missing 3 and 4 Esdras, and Manasses.
*[http://zulu-ebooks.com/download/5-sachliteratur/820-biblia-sacra-vulgata Vulgata, Hieronymiana versio] (Jerome's version), Latin text complete as ebook (public domain)
*[https://archive.org/stream/vulgatenewtesta00jerogoog#page/n5/mode/2up ''The Vulgate New Testament, with the Douay Version of 1582. In Parallel Columns''] (London 1872).

'''Oxford Vulgate'''

* {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/nouumtestamentum01whit|title=Nouum Testamentum Domini nostri Jesu Christi latine, secundum editionem Sancti Hieronymi|date=1889|publisher=[[The Clarendon Press]]|editor-last=Wordsworth|editor-first=John|editor-link=John Wordsworth|volume=1|location=Oxford|editor-last2=White|editor-first2=Henry Julian|editor-link2=Henry Julian White}}
*{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/nouumtestamentum02whit|title=Nouum Testamentum Domini nostri Jesu Christi latine, secundum editionem Sancti Hieronymi|date=1941|publisher=[[The Clarendon Press]]|editor-last=Wordsworth|editor-first=John|volume=2|location=Oxford|editor-last2=White|editor-first2=Henry Julian}}
*{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/nouumtestamentum03whit|title=Nouum Testamentum Domini nostri Jesu Christi latine, secundum editionem Sancti Hieronymi|date=1954|publisher=[[The Clarendon Press]]|editor-last=Wordsworth|editor-first=John|volume=3|location=Oxford|editor-last2=White|editor-first2=Henry Julian}}

'''Stuttgart Vulgate'''

*[https://www.academic-bible.com/en/online-bibles/biblia-sacra-vulgata/read-the-bible-text/ Weber-Gryson (Stuttgart) edition], official online text
*[http://www.latinvulgate.com Latin Vulgate with Parallel English Douay-Rheims and King James Version], Stuttgart edition, but missing 3 and 4 Esdras, Manasses, Psalm 151, and Laodiceans.

'''Nova Vulgata'''

* [https://www.vatican.va/archive/bible/nova_vulgata/documents/nova-vulgata_index_lt.html Nova Vulgata], from the Vatican website

'''Miscellaneous translations'''

*[[Jerome]]'s [https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/ Biblical Prefaces]
*[[s:Epistle to the Laodiceans (Wikisource translation)|Vulgate text of Laodiceans]] including a parallel English translation

'''Works about the Vulgate'''

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110218052112/http://cdi.uvm.edu/collections/getCollection.xql?pid=manuscripts&title=Medieval%20and%20Renaissance%20Manuscripts Eight examples of the Vulgate, 13th – 15th centuries, Center for Digital Initiatives, University of Vermont Libraries]
*[https://www.fourthcentury.com/jerome-translations-of-scripture/ Timeline of Jerome's translations]
*{{Internet Archive author |sname=Vulgate}}
*{{Librivox author |id=4121}}

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{{History of the Catholic Church}}
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