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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Houghton, H. A. G., author.
Title: The Oxford handbook of the Latin Bible / H.A.G. Houghton. Description: New York : Oxford University Press, [2023] | Series: Oxford handbooks series | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2022037330 (print) | LCCN 2022037331 (ebook) | ISBN 9780190886097 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190886127 | ISBN 9780190886110 (epub)
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022037330
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022037331
DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190886097.001.0001
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
List of Figures
5.1 A simplified stemma of Latin Psalters. 71
24.1 Bonifatius Fischer presenting the layout of the Vetus Latina edition. 369
24.2 The editors of the Stuttgart Vulgate in Beuron in 1969. 375
26.1 The choice and arrangement of the source texts of translation of Catholic vernacular bibles in English, French, and German (1546–1965): The Old Testament. 396
26.2 The choice and arrangement of the source texts of translation of Catholic vernacular bibles in English, French, and German (1546–1965): The New Testament.
397
30.1 Plainsong Introit for Easter Sunday (Resurrexi et adhuc tecum). 449
31.1 The Cathach (Royal Irish Academy MS 12.R.33, fol. 19r). 460
31.2 Image of Luke in the St. Augustine Gospels (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 286, fol. 129v). 462
31.3 The Harrowing of Hell in the prefatory cycle of images in the Tiberius Psalter (British Library, Cotton MS Tiberius C.VI, fol. 14r). 465
31.4 King David in the Vespasian Psalter (London, British Library, Cotton MS Vespasian A.I, ff. 30v–31r). 466
31.5 St. Luke’s Gospel cross-carpet page and Incipit page. The Lindisfarne Gospels (British Library, Cotton MS Nero D.IV, ff. 138v–139r). 468
31.6 The Creation and Fall of Adam and Eve. The Moutier-Grandval Bible (British Library, Add. MS 10546, fol. 5v). 470
31.7 Ezra the Scribe: a sacred figura of biblical transmission. Codex Amiatinus (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Amiatino 1, fol. Vr). 471
31.8 The Temptation of Christ in the Book of Kells (Dublin, Trinity College MS 58, fol. 202v). 473
31.9 Psalms 13, 14, and 15. The Harley Psalter (British Library, Harley MS 603, ff. 7v–8r). 475
31.10 Christ’s betrayal, scourging, and mocking, and Peter’s denial. The De Brailes Hours (British Library, Add. MS 49999, fol. 1r). 478
31.11 The woman clothed with the sun, the beast of the Apocalypse and Lucifer bound. The Silos Apocalypse (British Library, Add. MS 11695, ff. 147v–148r).
479
31.12 Salome’s dance, with the artist looking on behind Herodias. The Holkham Bible (British Library, Add. MS 47682, fol. 21v). 480
31.13 Sir Geoffrey Luttrell, his family, and his Dominican confessor feasting. The Luttrell Psalter (British Library, Add. MS 42130, fol. 208r).
31.14 The Sherborne Missal (British Library, Add. MS 74236, p. 216).
31.15 King Henry VIII as King David, with his fool. The Prayerbook of King Henry VIII (British Library, Royal MS 2 A XVI, fol. 63v).
481
482
484
Acknowledgments
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Steve Wiggins for his invitation to edit this handbook and his prompt and helpful assistance throughout its creation. I am delighted that such a distinguished international team of contributors, from a variety of academic traditions, readily agreed to participate in the volume. It is particularly good to include papers from colleagues for whom English is not their normal language of publication, and I acknowledge the aid of Google Translate and the DeepL software for the English translation of chapters 10, 14, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24, and 25. Thanks go to the Royal Irish Academy, Trinity College Dublin, Corpus Christi College Cambridge, the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana (and the Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali), the Archive of Mariendonk Abbey, and Anthony Forte for permission to reproduce pictures, and in particular to the British Library for its generous policy of placing images from the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts in the public domain. I would also like to thank the College of Arts and Law at the University of Birmingham for contributing to the cost of some reproductions. Peter Stotz died in 2020, having delivered the full text of his chapter, and I am grateful that it has been possible to include it as originally planned.
Although it is not customary to include a dedication in a handbook such as this, it provides an opportunity to honor two of the leading figures in this field, both now in their ninth decade. Pierre-Maurice Bogaert and Roger Gryson are among the few whose expertise spans the breadth of this volume, and each has made an incomparable contribution to scholarship on the Latin Bible. Although neither was in a position to participate, the importance of their work is evident throughout these chapters, and I hope that they will accept this collection as a grateful tribute.
H. A. G. Houghton Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing University of Birmingham
List of Abbreviations
AGLB Aus der Geschichte der lateinischen Bibel
ANTF Arbeiten zur neutestamentlichen Textforschung
BAV Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana
BCE Before Common Era
BETL Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium
BL British Library
BLB Badische Landesbibliothek
BM Bibliothèque Municipale
BML Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana
BN Biblioteca Nazionale
BNC Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale
BnF Bibliothèque nationale de France
BNM Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana
BSB Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
BTT Bible de tous les temps
BUC Biblioteca Universidad Complutense
CBL Collectanea Biblica Latina
CCCM Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Medievalis
CCSL Corpus Christianorum Series Latina
CE Common Era
CISAM Centro italiano di studi sull’alto medioevo
CLA Codices Latini Antiquiores (ed. E. A. Lowe, 1934–1972)
CSEL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum
CSIC Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
CT Concilium Tridentinum (Council of Trent)
ed. edition
ff. folios
FIDEM Fédération Internationale des Instituts d’Études Médiévales
fol. folio
xiv List of Abbreviations
GA Gregory-Aland
GCS Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten Jahrhunderte
HAB Herzog August-Bibliothek
KB National Library (Kongelige Bibliotek/Koninklijke Bibliotheek/Kungliga Biblioteket)
LXX Septuagint
MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica
NLR National Library of Russia
NRSV New Revised Standard Version
ns new series
NTTSD New Testament Tools, Studies, and Documents
ÖNB Österreichische Nationalbibliothek
PG Patrologia Graeca (ed. J.-P. Migne, 1857–1866)
PL Patrologia Latina (ed. J.-P. Migne, 1844–1855)
SC Sources chrétiennes
TECC Textos y estudios ‘ Cardenal Cisneros’
T&S Texts and Studies
UB Universitätsbibliothek
UL University Library
USTC Universal Short Title Catalogue Vg Vulgate
VL Vetus Latina
vols. volumes
WUNT Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament
List of Contributors
Alexander Andrée is a Latinist and Director of Research at the Museum of the Middle Ages in Stockholm. He was formerly Professor of Latin and Palaeography at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto. He has published extensively on the medieval schools, particularly in the twelfth century, and is the author of critical editions of Gilbertus Universalis’s Glossa ordinaria on Lamentations (2005), Anselm of Laon’s Glosae super Iohannem (2014), and Peter Abelard’s Historia calamitatum (2015, repr. 2017). His research now focuses on Greek and Latin literature of earlier periods, including publications on Liudprand of Cremona and Lucan’s De bello ciuili
Thomas Johann Bauer is Professor of New Testament Exegesis and Theology in the Catholic Theology Faculty of the University of Erfurt. Since 2014, he has been the Academic Director of the Vetus Latina Institute at the Archabbey of Beuron, and he is also Dean of Theology in the Bavarian Benedictine Academy. His publications include a literary critical study of the Book of Revelation (2007) and an analysis of the Epistles to the Galatians and Philemon (2011).
Ashley Beck is a Roman Catholic priest and Associate Professor at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham, where he is responsible for the master’s program in Catholic Social Teaching and the foundation degree in Pastoral Ministry. He recently published a new edition and translation of De Athanasio by Lucifer of Cagliari (2021), and short biographies of Pope Benedict XV and St. Oscar Romero. He is a former president of the Catholic Theological Association of Great Britain.
Shari Boodts is Senior Researcher of Medieval History at Radboud University, Nijmegen. She specializes in Latin patristic literature and its medieval reception and manuscript transmission, with a particular interest in late-antique sermons. She produced a critical edition of Augustine’s Sermones ad populum 157–183 (2016), and was co-editor of Preaching in the Patristic Era. Sermons, Preachers, Audiences in the Latin West (2018).
Michelle P. Brown was formerly the Curator of Medieval and Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library, and Professor of Medieval Manuscript Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. She is a Lay Canon of Truro Cathedral, a Patron of the Society of Bookbinders, and a Trustee of the Hereford Mappa Mundi. Her publications include books on the Luttrell Psalter, the Holkham Picture Bible, the Book of Cerne, and the Lindisfarne Gospels, as well as In The Beginning: Bibles Before the Year
1000 (2006), The Lion Companion to Christian Art (2008), and Art of the Islands: Celtic, Pictish, Anglo-Saxon, and Viking Visual Culture (2016).
José Manuel Cañas Reíllo is an academic researcher at the Instituto de Lenguas y Culturas del Mediterráneo y Oriente Próximo of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC, Madrid, Spain). His research focuses on the textual criticism of the Septuagint and the Vetus Latina, as well as other versions such as the Syrohexapla, Ethiopic, Coptic, Armenian, and Georgian. In 2013, he was appointed editor of the volume of Judges for the Göttingen Septuagint.
Gilbert Dahan is an emeritus Director of Research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Director of Studies at the École pratique des hautes études (Paris). He specializes in the Christian exegesis of the Bible in the Middle Ages. Among his numerous books are L’exégèse chrétienne de la Bible en Occident médiéval (1999), Lire la Bible au moyen âge (2009), and Étudier la Bible au moyen âge (2021). He has convened many conferences and is one of the organizers of the Journées d’histoire de l’exégèse.
Siobhán Dowling Long is a College Lecturer in Education at University College Cork, Ireland. She is the author of The Sacrifice of Isaac: The Reception of a Biblical Story in Music (2013), The Bible in Music: A Dictionary of Songs, Works and More (2015) with John F. A. Sawyer, and co-editor of Reading the Sacred Scriptures: From Oral Tradition to Written Documents and their Reception (2018) with Fiachra Long. She has contributed numerous articles on the Bible and Music to the Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception
Oliver Dy is Professor of Systematic Theology at the Loyola School of Theology, Philippines. Among his research interests are the study of Vatican II and the philosophy of translation. He has published on the use of the Latin Vulgate in liturgical translation in Questions Liturgiques (2016), and contributed to “Res opportunae nostrae aetatis”: Studies on the Second Vatican Council offered to Mathijs Lamberigts (2020).
J. K. Elliott is Professor Emeritus of New Testament Textual Criticism at the University of Leeds. He continues to sit on the Council of Devonshire Hall, Leeds, and on the Brotherton Library’s committee on the Holden Library in the University of Leeds.
Wim François is Professor of Early Modern Church and Theology at KU Leuven. He is also the Academic Librarian of the Maurits Sabbe Library in the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies. His research interests include vernacular Bible reading, scholarly Bible commentaries, and other areas of early modern biblical culture. His publications include books on Erasmus of Rotterdam (2012), religious reform in the Middle Ages and Early Modern era (2017), and the Council of Trent (3 volumes, 2018).
Edmon L. Gallagher is Professor of Christian Scripture at Heritage Christian University (Florence, Alabama). He studies the reception of biblical literature in ancient Judaism
and Christianity. His books include Hebrew Scripture in Patristic Biblical Theory (2012), The Biblical Canon Lists from Early Christianity (2017, with John D. Meade), and Translation of the Seventy (2021).
David Ganz taught Palaeography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at King’s College London. He is a corresponding member of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica who works on Latin manuscripts copied before 1000. His publications include Corbie in the Carolingian Renaissance (1990), and Einhard and Notker the Stammerer, Two Lives of Charlemagne (2008).
Antonio Gerace is senior fellow at the Fondazione per le Scienze religiose “Giovanni XXIII” in Bologna (FSCIRE), working on the education of clergy and the translations of the Creed in the Early Modern era. He is also a voluntary research fellow at KU Leuven, and is qualified in Italy as Associate Professor in Religious History Sciences. His publications include Biblical Scholarship in Louvain in the “Golden” Sixteenth Century (2019), and articles on figures such as Girolamo Seripando, Francis Lucas of Bruges, Thomas Stapleton, Nicholas Tacitus Zegers, and Adam Sasbout.
H. A. G. Houghton is Professor of New Testament Textual Scholarship and Director of the Institute for Textual Scholarship and Electronic Editing (ITSEE) at the University of Birmingham, and a member of the Research Unit Biblical Studies at KU Leuven. He serves on the Editorial Committee for the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament and Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, and is a corresponding editor of the Vetus Latina Institute. He has published numerous articles and books on the Latin manuscripts and text of the New Testament.
Adam Kamesar is Professor of Judaeo-Hellenistic Literature at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. His book Jerome, Greek Scholarship, and the Hebrew Bible was published in 1993, and his later work on the Latin biblical tradition and exegesis has appeared in the Journal of Early Christian Studies, Adamantius, Vigiliae Christianae, and The New Cambridge History of the Bible. His commentary on Philo’s Quod deterius potiori insidiari soleat is to be published soon.
Christina M. Kreinecker is Research Professor at KU Leuven and an Associate Fellow of ITSEE (University of Birmingham). She studied classics, theology, and philosophy in Salzburg and Rome. She is one of the editors of The Principal Pauline Epistles: A Collation of Old Latin Witnesses (2019), and the author of two books: the Papyrological Commentary on 2 Thessalonians (2010), and a text-critical analysis of the Coptic Resurrection accounts (2008).
Guy Lobrichon was a Lecturer at the Collège de France and then Professor at the University of Avignon. Among his many publications are La Bible au Moyen Âge (2003), Romanesque Burgundy (2013/2015), and contributions to The New Cambridge History of Christianity (2008), and The New Cambridge History of the Bible (2012). His current academic activity focuses on the history of manuscripts and the application of the Bible in Latin and Old French in the Middle Ages.
Paul Mattei was a student at the École Normale Supérieure de Saint-Cloud, and then Agrégé des Lettres and Professor of Latin Language and Literature at the Université Lumière (Lyon 2). He is a visiting professor at the Istituto Patristico “Augustinianum” in Rome and a member of the Pontificia Academia Latinitatis, the Accademia Ambrosiana (Milan) and the Pontificio Comitato delle Scienze Storiche. His research and publications span the fields of Latin patristics, philology (including editions and translations of Tertullian, Cyprian, Novation, Ambrose, and Augustine), and the history of doctrine.
Martin McNamara is Emeritus Professor of Sacred Scripture in the Milltown Institute of Theology, Dublin. He studied at the Gregorian University and Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, and the École Biblique, Jerusalem. He has written on the Palestinian Targum and its relation to the New Testament, and the text and study of the Psalter and the Apocrypha in the early Irish Church, including several recent volumes of collected essays.
Paul Needham is Scheide Librarian Emeritus, Princeton University Library. He has published extensively on topics of bibliography and book history, with a special emphasis on fifteenth-century printing.
Annie Noblesse-Rocher is Professor of the History of Medieval and Modern Christianity at the Protestant Theological Faculty of the University of Strasbourg, where she researches the history of exegesis. She has organized numerous international colloquia on the Bible in the sixteenth century. She is the author of a book on the sermons of the twelfth-century Guerric of Igny (2005) and numerous articles on exegetical practices in the Middle Ages and among the Rhenish Reformers.
Oliver W. E. Norris is a postdoctoral researcher on the Vetus Latina tradition. He was Research Fellow on the “Critical Editions of the Hebrew Bible” project at the University of Oxford, and is currently preparing a new digital edition of the Verona Psalter at ITSEE, University of Birmingham. He holds a doctorate from King’s College London on the gospel sources of the fifth-century Christian poet Sedulius, and has published on the psalm text of Fortunatianus of Aquileia (2017) and the Milan Psalter (2018).
Anna Persig is a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at KU Leuven, Belgium. She holds a doctorate from the University of Birmingham on the textual tradition and linguistic features of the Vulgate and Vetus Latina Catholic Epistles. Her publications include an article on the biblical quotations in the Liber de fide attributed to Pseudo-Rufinus the Syrian (2020) and a monograph on the Vulgate text of the Catholic Epistles (2022).
Ulrich B. Schmid is a Professor at the Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel, and Research Associate at the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Institute for New Testament Textual Research in Münster (INTF). He is the author of books on Marcion’s text of the Pauline Epistles (1995) and the Latin version of Tatian’s
Diatessaron (2005). He has published widely on the textual tradition of the New Testament, and is a co-editor of the Editio Critica Maior of the Gospel according to John.
Peter Stotz was emeritus Professor of Medieval Latin Philology at the University of Zurich. His research on Latin language and literature included contributions to the Middle Latin Dictionary, and work on critical editions of Zwingli and Bullinger. In addition to books on the Latin poetry of St. Gall (1972), and a monograph on the Bible in Latin (2011/2015), he was author of a five-volume handbook on the Latin language of the Middle Ages (1996–2004).
Kevin Zilverberg is Assistant Professor of Sacred Scripture at Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity and the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the founding director of Saint Paul Seminary Press and the general editor of the Catholic Theological Formation Series. His recent monograph, The Textual History of Old Latin Daniel from Tertullian to Lucifer (2021), like most of his publications, concerns the Bible and the Latin language.
Books of the Latin Bible
NRSV
Exodus Exodus
Stuttgart Vulgate
Leviticus Leuiticus
Numbers Numeri
Other Latin Forms
Genesis Genesis Pentateuchus
Deuteronomy Deuteronomium
Joshua Iosue Iesu Naue
Judges Iudicum
Ruth Ruth
1 Samuel Samuhel/I Regum I Regnorum
2 Samuel Samuhel/II Regum II Regnorum
1 Kings Malachim/III Regum III Regnorum
2 Kings Malachim/IV Regum IV Regnorum
1 Chronicles Verba Dierum/ I Paralipomenon
2 Chronicles Verba Dierum/II Paralipomenon
Ezra Ezras/I Esdrae II Esdras 1–10 (LXX)
Nehemiah Ezras/II Esdrae II Esdras 11–23 (LXX), Nehemias
Esther Hester
Job Iob
Psalms Psalmi
[Odes] – Odae
Proverbs Prouerbia
Ecclesiastes Ecclesiastes
Song of Songs Canticum Canticorum
Isaiah Isaias Esaias
Jeremiah Hieremias Ieremias
NRSV Stuttgart Vulgate
Lamentations of
Other Latin Forms
Jeremiah Threni Lamentationes
Ezekiel Hiezechiel Ezechiel
Daniel Danihel
Hosea Osee
Joel Iohel
Amos Amos
Obadiah Abdias
Jonah Ionas
Micah Micha Micheas
Nahum Naum
Habakkuk Abacuc
Zephaniah Sofonias Sophonias
Haggai Aggeus
Zechariah Zaccharias
Malachi Malachi Malachias
Tobit Tobias Tobit, Thobis
Judith Iudith
Additions to Esther Hester 10:4–16:24
Wisdom of Solomon Sapientia Salomonis
Ecclesiasticus Sirach (Liber Iesu Filii Sirach) Ecclesiasticus, Siracides
Baruch Baruch
Letter of Jeremiah Baruch 6
Azariah and the Three Jews Danihel 3:24–90
Susannah Danihel 13:1–64
Epistula Ieremiae
Susanna
Bel and the Dragon Danihel 13:65–14:41 Bel et Draco
1 Maccabees I Macchabaeorum
2 Maccabees II Macchabaeorum
1 Esdras Ezrae III/III Esdras I Esdras (LXX), Esra I Manasseh Oratio Manasse
3 Maccabees – III Macchabaeorum
NRSV Stuttgart Vulgate
2 Esdras Ezrae IIII/IV Esdras
Other Latin Forms
4 Maccabees – IV Macchabaeorum
[Psalm 151] Psalmus CLI
Mark Secundum Marcum
Luke Secundum Lucam
Matthew Secundum Mattheum Euangelia
John Secundum Iohannem
Acts of the Apostles Actus Apostolorum
Romans Ad Romanos
1 Corinthians Ad Corinthios I
2 Corinthians Ad Corinthios II
Galatians Ad Galatas
Ephesians Ad Ephesios
Philippians Ad Philippenses
Colossians Ad Colossenses
1 Thessalonians Ad Thessalonicenses I
2 Thessalonians Ad Thessalonicenses II
1 Timothy Ad Timotheum I
2 Timothy Ad Timotheum I
Titus Ad Titum
Philemon Ad Philemonem
Hebrews Ad Hebraeos
James Iacobi
1 Peter I Petri
2 Peter II Petri
1 John I Iohannis
2 John II Iohannis
3 John III Iohannis
Jude Iudae
Revelation Apocalypsis
[Laodiceans] Ad Laodicenses
Epistulae Pauli
Epistulae Catholicae
Epistulae Canonicae
Introduction
H.A.G. Houghton
The Latin Bible
The Latin Bible stands at the heart of Western culture. For almost fifteen hundred years, it was the principal source for scholars, philosophers, and theologians to reflect on the ideas and narratives which shaped society in Europe and beyond. Its impact was not just in the religious sphere. The translation of the Bible had a major influence on the development of the Latin language in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Its words were chanted in monasteries and churches and continue to be sung in modern concert halls and cathedrals. Explaining and studying its contents was a central part of the school curriculum, and one of the key factors in the creation of the university. Textual revisions were undertaken under the patronage of popes and emperors, sometimes as a means of promoting religious reform. Copies of the Bible embody developments in art and technology. Some manuscripts are artistic masterpieces, with richly colored pictures and jeweled bindings reflecting both the prestige of those who commissioned them and the pinnacles of contemporary creative skills and techniques. The first book to be produced with the printing press was Gutenberg’s Latin Bible. Since then, this collection of writings has been the focus of monumental editing projects, from the Renaissance humanist polyglots to scholarly endeavors of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and it has found new life in recent decades with the creation of the Nova Vulgata and the advance of digitization. Many of its manuscripts have an iconic value for the cultural history of the places in which they were created (and in some cases from which they take their name), and the locations in which they have evoked the admiration of medieval pilgrims and modern tourists.
The present handbook seeks to provide an introduction to many of the facets of the tradition and history of the whole Latin Bible. The scope of such a project, spanning domains such as art history, philology and Romance linguistics, palaeography and codicology, cultural history, patristic and medieval theology, textual criticism and
H.A.G. Houghton
editorial technique, as well as liturgy, music, early vernacular works, and several classics of literature, is beyond the capability of any individual scholar or standard monograph.1 There is currently no volume that covers the breadth of subjects treated here, and much of the scholarly literature related to the Latin Bible is in European languages other than English. It is hoped that these chapters will offer an orientation for Anglophone readers to topics that are, at the same time, the preserve of academic specialists and of more general interest, both to those studying neighboring fields and to those who identify with the religious tradition of Christianity in the West. Several of the contributions in their entirety—as well as quotations and technical terms, including those in Latin— have been translated for the benefit of a broader readership. The latter part of this Introduction provides a guide to some of the specialist vocabulary, the standard editions and resources for scholarly work on the Latin Bible, and the conventions employed in this handbook.
The chapters are arranged in broadly chronological order, with groupings according to particular themes. Chapter 1 (Houghton) introduces the earliest Latin biblical translations, known as the Vetus Latina (“Old Latin”). The evidence for these has to be pieced together from a few surviving manuscripts, many of which are fragmentary, and biblical quotations in early Christian writers. The characteristics shared by multiple early revisions appear to point to a single form of text underlying the extant witnesses, although the extant material is often scarce. Chapter 2 (Cañas Reíllo) explains the importance of the Latin Bible for the text of the Old Testament. The Old Latin versions were translated from manuscripts which no longer survive of the Greek version known as the Septuagint. This means that there are many cases where the Latin supports very early readings, and may even sometimes preserve the oldest form of text. The Old Latin Bible was, eventually, replaced by a text associated with the scholar Jerome and later known as the Vulgate. Chapter 3 (Kreinecker) explores the nature of Jerome’s revision of the Gospels, carried out in 382–84. Chapter 4 (Kamesar) considers Jerome’s approach to the books of the Hebrew Scriptures, for which he produced a new translation based on Hebrew sources at the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth century. Chapter 5 (Norris) examines the three versions of the Psalter associated with Jerome (known as the Roman Psalter, Gallican Psalter, and Hebrew Psalter) as well as their Old Latin precursor. The use of the psalms during Christian worship means that these were some of the best-known texts of the Latin Bible, with earlier versions continuing to have currency for many centuries. Chapter 6 (Persig) offers new insights into the books of the Vulgate New Testament outside the Gospels, whose reviser is unknown. Jerome also played less of a part in the revision of apocryphal writings: Chapter 7 (Gallagher) enumerates the sources and significance of the Latin texts of the deuterocanonical books of the Bible.
1 Recent years have seen the publication of two complementary introductions to different parts of the field: van Liere 2014, with a focus on the Middle Ages and the Old Testament, and Houghton 2016, which is restricted to the New Testament in the first millennium.
The oldest extant manuscripts of the Latin Bible were produced in the fourth and fifth centuries. Chapter 8 (Ganz) describes the characteristics of these documents and their successors up to the year 800. In addition to their physical details and style of script, paratextual details such as prefaces, chapter lists, annotations, and glosses are also considered. Chapter 9 (Mattei) investigates the role of the Bible in the early Latin Church and the development of interpretative approaches such as allegory. It sets out the exegetical practices and writings of fourth-century writers such as Hilary of Poitiers, Ambrose of Milan, Jerome, and, especially, Augustine of Hippo. Distinctive features of Latin interpretation are identified, where possible, as well as the individual scriptural books which are most commonly discussed. Chapter 10 (McNamara) sheds light on the biblical documents and practices characteristic of insular tradition. Irish scribes and teachers from the fifth century onward found the Latin Bible a rich stimulus for creative and ingenious scholarly activity. Chapter 11 (Houghton) considers Latin biblical tradition as juxtaposed with other languages, as found in bilingual manuscripts from the fourth to the thirteenth century and beyond. Although the most frequent companion text is Greek (particularly in the Gospels and Psalms), Gothic, Old English, Old High German, and Arabic all attest to specific linguistic and cultural contexts behind the production and use of these documents.
The Carolingian era, inaugurated by the political and religious activity of Charlemagne, proved a high point in the development of the Latin Bible and prepared the ground for medieval scholarship. Chapter 12 (Boodts) examines the biblical revisions of Alcuin of York and Theodulf of Orleans, and the technical innovations that led to the creation of pandects with the whole Bible in a single volume. The number of commentaries on Scripture also increased significantly in the years 750–1000, with an evolution in the way in which they drew on earlier sources. Chapter 13 (Lobrichon) offers an overview of the principal formats of Bibles produced in the eleventh to fifteenth century. In addition to luxury Bibles and portable Bibles, this period also saw the rise of the illustrated Bible. The contents and sequence of writings also provide evidence for how these books were used. Chapter 14 (Andrée) covers the development of a distinctive type of medieval Bible, with the scriptural text surrounded and interspersed with a commentary known as a “gloss.” Although the best known of these is the Glossa ordinaria, other types were also in circulation. Chapter 15 (Schmid) deals with Latin gospel harmonies, in which the four canonical Gospels are combined into a single narrative. Although the oldest surviving example was produced in the middle of the sixth century, this type of manuscript was popular in the medieval period: the chapter draws attention to the interaction between these texts and those of the gloss, which appears to be responsible for variant biblical readings in vernacular harmonies. Chapter 16 (Dahan) explains how Paris became the centre of biblical scholarship in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In addition to the typical single-volume “Paris” Bibles, tools for interpretation were created such as lists of alternative readings (correctoria), section divisions, and concordances. Important roles were played by religious orders such as the Franciscans and Dominicans, the school of Saint-Victor, and individuals such as Peter Lombard, Peter Comestor, and Peter the Chanter. Chapter 17 (Dahan) presents
the exegesis of the Middle Ages, including the contrast between the literal and spiritual sense of Scripture. Further procedures and techniques were developed with the aim of characterizing biblical interpretation as a science.
Chapter 18 (Needham) introduces the first one hundred years of printed Bibles (incunabula). Gutenberg’s pioneering Latin Bible of 1455 was followed by a series of further innovations which determined the features of printed Bibles. Key figures in this include the printer Robert Estienne (latinized as Stephanus) and the humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus, but others made important contributions. Chapter 19 (Gerace) explores how the Council of Trent identified and addressed problems with the contemporary use and form of Scripture. Its decrees on the Vulgate prompted several decades of activity to establish an official text of the Latin Bible, first in Louvain and later in pontifical committees, culminating in the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate of 1592. Chapter 20 (François) provides more information on biblical scholarship during the Humanist period. Important and extensive contributions were made both by Roman Catholic and by Protestant scholars. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw a balancing of the formal authority of the Vulgate with philological investigations of original language scriptural texts in Hebrew and Greek, as well as other ancient biblical translations. Chapter 21 (Noblesse-Rocher) reveals how, despite the emphasis of the Protestant Reformation on the translation of the Bible into vernacular languages, new editions and revisions of the Latin Bible were also produced by Protestants including Martin Luther. Although these fresh translations were intended to bring out elements from the original languages, they also demonstrate the ongoing currency and importance of Latin texts of Scripture for the Reformers. Chapter 22 (Dahan) documents the place of the Latin Bible in Jewish tradition in the medieval period. The eleventh-century Rabbi Solomon (Rashi), based in Northern France, served as an authority, but there were numerous other connections between Christians and Jews, and converts were often important sources of information. Hebrew grammars and the translation of Jewish commentaries into Latin multiplied significantly in the sixteenth century.
Chapter 23 (Bauer) covers scholarship on the Latin Bible from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. This comprises many of the major editions that remain in use, such as Sabatier’s edition of the Old Latin, the Oxford Vulgate, and the Roman Vulgate. Studies of individual manuscripts also contribute to modern research and the present shape of the discipline. A leading role has been played by the Vetus Latina Institute, founded in 1949. Chapter 24 (Bauer) describes its efforts to prepare a comprehensive edition of the surviving Old Latin evidence, to replace that of Sabatier, and involvement in the Stuttgart Vulgate. Chapter 25 (Zilverberg) details the creation of a new Latin Bible following the Second Vatican Council. The Nova Vulgata was intended to be a more accurate representation of modern editions of the original language sources but to retain the ecclesiastical authority of the Latin text. Notwithstanding the rise of vernacular liturgies after the same Council, this translation continues to be the official text of the Vulgate in the Roman Catholic Church. Chapter 26 (Dy and François) examines the role of Latin source texts in the creation of vernacular translations of Scripture, with
particular reference to German, French, English, and Dutch. In English tradition, this goes back to the fourteenth-century Wycliffe Bible, although the standard example is the Douay-Rheims Bible of 1609. Even the translators of the latter, however, also made reference to Hebrew and Greek sources, a practice which was not uncommon. Chapter 27 (Elliott) sets out the presentation of Latin evidence in modern editions of the Greek New Testament, including synopses. This includes lists of the manuscripts cited and the limitations of this material.
The final chapters investigate the broader cultural significance of the Latin Bible. Chapter 28 (Stotz) explores the effect of the Bible on the Latin language of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Claims that the early Church used a special type of “Christian Latin” (Sondersprache) have been largely dismissed. Nevertheless, the translation of the Scriptures influenced not only the vocabulary but even the linguistic structures of subsequent Christian writings, as its innovations became part of religious discourse. Chapter 29 (Beck) treats the use of the Latin Bible in Christian worship, from liturgical lessons and biblical canticles to the effect of scriptural language on newly written texts. The ongoing offering of public worship in Latin by the Roman Catholic Church continues to draw on multiple versions of the Latin Bible. Chapter 30 (Dowling Long) offers a chronological overview of musical settings of biblical texts in Latin. Although this continues to be a common practice in the context of worship, the performance of larger-scale works such as oratorios, passions, and requiems in a secular setting have created a new domain in which scriptural texts find currency. Chapter 31 (Brown) considers the importance of the Latin Bible in art history. The material record provided by the continuous production of Latin Bibles for more than sixteen centuries bears witness to the evolution of artistic practices and technological innovations. It further reflects the changing sociohistorical circumstances in which these artifacts were used. The decoration and illumination of biblical manuscripts can also be seen as a form of visual exegesis, reflecting the interplay of text and context.
Terminology
Over the course of the centuries covered by this handbook, the terms used to refer to the Latin Bible have changed in form and application.2 Nowhere is this clearer than in the term Vulgate, from the Latin Vulgata “common” (edition or version). In its earliest attestation, Augustine and Jerome use Vulgata to signify the Old Latin translation from the Septuagint—in contrast to Jerome’s new version. The identification of Vulgata with the text of the version produced by Jerome and others at the end of the fourth century appears only to have been formally made at the Council of Trent in 1546 (Bogaert 2012:
2 The goal of this section is to consider key terms related to the present volume: explanations of other specialist vocabulary may be found in standard reference works or online.
