Customer Reviews

Biblia Sacra Vulgata (Vulgate): Holy Bible in Latin (Latin Edition)

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I'm a new student of Latin, and not an expert on the Vulgate, so take my review for what it's worth. As far as I can tell, there are three versions of the Vulgate in print today, and I have copies of all three of them. So I thought that perhaps those who don't want to buy three versions might appreciate a neophyte's impression of their relative strengths and weaknesses. The full names on the title pages are rather long, so I'll refer to these three versions briefly as the Stuttgart Vulgate (Biblia Sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem), the New Vulgate (Bibliorum Sacrorum nova vulgata editio or Novum Testamentum Latine), and the Madrid Clementine (Biblia Sacra iuxta Vulgatam Clementinam).

The Stuttgart Vulgate is a compact one-volume digest of the big multi-volume critical editions, especially the Benedictine Old Testament and Wordsworth and White's New Testament. It comes with a critical apparatus showing the more important variant readings from the Latin manuscripts and editions. This version comes with the prologues of St Jerome, the old medieval critical apparatus of the Gospels (canones evangelorum), the apocryphal books of III and IV Ezra, Psalm 151, Prayer of Manasses, and the Epistle to the Laodiceans, as well as the protocanonical and deuterocanical books. It also contains two complete Psalters, both by St. Jerome: The Psalterium Gallicanum and the Psalterium juxta Hebraicum. The two psalters are laid out side-by-side on facing pages to facilitate comparison. This version attempts to reconstruct the experience of reading a medieval manuscript, so the spelling is medieval, which can be a problem for anyone used to the Clementine, and to anyone looking up words in a dictionary. The text also lacks punctuation: no commas, colons, periods, question marks, or quotation marks; this actually is not a major problem in Latin, which is so rich in conjunctions. However, the lack of question marks sometimes gives me pause, as when Caiaphas says to Jesus "Tu es Christus Filius Benedicti" (Mc 14,61). The text is well cross referenced, although the titles of books in the cross references are given in German rather than Latin. The typeface is modern and easy to read.

The Clementine (you can find it used under the title "Biblia Sacra, Vulgatae editionis Sixti V. Pontificis maximi jussu recongnita et Clementis VIII Auctoritate Edita") was the official Latin text of the Catholic Church from 1502 to 1979. The Madrid edition of this classic includes a great many magisterial documents, and the biblical text is footnoted also with references to magisterial documents, although the prefaces of St. Jerome are missing, along with Clement's appendix with its three apocrypha. Color maps are provided, but they are labeled in Spanish, not Latin. The orthography is fully modern, with modern punctuation and typeface, but also quite a few typos. Like the Stuttgart Vulgate, this edition has two psalters in adjacent columns for easy comparison: The traditional Psalterium Gallicanum, and the new Psalterium Pianum, a modern (1940's) translation of the Hebrew into neo-classical Latin. One of the delights of the Clementine is that it eclectically preserves some of the text from the ancient pre-Vulgate Latin versions, which reflect the early Latin liturgy of the Church.

The New Vulgate has replaced the Clementine as the official Latin text of the Catholic Church. Its New Testament and most of its Old, like the Stuttgart Vulgate, are based on a critical reconstruction of the original Vulgate text. However, in some cases the ancient text was amended to accord with the modern Greek and Hebrew critical editions. The spelling and punctuation are all modern, so in the majority of the verses the New Vulgate text is identical to the Clementine, but in the Psalms and especially in Judith and Tobit, there are significant differences. I know of two editions of the new Vulgate, the one from Libreria Editrice Vaticana, and the Nestle-Aland edition. We can expect to see much more of the New Vulgate now that its use has been endorsed in the recent encyclical Litugiam Authenticam.

The Vatican edition can be found under the title "Bibliorum Sacrorum nova vulgata editio". It contains the complete Old and New Testaments, but none of Jerome's prologues, nor cross references, nor commentary. Its critical apparatus is minimal. It seems to be designed more for use in the pulpit than the armchair. Physically, it is an excellent tome made from red leather with gold lettering, large typeface in one column with plenty of margin on thick pages. It looks magnificent on my bookshelf.

More likely to be on my bureau is the Nestle-Aland edition of the New Vulgate. It contains only the New Testament and is sold under the title "Novum Testamentum Latine". The editors provide you with a thorough critical apparatus comparing the New Vulgate with other printed Latin versions such as the Clementine and Stuttgart, mentioned above, the Sistina, the Gutenberg, and other classic editions (the Complutensian and the Wittenberg, as well as those of Erasmus, Stephanus, Hentenius, and Plantinus). Like the Madrid Clementine, this edition has color maps, but they are labeled in English, not Latin.

I am not Roman Catholic. I bought the book to enhance my knowledge of Ecclestiastical Latin. It is my most prized possession. I am prersently reading it from cover to cover for the fourth time. It affords wonderful insight into the history and attitudes of an almost forgotten world. The Bible in ancient script is considerably more raw and entertaining. Some passages are incredibly beautiful. Read at your own peril.

In addition to this superb edition of the Vulgate (which I always refer to when translating from the Greek), I also possess the authorized edition from the Holy See (which seems to be currently out of print. Presumably the number of Latin scholars among the Catholic clergy has declined somewhat from the peak of 50 years ago). This Papal edition does not have Psalm 151 or Laodiceans, but prints (and in very small print at that) the Prayer of Manasseh and 3 and 4 Esdras as an appendix. The scholarship in both books is impeccable. And of course I referred to them both (the text seems to be almost identical, but the notes, of course, vary considerably) when translating the original portions of 4 Esdras for inclusion in BIBLE WISDOM FOR MODERN TIMES: Selections from the Orthodox Old Testament. 4 Esdras (or 2 Esdras as it is titled in the King James Version and the RSV) is not available in its original Hebrew (nor in a Greek translation either, for that matter) but only in Latin, Syriac, Ethiopic, Arabic and Armenian. The King James translators, of course, used Jerome's Latin Vulgate which they adhere to very closely.

The book is fine. The only thing I find not meeting my expectation is that the size of the letter font is quite small. The book may be fine to young people but not recommended to old people in their fifties and later that have deteorating eyesights.

I bought this for my niece last year for Christmas. This was the best price, and it was exactly what she wanted. She is a Latin and Greek scholar and she wanted a Latin bible i.e., a copy of St Jerome's translation from the original Hebrew and Aramaic. I think the first translation from Hebrew was in Greek, and some of those writings may have been used as well. Anyway, I just know that this is the one she wanted and she was thrilled to receive it.

The book is just fabulous! I am glad I have it and can put the Latin I am learning to good use.

I would just like to point out that I bought this listed as the fourth edition and received the fifth edition (editio quinta), ISBN 978-3-438-05303-9. That is fine, however a few advertisements for other holy works available from Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft that are printed on the last pages of the Bible itself seem especially inappropriate and profane, considering the fact that even the publisher has labelled this work "sacra". Beside that, of course, it remains the gold standard.

Maybe I'm missing something here...but I took delivery of this and it looks very nice BUT it doesn't seem to have a table of contents..!!!???? I'd love to know why that is?

You know the text and it's all online, so as for this edition... The full text, with apocrypha, without punctuation (as in the original), with a small guide to the various manuscripts and papyri from which the modern recension is assembled, and with a nice hard cover and attractive pages. The only problem is that the pages, while made of good quality paper, are a little too thin, and have too much showthrough to be truly appealing. I find it useful and enjoyable, so I am drawn to it whenever I have the time, but it seems to me they could do just a little better with slightly thicker pages. Showthrough is quite a distraction for me when reading these venerable books that are made of such thin paper, and it would have been easy enough to fix. Recommended nonetheless.

Although there is no punctuation or capitals, the text is divided into chapters and verses and is easy to read.l It is a wonderful way to read the Bible in a new light.