As to the MSS., our author has confined himself to a few, but these few are of the highest authority. Of the twenty consulted by him, the remarkable Florentine Codex of Monte Amiata is deservedly placed first. Saint Pius V. had caused the Benedictines of Florence to collate 12 codices, and the archivist of Monte Cassino to examine 24 others. The notes of both these undertakings are still in the Vatican, and have been of great assistance to Father Vercellone.
Of printed editions prior to the Clementine of 1590, the author has consulted more than 80, many of them the work of excellent critical scholars. To these are to be added liturgical books, for example, the works of the B. Cardinal Thomasi, the Mozarabic liturgy, edited by Cardinal Lorenzana, and the Roman liturgy. To these again we must add, the Latin Fathers, whose works give much valuable assistance in determining the text of the Vulgate. Finally, F. Vercellone has carefully studied the commentaries of Hesychius, Rodolphus, Bruno of Asti, and the publications of Cardinals Mai and Pitra. This is the labour of a life, and few indeed could be found with the qualities required to undertake it and bring it to a happy termination.
We shall now set before our readers a few specimens of the practical results of F. Vercellone's researches. The first volume treats of the various readings that occur in the Pentateuch; the second volume of those in the books of Josue, Judges, Ruth, and the four books of Kings. It is a well known fact that there are to be found in the Vulgate some additions (additamenta) which are wanting in the Hebrew text, and even in the best codices of St Jerome's version. These additions have been distributed by F. Vercellone in four classes: 1º, those found only in codices of no great antiquity; 2º, those found in old and accurate editions of the Vulgate; 3º, those allowed to stand in the Sixtine edition; 4º, those allowed to stand even in the Clementine. It must not be believed that the Vatican editors were ignorant of the character of these additions, or that they admitted them through carelessness; for, in their preface, they distinctly say, "Nonnulla quae mutanda videbantur, consulto immutata relicta sunt, ad offensionem populorum vitandam".... These additions found their way into the text, according to our author, from four sources; 1. most of them from the Greek version, or the Vetus Itala; 2. not a few from a double version made of a verse, and transcribed as if the translation of two distinct verses; 3. from marginal glosses; and, 4. lastly, from parallel passages in the Scripture.
In the first two books of Kings, the author discovers sixty-nine such additions. Of these, thirty have been allowed to remain in the Clementine, fifteen more in the Sixtine, and nine more in the early editions, making in all fifty-four, fifteen others being found in MSS. of no great antiquity. The fifteen in the Clementine which we daily use, are as follows:—I. Reg., iv. 1; v. 6, v. 9; viii. 18; ix. 25; x. i; xi. 1; xiii. 15; xiv. 22; xiv. 41; xv. 3; xv. 12-13; xvii. 36; xix. 21; xx. 15; xxi. 11; xxiii. 13-14; xxx. 15. II. Reg., i. 18; i. 26; iv. 5; v. 23; vi. 12; x. 19; xiii. 21; xiii. 27; xiv. 30; xv. 18; xv. 20.
A few of these examples will show the author's method of dealing with such additions. I. Reg., iv. 1, we read, Et factum est in diebus illis, convenerunt Philisthiim in pugnam, et egressus est Israel obviam Philisthiim in praelium et castrametatus est, etc. Now, the words et factum est, etc., are additions; and upon an examination of MSS. and editions, the author traces them to the LXX. version (vol. ii. page 194).
In II. Reg., i. 26, we read: "Doleo super te frater mi Jonatha decore nimis et amabilis super amorem mulierum. Sicut mater unicum amat filium suum ita ego te diligebam." The words sicut mater unicum, etc., are wanting both in the Hebrew and in the Greek, and are probably a marginal gloss, inserted in the text through the ignorance of copyists. They are an explanation of the phrase, super amorem mulierum, as our author shows at page 322.
We need not say any more to show how important is the addition to our Catholic Biblical literature made by F. Vercellone.
II.
S. Pietro in Roma, etc. St. Peter in Rome, or the historical truth of St. Peter's journey to Rome, proved against a recent assailant. By John Perrone, S.J. Rome: Tipografia Forense, 1864—1 vol. 8vo, pag. 168.
Any new work by Father Perrone is sure to be received with respect and attention. The assailant, whose attack on the historical truth of St. Peter's journey to Rome is refuted in this book, is the author of an anonymous treatise published at Turin in 1861, entitled The historical impossibility of St. Peter's journey to Rome demonstrated, by substituting the true for the false tradition. In an introduction, headed "The Protestants in Italy", Father Perrone laments the great mischief they have done to his country, and at the same time expresses his hopes that their attempts at proselytism will end in failure. He commences by an examination of the statements made by his adversary, to the effect that even Catholic writers of the highest authority had denied St. Peter's presence in Rome, that it is proved from the sacred Scriptures that St. Peter could not have come to Rome either in the time of Claudius or in that of Nero, and that, therefore, he could not have been there at all. In reply, F. Perrone proves that no Catholic author has ever denied St. Peter's journey to Rome; that we neither can nor ought to expect from Sacred Scripture a history of the journey in question, but only a proof that it was possible; and that, because the precise year of the event is not known, it does not follow that the event itself could never have taken place. He then proceeds to develope the arguments which prove the Prince of the Apostles to have been at Rome. 1º, from the writers of the first three centuries, and then from those of the fourth; 2º, from the monuments existing at Rome, sarcophagi, figured glasses from the Catacombs (one of which he illustrates at great length), inscriptions, and spots ever held sacred at Rome to the memory of St. Peter; 3º, from the pilgrimages made to his shrine by Christians from every portion of the Church during the first three centuries; and 4º, from the catalogues of the Roman Pontiffs drawn up by writers of the early ages. In the next two chapters he defends the authority of several of the fathers from the ignorant and malicious misrepresentations of his adversary, and crowns the work by reprinting at the end of his volume a dissertation delivered by him some years ago in one of the Roman academies, in which he proves that "the love and the hatred men show to Rome are two consequences of the presence, the episcopate, and the martyrdom of St. Peter in the Eternal City".