(1) The Old Latin, previous to Jerome's Revision.
There are passages in the works of the two great Western Fathers of the fourth century, Jerome [345?-420] and Augustine [354-430], whose obvious and literal meaning might lead us to conclude that there existed in their time many Latin translations, quite independent in their origin, and used almost indifferently by the faithful. When Jerome, in that Preface to the Gospels which he addressed to Pope Damasus (in 384), anticipates but too surely the unpopularity of his revision of them among the people of his own generation, he consoles himself by the reflection that the variations of previous versions prove the unfaithfulness of them all: “verum non esse quod variat etiam maledicorum testimonio comprobatur.” Then follows his celebrated assertion: “Si enim Latinis exemplaribus fides est adhibenda, respondeant [pg 042] quibus: tot enim sunt exemplaria pene quot codices[54].” The testimony of Augustine seems even more explicit, and at first sight conclusive. In his treatise, De Doctrina Christiana (lib. ii. cc. 11-15), when speaking of “Latinorum interpretum infinita varietas,” and “interpretum numerositas,” as not without their benefit to an attentive reader, he uses these strong expressions: “Qui enim Scripturas ex hebraea lingua in Graecam verterunt, numerari possunt, Latini autem interpretes nullo modo. Ut enim cuique primis fidei temporibus in manus venit codex Graecus, et aliquantulum facultatis sibi utriusque linguae habere videbatur, ausus est interpretari” (c. 11); and he soon after specifies a particular version as preferable to the rest: “In ipsis autem interpretationibus Itala[55] ceteris praeferatur. Nam est verborum tenacior cum perspicuitate sententiae” (cc. 14-15).
When, however, the surviving codices of the version or versions previous to Jerome's revision came to be studied and published by Sabatier[56] and Bianchini[57], it was obvious that though there were many points of difference, there were still traces of a source common to many, if not to all of them; and on a question of this kind, occasional divergency, however extensive, cannot weaken the impression produced by resemblance, if it be too close and constant to be attributable to chance, as we have just seen. The result of a careful and thorough examination and comparison of the existing Old Latin texts, is a conviction that they are all but off-shoots from one, or at most two, parent stocks. Now when, this fact fairly established, we look back at the language employed by Jerome and Augustine, we can easily see [pg 043] that, with some allowance for his habit of rhetorical exaggeration, the former may mean no more by the term “exemplaria” than that the scattered copies of the Latin translation in his own day varied widely from each other; and though the assertions of Augustine are too positive to be thus disposed of, yet he is here speaking, not from his own personal knowledge so much as from vague conjecture; and of what had been done, not in his own time, but “in the first ages of the faith.”
On one point, however, Augustine must be received as a competent and most sufficient witness. We cannot hesitate to believe that one of the several recensions current towards the end of the fourth century was distinguished from the rest by the name of Itala[58], and in his judgement deserved praise for its clearness and fidelity. It was long regarded as certain that here we should find the Old Latin version in its purest form, and that in Italy it had been thus used from the very beginning of the Church, “cum Ecclesia Latina sine versione Latina esse non potuerit” (Walton, Proleg. x. 1). Mill indeed reminds us that the early Church at Rome was composed to so great an extent of Jewish and other foreigners, whose vernacular tongue was Greek, that the need of a Latin translation of Scripture would not at first be felt; yet even he would not place its date later than Pius I (142-157), the first Bishop of Rome after Clement who bears a Latin name (Mill, Proleg. § 377). It was not until attention had been specially drawn to the style of the Old Latin version, that scholars began to suggest Africa as the place, and the second half of the second century as the time, of its origin. This opinion, which had obtained favour with Eichhorn and some others before him, may be considered as demonstrated by Cardinal Wiseman, in his “Two letters on some parts of the controversy concerning 1 John v. 7[59].” So far as his argument rests on the Greek character of the Roman Church, it may not bring conviction to the reflecting reader. Even though the early Bishops of Rome were of foreign origin, though Clement towards the end of the first, Gaius the presbyter late in the second century, who are proved by their names to be Latins, yet chose to write in Greek; [pg 044] it does not follow that the Church would not contain many humbler members, both Romans and Italians, ignorant of any language except Latin, and for whose instruction a Latin version would be required. On the ground of internal evidence, however, Wiseman made out a case which all who have followed him, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Davidson, Tregelles, accept as irresistible; indeed it is not easy to draw any other conclusion from his elaborate comparison of the words, the phrases, and grammatical constructions of the Latin version of Holy Scripture, with the parallel instances by which they can be illustrated from African writers, and from them only (Essays, vol. i. pp. 46-66)[60]. It is impossible to exhibit any adequate abridgement of an investigation which owes all its cogency to the number and variety of minute particulars, each one weak enough by itself, the whole comprising a mass of evidence which cannot be gainsaid. In the works of Apuleius and of the African Fathers, Tertullian [150?-220?], Cyprian [† 258], and in the following century, Arnobius, Lactantius, Augustine, we obtain a glimpse into the genius and character of the dialect in which the earliest form of the Old Latin version is composed. We see a multitude of words which occur in no Italian author so late as Cicero; constructions (e.g. dominantur eorum, Luke xxii. 25; faciam vos fieri, Matt. iv. 19) or forms of verbs (sive consolamur ... sive exhortamur, 2 Cor. i. 6) abound[61], which at Rome had long been obsolete; while the lack of classic polish is not ill-atoned for by a certain vigour which characterizes this whole class of writers, but never degenerates into barbarism.
The European and Italian forms of the Old Latin version will be discussed afterwards.
The following manuscripts of the version are extant. They [pg 045] are usually cited by the small italic letters of the alphabet, according to the custom set by Lachmann (1842-1850), which has been considerably extended, and partially altered, since his time. His a b c d of the Gospels, d e of the Acts, and g of St. Paul, remain the same, but his f and ff of St. Paul = our d and e, and his h = Primasius.
Old Latin Manuscripts of the Gospels.
a. Codex Vercellensis [iv?], at Vercelli; according to a tradition found in a document of the eighth century, this MS. was written by Eusebius, Bishop of Vercellae († 370); M. Samuel Berger, however, and other scholars would place it later. It is written in silver on purple vellum. Bianchini, when Canon of Verona, collated this treasure in 1727; see E. Mangenot, Joseph Bianchini et les anciennes versions latines (Amiens, 1892), who gives an interesting and sympathetic account of his work. Mut. in many letters and words throughout, and entirely wanting in Matt. xxiv. 49-xxv. 16; Mark i. 22-34; iv. 17-25; xv. 15-xvi. 7 (xvi. 7-20 is in a later hand, taken from Jerome's Vulgate); Luke i. 1-12; xi. 12-26; xii. 38-59. Published by J. A. Irici (Sacrosanctus Evangeliorum Codex S. Eusebii Magni), Milan, 1748, and by Bianchini on the left-hand page of his great “Evangeliarium Quadruplex,” Rome, 1749; the latter edition has been reprinted in Migne, Patr. Lat. tom. xii. Facsimile given in Zangemeister and Wattenbach, Exempla codicum Latinorum, pl. 20 (Heidelberg, 1876); compare Bethmann in Pertz, Archiv, xii. p. 606, and E. Ranke, Fragmenta Curiensia, p. 8. Bianchini's work seems to have been extremely accurate, though he does not keep to the actual division of the lines in the original manuscripts either here or in his edition of b. The Gospels are in the usual Western order, Matthew, John, Luke, Mark; so also a2 b d e f ff2 i n q r.
b. Cod. Veronensis [iv or v], also in Bianchini's “Evangeliarum Quadruplex” on the right-hand page. Mut. Matt. i. 1-11, xv. 12-23, xxiii. 18-27; Mark xiii. 8-19; 24-xvi. 20; Luke xix. 26-xxi. 29; also John vii. 44-viii. 12 is erased.
c. Cod. Colbertinus [xii], at Paris (Lat. 254); New Testament, very important, though so late; edited in full by Sabatier (see p. [42], n. 3), and in a smaller and cheaper form by J. Belsheim, Christiania, 1888; Belsheim's work however is, as usual, inaccurate. For the date of the MS. see E. Ranke, Fragmenta Curiensia, p. 9. Beyond the Gospels, the version is Jerome's, and in a later hand. See below under Vulgate MSS., no. [53].
d. Cod. Bezae [vi], its Latin version; see Vol. I. pp. 124-130, and for its defects p. 124, n. 2; also Prof. J. Rendel Harris, A Study of Codex Bezae, Cambridge, 1891; and F. H. Chase, The Syriac element in Codex Bezae, London, 1893.
e. Cod. Palatinus [iv or v], now at Vienna (Pal. 1185), where it was acquired from Trent between 1800 and 1829; on purple vellum, [pg 046] 14 x 9-3/4, written with gold and silver letters, as are Codd. a b f i j, edited by Tischendorf, Leipzig, 1847. Only the following portions are extant: Matt. xii. 49-xiii. 13; 24-xiv. 11 (with breaks, twelve lines being lost); 22-xxiv. 49; xxviii. 2-John xviii. 12; 25-Luke viii. 30; 48-xi. 4; 24-xxiv. 53; Mark i. 20-iv. 8; 19-vi. 9; xii. 37-40; xiii. 2, 3; 24-27; 33-36; i.e. 2627 verses, including all St. John but 13 verses, all St. Luke but 38. Another leaf, bought for Trinity College, Dublin, by Dr. Todd before 1847, containing Matt. xiii. 13-23, was published by Dr. T.K. Abbott in his edition of Cod. Z. It was recognized in 1880 to be a fragment of e by Mr. French, the sub-librarian; see also H. Linke, Neue Bruchst. des Evang. Pal. (S. B. of the Munich Acad. 1893, Heft ii).
f. Cod. Brixianus [vi], at Brescia, edited by Bianchini beneath Cod. b. Mut. Matt. viii. 16-26; Mark xii. 5-xiii. 32; xiv. 53-62; 70-xvi. 20. There are some bad slips in Migne's reprint of this MS.
ff1. Cod. Corbeiensis I [viii or ix], containing the Gospel of St. Matthew, now at St. Petersburg (Ov. 3, D. 326). It formerly belonged to the great monastic Library of Corbey, or Corbie, on the Somme, near Amiens; and with the most important part of that Library was transferred to St. Germain des Prés at Paris, in or about the year 1638, and was there numbered 21. The St. Germain Library, however, suffered severely from theft and pillage during the French Revolution, and Peter Dubrowsky, Secretary to the Russian Embassy at Paris, seems to have used his opportunities during that troublous time to acquire MSS. stolen from public libraries; ff1 with other MSS. fell into his hands and was transferred to the Imperial Library at St. Petersburg about 1800-1805. In 1695 Dom Jean Martianay, well known as the principal editor of the Benedictine St. Jerome, published ff1 with a marginal collation of the St. Germain Bible (g1), and the Corbey St. James (see p. [52]) in a small volume entitled “Vulgata antiqua Latina et Itala versio secundum Matthaeum e vetustissimis eruta monumentis illustrata Prolegomenis ac notis nuncque primum edita studio et labore D.J.M. etc. Parisiis, apud Antonium Lambin.” Bianchini reprinted it underneath Cod. a, giving in its place a collation of ff2 in SS. Mark, Luke, and John; Sabatier, however, cites ff1 in Mark i. 1-v. 11, but it is difficult to know to what MS. he refers. Finally it has been re-edited by Belsheim (Christiania, 1882). For the history of this MS., see Wordsworth, Old Lat. Bibl. Texts, i. p. xxii, and Studia Biblica, i. p. 124; and for the history of the Library at Corbey, Delisle, Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Chartes, 1860, p. 438; R. S. Bensly, The missing fragment of the Latin Translation of the Fourth Book of Ezra, p. 7 (Cambridge, 1875).
ff2. Cod. Corbeiensis II [vi], now at Paris (Lat. 17,225), formerly at Corbey, where it was numbered 195; it contains 190 leaves and is written in a beautiful round uncial hand. Quoted by Sabatier, and a collation given by Bianchini in Mark, Luke, and John; published in full by Belsheim (Christiania, 1887). Belsheim's work, however, has been since revised by M. Berger and his revision communicated to the present writer (H. J. White). Mut. Matt. i. 1-xi. 6; John xvii. 15-xviii. 9; xx. 22-xxi. 8; Luke ix. 48-x. 21; xi. 45-xii. 6; and a few verses [pg 047] missing in Matt. xi, Mark ix and xvi; Facsimile in Palaeogr. Soc. i. pl. 87.
g1. Cod. Sangermanensis I [ix], now at Paris (Lat. 11,553); formerly in the Library of St. Germain des Prés, where it was first numbered 15 and afterwards 86; it is the second volume of a complete Bible, the first volume of which has been lost. This MS. was known to R. Stephens, who in his Latin Bible, published 1538-40 and again 1546, quotes it as Germ. Lat., in consequence of its breadth; it was also examined by R. Simon, who, writing in 1680, speaks of it at some length; Martianay published a collation of its readings in his edition of the Corbey St. Matthew (see under ff1); and Martianay's collation, which indeed was faulty enough, was reprinted by Bianchini. John Walker, Bentley's coadjutor in his great but unfinished work for the New Testament, collated it carefully in 1720; and finally Bp. Wordsworth published St. Matthew's Gospel with full Introductions in 1883 (Old Latin Biblical Texts, No. 1, Oxford), and has collated the other Gospels for his edition of the Vulgate. J. Walker cited the MS. as μ; Bp. Wordsworth cites it as g1 in St. Matthew, G in the other books of the New Testament. The text can only be called strictly Old Latin in St. Matthew, where it seems to be partly of the European, partly of the Italian type; in the other Gospels it is Vulgate, though largely mixed with Old Latin readings. See below under Vulgate, MSS., no. [21].
g2. Cod. Sangermanensis II [x], 116 leaves, Irish hand, with a mixed Old Latin and Vulgate text. Now at Paris (Lat. 13,169), but was originally at Angers, and then apparently at Mans in the province of Tours; possibly brought there by Ulgrinus, Bishop of Mans 1057-65. See Berger, Histoire de la Vulgate pendant les premiers Siècles du M.A., p. 48.
h. Cod. Claromontanus [iv or v], now in the Vatican Library (Lat. 7223), for which it was bought by Pius VI (1775-99), contains, like g1, St. Matthew only in the Old Latin, the other Gospels being Vulgate. Mut. Matt. i. 1-iii. 15; xiv. 33-xviii. 12. Sabatier gave extracts, and Mai published St. Matthew in full in his “Script. Vet. nova collectio Vaticana,” iii. p. 257 (Rom. 1828); it has been republished by Belsheim (Evangelium secundum Matthaeum ... e codice olim Claromontano nunc Vaticano), Christiania, 1892.
i. Cod. Vindobonensis [vii], at Vienna (Lat. 1235), formerly belonging to an Augustinian Monastery at Naples, whence it was brought with ninety-four other MSS. to Vienna in 1717; consists of 142 leaves, and contains Luke x. 6-xxiii. 10; Mark ii. 17-iii. 29; iv. 4-x. 1; 33-xiv. 36; xv. 33-40. The MS. was described and edited by F. C. Alter, the Mark fragments in G. E. H. Paulus' “N. Repert. d. bibl. u. morgenl. Literatur,” iii. pp. 115-170 (1791), the Luke fragments in Paulus, Memorabilia, vii. pp. 58-95 (1795). Bianchini had, however, previously obtained a collation for his “Evangeliarium Quadruplex” from the Count of Thun and Hohenstein (afterwards Bishop of Gurk in Carinthia), who had spent some time at the Court of Vienna; and N. Forlosia, the principal Librarian at Vienna, had given him a careful [pg 048] description of the MS.; see “Epistola Blanchinii ad Episcopum Gurcensem” in Bianchini's prolegomena. Finally Belsheim edited the MS. completely in 1885 (Leipzig, Weigel), and Dr. Rudolf Beer revised his edition for Bishop Wordsworth's edition of the Vulgate in 1888.
j. Cod. Sarzannensis or Saretianus [v] was discovered in 1872 in the Church of Sarezzano near Tortona. It consists of eight quires written on purple vellum in silver letters, and contains (much mutilated) 292 verses of St. John, viz. i. 38-iii. 23; iii. 33-v. 20; vi. 29-49; 49-67; 68-vii. 32; viii. 6-ix. 21, written two columns on a page. The text is peculiar, and much with a b d e. Guerrino Amelli, sub-librarian of the Ambrosian Library (and now at the Benedictine Monastery of Monte Cassino), published at Milan the same year a “Dissertazione critico-storica,” 18 pp. (2nd edition, 1885), with a lithographed facsimile, whose characters much resemble the round and flowing shape of those in a b f. The MS. is now at Rome undergoing careful restoration, but no part of it has yet been published.
k. Cod. Bobiensis [v or vi], now in the National Library at Turin (G. vii. 15), whither it was brought with a vast number of other books from Bobbio; traditionally asserted to have belonged to St. Columban, who died in the monastery he had founded there, in 615. This MS. is perhaps the most important, in regard to text, of all the Old Latin copies, being undoubtedly the oldest existing representative of the African type. It contains Mark viii. 8-11; 14-16; 19-xvi. 9; Matthew i. 1-iii. 10; iv. 2-xiv. 17; xv. 20-36; the order then was probably John, Luke, Mark, Matthew. It was edited by F. F. Fleck in 1837, and by Tischendorf in 1847-49; but so inaccurately by the former and so inconveniently by the latter as to be little known and used by students. It was finally edited by Bishop Wordsworth (1886) as No. 2 of the “Old-Latin Bible Texts,” with full introduction, and with a dissertation on the text by Professor Sanday.
l. Cod. Rhedigeranus [vii], in the Rhedigeran Library at Breslau; from a note at the end of St. Luke's Gospel, it appears to have been bought by Thomas von Rhediger at Verona in the year 1569. J. E. Scheibel in 1763 published SS. Matthew and Mark, far from correctly. D. Schulz wrote a dissertation on it in 1814, and inserted his collation of it in his edition of Griesbach's N. T., vol. i. 1827. It was edited in full by H. F. Haase, Breslau (in the “Index, lect. univ. Vratisl.”), 1865-66. Mut. Matt. i. 1-ii. 15; John i. 1-16; vi. 32-61; xi. 56-xii. 10; xiii. 34-xiv. 23; xv. 3-15; xvi. 13 ad fin.
m. This letter indicates the readings extracted by Mai from the “Liber de divinis scripturis sive speculum,” ascribed to St. Augustine, and containing extracts from the whole N. T. except Philemon, Hebrews, and 3 John; it also has a citation from the Epistle to the Laodiceans. It resembles the “Testimonia” of Cyprian (and indeed one MS. has the subscription explicit testimoniorum) in that it consists of extracts from both Testaments, arranged in chapters under various heads. This treatise was published by Mai, first in the “Spicilegium Romanum,” 1843, vol. ix. part ii. 1-88, and again in the “Nova Patrum Bibliotheca,” [pg 049] Rome, 1852, vol. i. part ii. 1-117; and Wiseman had drawn attention to it in his celebrated “Two Letters” (see p. [43]), because it contains 1 John v. 7 in two different places. Mai had published it from the Sessorian MS. (no. 58) of the eighth or ninth century, so called from the library of Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme (Bibliotheca Sessoriana) at Rome, in which it is preserved (see Reifferscheid, Bibl. Patr. Italica, ii. p. 129); he furnished a facsimile. Recently the treatise has been excellently edited by Dr. F. Weihrich in the Vienna “Corpus script. eccl. lat.,” vol. xii (Vienna, 1887), from six MSS.; one of these is the Codex Floriacensis (Libri MS. 16, now in the Bibl. Nat. at Paris, Nouv. acq. lat. 1596), the readings of which are occasionally cited by Sabatier under the name of floriac. (see Weihrich, p. xl, and L. Delisle, Cat. des MSS. des fonds Libri et Barrois, 1888, p. 25 and pl. iv. 1; also Palaeographical Soc., series ii. pl. 34).
n. Fragmenta Sangallensia [v or vi], in the Stiftsbibliothek at St. Gall, to which Library they have probably belonged from its foundation. The fragments are bound up in a large book numbered 1394, and entitled “Veterum fragmentorum manuscriptis codicibus detractorum Collectio;” they contain Matt. xvii. 1-xviii. 20; xix. 20-xxi. 3; xxvi. 56-60; 69-74; xxvii. 62-xxviii. 3; 8-20; Mark vii. 13-31; viii. 32-ix. 10; xiii: 2-20; xv. 22-xvi. 13; to this must be added a whole leaf containing John xix. 28-42, and a slip containing portions of John xix. 13-27, which are in the Stadtbibliothek of the same city, bound up in a MS. numbered 70 and entitled “Casus monasterii Sancti Galli;” and the conjecture of the Abbé Batiffol and Dr. P. Corssen is undoubtedly right that the fragment from St. Luke known as a2 (see below) is also a part of this MS.
Tischendorf transcribed these fragments, intending to edit them himself, but died before he had done so; the transcripts were purchased from his widow by the Clarendon Press in 1883, and published in the second volume of “Old Lat. Bibl. Texts” (Oxford, 1886) by the Rev. H. J. White, who revised them on the spot from the originals; meanwhile they had been published in France by the Abbé Batiffol (Note sur un Evangéliare de Saint-Gall, Paris, Champion, 1884, and “Fragmenta Sangallensia” in the Revue archéologique, pp. 305-321, for 1885). A facsimile was appended to the Oxford edition, and is also given by the Palaeographical Soc., series ii. plate 50.
o. [vii], another fragment at St. Gall, bound up in the same volume with n, contains Mark xvi. 14-20; it may very possibly have been written to complete the above-named MS. when it had lost its last leaf, as it has the same number of lines to a page and begins exactly at the point where n leaves off. Edited by Batiffol with n, and also in Old Lat. Bibl. Texts, vol. ii.
p. [vii or viii], also at St. Gall, bound up in the second volume of the “Veterum fragmentorum Collectio” (pp. 430-433). This fragment consists of two leaves written in an Irish hand, and apparently belonging to a “Missa pro defunctis,” of which it was the Gospel; it contains John xi. 16-44, introduced with the lines from Ps. lxv, “te decet dñe,” &c. The opening verses of the Gospel are adapted as an introduction of the [pg 050] lection; the rest of the text is of the European type, but (with r) contains many peculiar Irish characteristics. p has been published three times: by Forbes, in the “Preface to the Arbuthnott Missal,” p. xlviii (Burntisland, 1864); by Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, vol. i. Appendix G, p. 197 (Oxford, 1869); and in Old Lat. Bibl. Texts, vol. ii.
q. Cod. Monacensis [vii], now in the Royal Library at Munich (Lat. 6224); it was transferred hither in 1802 with other MSS. from the Chapter Library of Freising, in which it was numbered 24; written by a scribe named Valerianus. Contains the four Gospels, but mut. Matt. iii. 15-iv. 23; v. 25-vi. 4; 28-vii. 8; John x. 11-xii. 38; xxi. 8-20; Luke xxiii. 23-35; xxiv. 11-39; Mark i. 7-21; xv. 5-36. Published in full by the Rev. H. J. White in Old Lat. Bibl. Texts, vol. iii (Oxford, 1888); facsimiles given in the Oxford edition and also by Silvestre (Paléog. univ.; quatrième partie, no. 158).
r or r1. Codex Usserianus I [vii], in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin (A. iv. 15); it is kept among the books which once belonged to Archbishop Ussher, but nothing is known of its early history. The MS. consists of 180 leaves or fragments, written in an Irish hand, but much injured by damp; it contains the four Gospels in the usual Old Latin order, but mut. Matt. i. 1-xv. 16; 31-xvi. 13; xxi. 4-21; xxviii. 16-20; John i. 1-15; Mark xiv. 58-xv. 8; 29-xvi. 20. Published in full by Professor T. K. Abbott, Evangeliorum versio antehieronymiana (Dublin, 1884); facsimiles are given in his edition, in the Palaeographical Society, series ii. plate 33, and in the “Facsimiles of National MSS. of Ireland,” part i (1874), pl. ii. It contains the pericope de adultera in St. John, but in the Vulgate, not the Old Latin, text.
r2. Codex Usserianus II [ix or x], also in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin (A. iv. 6). Contains the four Gospels, St. Matt. in the Old Latin and in a text allied to r1; St. Mark, the early part of St. Luke, and the small portion (only five leaves) extant of St. John, present a text very near the Vulgate. Dr. Abbott inserted a collation of this MS. in the second volume of his book, and also a facsimile. Mut. Matt. i. 1-18, ii. 6-iv. 24; v. 29-xiii. 7; xiv. 1-xvi. 13; xviii. 31-xix. 26; xxvii. 58-xxviii. 20; Mark iii. 23-iv. 19; v. 31-vi. 13; Luke i. 1-13; ii. 15-iii. 8; vi. 39-vii. 11; xi. 53-xii. 45; xiv. 18-xv. 25; xvi. 15-xvii. 7; xxii. 35-59; xxiii. 14-xxiv. 53; John i. 1-v. 12; vi. 24-viii. 7; x. 3-xxi. 25.
s. Fragmenta Ambrosiana [vi], now in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, where they are bound up in a volume (C. 73 inf.) containing various treatises; they belonged originally to the Monastery of St. Columban at Bobbio. Four leaves only remain, containing Luke xvii. 3-29; xviii. 39-xix. 47; xx. 46-xxi. 22. They have been edited by Ceriani, Monumenta sacra et profana, tom. i. fasc. i (Milan, 1861), and again in Old Lat. Bibl. Texts, vol. ii; a facsimile is given by the Palaeographical Society, series i. plate 54.
t. Fragmenta Bernensia [v], palimpsest fragments, now at Berne, where they are bound up in a volume numbered 611; exceedingly [pg 051] difficult to decipher, as the later writing is parallel to the original text. Contain Mark i. 2-23; ii. 22-27; iii. 11-18. They were first published by Professor H. Hagen under the title “Ein Italafragment aus einem Berner Palimpsest des VI. Jahrhunderts” in Hilgenfeld's “Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Theologie,” vol. xxvii. p. 470 ff. (Leipzig, 1884); reprinted in Old Latin Bibl. Texts, vol. ii, with rather important alterations in the conjectural restitution of the missing half-columns.
v. Fragmentum Vindobonense [vii], at Vienna, where it is bound up at the beginning of a volume numbered Lat. 502 and entitled “Pactus legis Ripuariae;” it contains John xix. 27-xx. 11, but the writing is much faded. Transcribed by the Bishop of Salisbury and the Rev. H. J. White in 1887, and published in Old Latin Bibl. Texts, vol. iii.
aur. Codex Aureus or Holmiensis, in the Royal Library at Stockholm; Gospels [vii or viii], 195 leaves, complete with the exception of one leaf, which contained Luke xxi. 8-30. According to an inscription in Old English on the title-page, the book was purchased by Alfred the Alderman from the pagans [Danes?] when Alfred was king and Ethelred archbishop (a.d. 871-89), for the use of Christ Church, Canterbury. It afterwards found its way to Madrid, where Sparvenfeldt bought it in 1690 from the Library of the Marquis de Liche. Edited, with facsimiles, by Belsheim (Christiania, 1878), who classes it as Old Latin; but it is really a Vulgate text, though with a certain admixture of Old Latin readings. Hort's holm. (Introd., Notes, p. 5).
a2. Fragmenta Curiensia [v or vi], formerly preserved amongst the Episcopal archives at Chur or Coire, now placed in the Reatisches Museum of the same city. M. Batiffol was the first to suggest that these fragments belonged to the same MS. as n; and though this view was combated at first by Mr. White, it was reasserted strongly by Dr. Corssen (Göttingsche gel. Anzeigen, 1889, p. 316), and further examination has shown that it is correct. The fragments contain Luke xi. 11-29; xiii. 16-34; they were first discovered by Professor Hidber, of Berne, then described by Professor E. Ranke in the “Theol. Studien u. Kritiken,” 1872, pp. 505-520, and afterwards edited by him in full, Curiensia Ev. Lucani Fragmenta Latiua (Vienna, 1874).
δ. Codex Sangallensis, the interlinear Latin of Cod. Δ, stands remarkable especially for its alternative renderings of the Greek, such as 'uxorem uel coniugem' for τὴν γυναῖκα Matt. i. 20, and in almost every verse. How far the Latin text of these MSS. is independent, and how far it is a mere reproduction of the Greek, or whether the Greek has in turn been influenced by the Latin, is one of those elaborate and obscure problems which are still very far from solution. The reader is referred to Prof. J. Rendel Harris' work, The Codex Sangallensis (Cambridge, 1891), for an interesting discussion of these alternative readings.
In the Acts we have Codd. d m as in the Gospels; e the Latin version of Cod. E (Laudianus) of the Acts, and also:—
g. Cod. Gigas Holmiensis [xiii], a Bohemian MS. of the whole N. T., now at Stockholm, so called from its great size. Contains the Acts and [pg 052] Apocalypse in the Old Latin version, the rest of the N. T. in the Vulgate. Mr. Belsheim published the Acts and Apocalypse in full and a collation of the other books (Christiania, 1878). His edition was carefully revised for the Bishop of Salisbury by Dr. H. Karlsson in 1891.
g2. Fragmentum Mediolanense [x or xi], from a lectionary; discovered by Ceriani in the Ambrosian Library at Milan and published by him in “Monumenta Sacra et Profana,” tom. i. fasc. ii. p. 127 (see also preface, pp. vi and vii). Contains Acts vi. 8-vii. 2; 51-viii. 4; i.e. lection for St. Stephen's day.
h. Palimpsestus Floriacensis [vi or vii], now in the Bibl. Nat. at Paris, where it forms foll. 113 to 130 of a volume containing various treatises and numbered Lat. 6400 G; it was formerly numbered 5367, and was as such quoted by Sabatier, tom. iii. p. 507 ff., who had collated the first three pages. An inscription on fol. 130 shows it to have belonged in the eleventh century to the famous Benedictine Abbey of Fleury on the Loire. Mr. A. Vansittart deciphered and published some more in the “Journal of Philology” (vol. ii, 1869, p. 240, and vol. iv, 1872, p. 219), and M. H. Omont published four pages of the Apocalypse in the “Bibl. de l'École des chartes” (vol. xliv. 1883, p. 445). Belsheim published an edition of the fragments in 1887 (“Appendix Epist. Paulin. ex cod. Sangerm.,” Christiania); and finally M. Berger published a most careful and complete edition in 1889 (Le Palimpseste de Fleury, Paris, Fischbacher). The MS. contains fragments of the Apocalypse, the Acts, 1 and 2 Peter, and 1 John; in the order above mentioned. Of the Acts in M. Berger's edition we obtain the following:—iii. 2-iv. 18; v. 23-vii. 2; 42-viii. 2; ix. 4-23; xiv. 5-23; xvii. 34-xviii. 19; xxiii. 8-24; xxvi. 20-xxvii. 13. Facsimile given by Berger.
s. Cod. Bobiensis [v or vi], at Vienna, consisting of a number of palimpsest leaves preserved loose and numbered Lat. 16 (see “Tabulae Codd. MSS. praeter graecos et orientales in bibl. Palatina Vindob. asservatorum,” 1863-1875). They were brought with other MSS. to Vienna from Naples in 1717, and formerly belonged to the famous Monastery at Bobbio. Described by Denis (Codd. MSS. theolog. bibl. Palat. Vindob., tom. ii. p. 1, col. 628) and later by von Eichenfeld (Wiener Jahrb. der Literatur, 1824, Bd. xxvi. p. 20); then by Tischendorf in the same periodical (1847, Bd. cxx. p. 36). Finally published in full by Belsheim (Fragmenta Vindobonensia, Christiania, 1886), who printed all the fragments of this very hard palimpsest which Tischendorf had been able to decipher, and the leaves which he himself had been able to make out in addition. We thus obtain Acts xxiii. 18-23; xxv. 23-27; xxvi. 22-xxvii. 7; 10-24; 28-31; xxviii. 16-28. The same MS. also contains fragments of St. James and 1 Peter; see below.
In the Catholic Epistles we have:—
ff. Codex Corbeiensis [x], of the Epistle of St. James, now in the Imperial Library at St. Petersburg, where it was numbered Qv. i. 39. Formerly belonging to the Corbey Library, where it was numbered 635, it was about 1638 transferred to St. Germain des Prés and was numbered 717 in Dom Poirier's catalogue (made about 1791); and finally was [pg 053] taken to St. Petersburg by Peter Dubrowsky about 1805 (see above on ff1, p. [46]). The Epistle was published in 1695 by Martianay in the same volume which included ff1; later by Mr. Belsheim (Der Brief des Jacobus, Christiania, 1883); and again, after revision by Professor V. Jernstedt, by Bishop Wordsworth in “Studia Biblica,” vol. i.
There are also h, containing 1 Pet. iv. 17-2 Pet. ii. 6; 1 John i. 8-iii. 20; m as in Gospels; s as in Acts, containing James i. 1-25; ii. 14-iii. 5; 13-iv. 2; v. 19, 20; 1 Pet. i. 1-12; ii. 4-10.
q. One of the sets of fragments at Munich [vii], published by Ziegler (see below): they consist of two leaves, giving us 1 John iii. 8-v. 21, and containing the three Heavenly Witnesses (1 John v. 7), placed, however, after v. 8, as in the Vulgate Codex Cavensis (see Ziegler, p. 5 f.); these leaves are in the collection of fragments marked Clm. 6436 (Fris. 236). Later in the same year Ziegler published more fragments from the same MS., which had been used in covering some other books; these give us 1 Pet. i. 8-19; ii. 20-iii. 7; iv. 10-v. 14; 2 Pet. i. 1-4. See Sitzungsberichte der k. b. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu München, 1876, Heft v. pp. 607-660.
In the Pauline Epistles we have m as in the Gospels. Codd. d e f g are the Latin versions of Codd. DEFG of St. Paul, described above, Cod. D (Clarom.); Cod. E (Sangerm.); Cod. F (Aug.); Cod. G (Boern.). To these must be added
gue. Cod. Guelferbytanus [vi], fragments of Rom. xi. 33-xii. 5; 17-xiii. 5; xiv. 9-20; xv. 3-13, found in the great Gothic palimpsest at Wolfenbüttel (Evann. PQ), published with the other matter by Knittel in 1762, and more fully by Tischendorf, Anecdota sacra et profana, pp. 155-158. In the eighth edition of his N. T. he adds readings from Rom. xiii. 3, 4, 6; 1 Tim. iv. 15.
r. Cod. Frisingensis [v or vi], consisting of twenty-one leaves at Munich, numbered Clm. 6436 (Fris. 236), and containing Rom. xiv. 10-xv. 13; 1 Cor. i. 1-iii. 5; vi. 1-vii. 7; xv. 14-43; xvi. 12-2 Cor. ii. 10; iii. 17-v. 1; vii. 10-viii. 12; ix. 10-xi. 21; xii. 14-xiii. 10; Gal. ii. 5-iii. 5; Eph. i. 16-ii. 16; Phil. i. 1-20; 1 Tim. i. 12-ii. 15; v. 18-vi. 13; Hebr. vi. 6-vii. 5; 8-viii. 1; ix. 27-xi. 7. Eight of these leaves were examined by Tischendorf in 1856, who drew attention to their importance in the “Deutsche Zeitschr. f. christliche Wissenschaft u. chr. Leben,” 1856, n. 8; he incorporated many of their variant readings into his N. T., and intended to publish the fragments. They were published by L. Ziegler with q and r2 (Italafragm. d. paulinischen Briefe, Marburg, 1876); see E. Wölfflin, Freisinger Itala (S. B. of Munich Acad. 1893, Heft ii).
r2. A single leaf from Munich [vii], containing Phil. iv. 11-23; 1 Thess. i. 1-10; published by Ziegler, see above; also numbered Clm. 6436 (Fris. 236).
r3. Cod. Gottvicensis [vi or vii], fragments of Romans and Galatians, from the Benedictine Abbey of Göttweig on the Danube, and consisting of two leaves taken from the cover of another book. They are numbered 1. (9) foll. 23, 24 in the Library Catalogue, and contain Rom. v. 16-vi. [pg 054] 4; 6-19; Gal. iv. 6-19; 22-v. 2. Published by H. Roensch in Hilgenfeld's Zeitschrift, vol. xxii (1879), pp. 224-238.
In the Apocalypse we have m of the Gospels and g of the Acts; also h of the Acts (see above), containing i. 1-ii. 1; viii. 7-ix. 11; xi. 16-xii. 14; xiv. 15-xvi. 5 (Lachmann cites Primasius' version as h).
To these thirty-eight codices must be added extracts from the Latin Fathers, of which the Latin interpreter of Irenaeus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Augustine, Priscillian, and Primasius are the most important for the history of the version. For Tertullian, considerable labour will be saved to the student by the work of H. Roensch (Das neue Testament Tertullians, Leipzig, 1871), who has arranged in order his quotations, direct and indirect; for Cyprian, Hartel's excellent edition (vol. iii in the Vienna Corpus) is marred by his having edited the Testimonia, which consist of direct quotations from the Bible, arranged under various heads, from a late and inferior MS. (see O. L. Bibl. Texts, ii. p. xliii). The works of Priscillian, who suffered death as a heretic in 385, have been quite lately discovered and edited by Dr. G. Schepss (vol. xviii in the Vienna Corpus); the quotations in them bear a strong resemblance to those of the so-called “Speculum” of St. Augustine (m), and are mainly from the Epistles. Primasius, bishop of Hadrumetum (d. 558?), was the author inter alia of a commentary on the Apocalypse; in this he incorporated nearly the entire text of that book, and as this text agrees almost word for word with the citations found in Cyprian's Testimonia, we thus obtain a complete African text of a book in which so many MSS. are defective. In addition to this he quoted largely from another Latin translation of the Apocalypse—that of the Donatist Ticonius—whose version seems to be a good specimen of a later text approximating more closely to the Vulgate; these have also been published quite recently by Professor Haussleiter (Zahn's Forschungen, iv. Teil, Leipzig, 1891).
When we come to arrange these authorities for the Latin version before Jerome, we find a complicated and difficult task before us; for few of our MSS. present a consistent type of text. We will confine ourselves therefore to grouping them in the three great families described by Dr. Hort (Introd. p. 78), whose division has been accepted by most textual critics, and to pointing out how here and there even that division must be accepted with some modification.
The African family is comparatively easy to fix, from the rich store of biblical quotations found in the African Fathers. Tertullian indeed does not give us so much help as we should have expected, as he seems to have largely used a Greek Bible and translated it into Latin himself. Cyprian's quotations, however, are valuable, as he apparently confined himself strictly to the Latin Bible current in his time; he may be taken as the standard of the early African version; to him we must add, for the Gospels, the Bobbio MS. (k) and the Codex Palatinus (e), which, however, represents a stage somewhat later than k; for the Acts, the Fleury palimpsest (h); for the Apocalypse, Primasius and h; and a later and revised stage in the so-called “Speculum” (m), and in the quotations from Ticonius preserved in Primasius.
Existing simultaneously with the African family we find another type of text current in Western Europe, though whether it is a revision of the African text or is of independent origin, it is hard to say. This type Dr. Hort calls the European. It is represented in the Gospels by b, which may be taken as the typical European MS.; by a in St. Matthew, i (Luke and Mark), n and a2 (giving us fragments of all the Gospels from the same MS.); t in St. Mark; in a slightly revised form by h of St. Matthew; in a form marked by special local characteristics, in the Irish MSS. r1 and p (St. John); to a certain extent also by q (i.e. in its renderings, and turns of expression, as distinct from the type of Greek text underlying it); of the early Fathers, the Latin version of Irenaeus may probably be referred to this family.
For the European text in the Acts, Dr. Hort cites the Gigas Holmiensis (g), and the Milan Lectionary g2, and the Bobbio fragments at Vienna (s); for the Epistles, the Corbey MS. of St. James (ff), though this has possibly a tinge of Africanism in it (see Bp. Wordsworth and Dr. Sanday in “Studia Biblica,” i. pp. 113, 233); and g again for the Apocalypse.
The Italian family presents us with a type of text mainly European, but doubly revised; first in its renderings, “to give the Latinity a smoother and more customary aspect,” and secondly in its underlying text, which has been largely corrected from the Greek; in both these points the Italian MSS. are a sort of stepping-stone between the European MSS. and Jerome's Vulgate; and as many of the Biblical quotations in Augustine's works agree closely with them, it is distinctly probable that it was this [pg 056] revision which he praised as the Itala. To this group we would assign f in the Gospels, and less notably q; in the Epistles the Freisingen fragments q of St. John and St. Peter, and r r2 of St. Paul's Epistles, and the Göttweig fragments r3 of Romans and Galatians.
But it will be seen that this arrangement leaves a large number of MSS. unaccounted for; many of the Old Latin MSS. present texts which it is impossible to class either as African, European, or Italian. Some of them possess all three characteristics; some have been half corrected from the Vulgate; and local variation, independent translation from the Greek, and in the case of the Graeco-Latin MSS., assimilation to the Greek, have still further complicated matters. Among these mixed texts must be placed a in SS. Mark, Luke, and John (with occasional Africanisms, and a large element quite peculiar to itself); c, which gives us a text very near the Vulgate in St. John; d, that apparently insoluble problem; ff1 and f2g1sδ; l, a text which to a large extent is almost pure Vulgate, but which at the same time preserves a number of readings, mostly interpolations, that are quite peculiar.
We must bear in mind too that even the MSS. which seem to represent most consistently one type of text, show here and there strange vacillations; e, African throughout as it seems at first sight, must have been copied from an ordinary European MS. in the last few chapters of St. Luke; the parent MS. of r obviously did not contain the pericope de adultera, for that passage has been supplied in a Vulgate text; and other instances might be added.