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).