Latin BIBLES, how numerous soever, may be all reduced to three classes; the ancient Vulgate, called also Italica, translated from the Greek Septuagint; the modern Vulgate, the greater part of which is done from the Hebrew text; and the new Latin translations, also executed from the Hebrew text, in the sixteenth century. We have nothing remaining of the ancient Vulgate used in the primitive times in the western churches, except the Psalms, Wisdom, and Ecclesiastes. Nobilis has endeavoured to retrieve it from the works of the ancient Latin fathers; but it was impossible to do so exactly, because most of the fathers did not keep close to it in their citations.
As to the modern Vulgate, there is a vast number of editions very different from one another. Cardinal Ximenes has inserted one in the Bible of Complutum, corrected and altered in many places. R. Stephens and the doctors of Louvain have taken great pains in correcting the modern Vulgate.
The best edition of Stephens's Latin Bible is that of 1540, reprinted in 1545, in which are added on the margin the various readings of several Latin manuscripts which he had consulted. The doctors of Louvain revised the modern Vulgate after R. Stephens, and added the various readings of several Latin manuscripts. The best of the Louvain editions are those at the end of which are added the critical notes of Francis Lucas of Bruges, and which have the dates 1573 and 1586.
All these reformations of the Latin Bible were made before the time of Pope Sixtus V. and Clement VIII. since which people have not dared to make any alterations, excepting in comments and separate notes. The correction of Clement VIII. in 1592, is now the standard throughout all the Roman churches; that pontiff made two reformations, but it is the first of them only that is followed. From this the Bibles of Plantin were printed, and from these of Plantin all the rest; so that the common Bibles have none of the after-corrections of Clement.
There are a great number of Latin Bibles of the third class, comprehending the versions from the originals of the sacred books made within the last two centuries. The
first is that of Santes Pagninus, a Dominican under the patronage of Pope Leo X. printed at Lyons, in 4to, in 1528, and much esteemed by the Jews. This the author improved in a second edition. In 1542 there was a beautiful edition of the same at Lyons, in folio, with scholia, published under the name of Michael Villanovanus, or Michael Servetus, author of the scholia. Those of Zurich have likewise published an edition of Pagninus's Bible in quarto; and R. Stephens reprinted it in folio, with the Vulgate, in 1557, pretending to give it more correctly than in the former editions. There is also another edition of 1568, in four columns, under the name of Vatablus; and we find it again in the Hamburg edition of the Bible in four languages.
In the number of Latin Bibles is also usually ranked the version of the same Pagninus, corrected, or rather rendered literal, by Arias Montanus; which correction having been approved of by the doctors of Louvain, was inserted in the Polyglot Bible of Philip II. and since in that of London. There have been various editions of this in folio, quarto, and octavo, to which have been added the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, and the Greek of the New. The best of them all is the first, which is in folio, 1571.
Since the Reformation there have been several Latin versions of the Bible from the originals by Protestants. The most esteemed are those of Munster, Leo Juda, Castalio, Junius, Tremellius, Schmidt, Dathe, Schott, and Winzer. Munster published his version at Basel in 1584, which he afterwards revised; he also published a correct edition in 1546. Castalio's fine Latin pleases most people, but some think it too affected; the best edition is that in 1573. Leo Juda's version, altered a little by the divines of Salamanca, was added to the ancient Latin edition, as published by R. Stephens, with notes, under the name of Vatablus's Bible, in 1545. It was condemned by the Parisian divines, but printed with some alterations by the Spanish divines of Salamanca. That of Junius and Tremellius is preferred, especially by the Calvinists, and has undergone a great number of editions. Schmidt's version is very literal, and Dathe's is considered both faithful and elegant.
We may add a fourth class of Latin Bibles, comprehending the Vulgate edition corrected from the originals. The Bible of Isidorus Clarus is of this number. That author, not being contented with restoring the ancient Latin copy, has corrected the translation in a great number of places which he thought ill rendered. Some Protestants have followed the same method; and among others, Andrew and Luke Osiander, who have each published a new edition of the Vulgate, corrected from the originals.
Oriental BIBLES. At the head of the oriental versions of the Bible must be placed the Samaritan, as being the most ancient of all, though neither its age nor author has been yet ascertained, and admitting no more as Holy Scripture than the Pentateuch or five books of Moses. This translation is made from the Samaritan Hebrew text, which is a little different from the Hebrew text of the Jews. It has never been printed alone, nor anywhere excepting in the Polyglots of London and Paris.
Chaldee BIBLES are only the glosses or expositions made by the Jews in the time when they spoke the Chaldee tongue. These they call by the name of targumim or paraphrases, as not being strict versions of the Scripture. They have been inserted entire in the large Hebrew Bibles of Venice and Basel, but are read more commodiously in the Polyglots, being there attended with a Latin translation.
Syriac BIBLES. There are extant two versions of the Old Testament in the Syriac language; the least ancient
Bible. from the Septuagint, which was made probably in the sixth century; the other, called antiqua et simplex, from the Hebrew, and made, as some suppose, about the time of the apostles. This version is printed in the Polyglots of London and Paris.
In the year 1555, Widmanstadius printed the whole New Testament in Syriac, at Vienna, in a beautiful character. After this there were several other editions, and it was inserted in the Bible of Philip II. with a Latin translation. Gabriel Sionita also published a beautiful Syriac edition of the Psalms, at Paris, in 1525, with a Latin interpretation.