10. Fragments of the Pauline epistles discovered by Schmeller at Munich, and transcribed by Tischendorf, who has described them in the Deutsche Zeitschrift fiir Christl. W7.s-.sc«.st/((//; for 1857, No. 8.
Besides these, there are several MSS. known to exist chiefly in the British libraries. Some of these are no- ticed in Bentley's Critica Sacra, edited by Ellis, 1802, and in ^\'cstwood's Palwor/rapkia Sacra Picioria. See also Bctliam, A ntiquarian Researches ; Petrie, On the Ec- clesiastical A ntiq. of Ireland; O'Connor, liei-um IJiljern, Scriptoix's.
These codices pateographists and critics profess to be able to allot to different recensions or revisions. Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, and 17 they pronounce to be Af- rican ; 3, 6, 12, 1(1, Italian; and 14, 1.5, Irish; though Tischendorf expresses doubt as to the African character of No. 9, and the Italian of No. 6.
Of the O. T. only a few fragments have been discov- ered in special codices. These have been printed by Sabatier (/(6. «Y.), by YerceUone (Varice Lectiones Vuly. Lat. Bibllonim, 2 vols., Rom. 1860-62), by jNIiinter ( J/w- cell. Hofn. 1821), by Wone (Lihri Pulimpsesti, Carlsrnhe, 185.5), by Kanke {Fragmenta IIos. Am. JUich.Yicn. 1856, 1858), by Fritzsche (Liber Judicum, Turici, 1867), and anonymously {Biblioth. A shburnham., Lond. 1SG8). The MSS. of the Vulgate preserve the old Latin version of those books of the Apocrypha which were not retrans- lated by Jerome, and the Psalter. Our principal source of information, however, is in the citations made bj' the Latin fathers from the version in their hands.
From these various sources we possess, in the old Lat- in version of the O. T.. the Psalter, Esther, and some of the apocryphal books entire, the rest only in fragments; whilst of the N. T. we possess nearly the whole.
3. The value of these remains in regard to the criti-
LATIN YERSIOXS
266
LATIN VERSIONS
cism of the sacred text is verj' considerable. They af- ford important aid in determining the condition of the Greek text in the early centuries. This, which Bent- ley was' the tirst to perceive, or at least to announce, has been fully recognised by Lachraann, 'I'regelles, and Tischendorf, though they have not all followed it out with equal discretion (see Tischendorf 's strictures, Pro- leg, in eel. Sept. ef X. T. p. ciii, ccxlii).
Tlie general character of the Itala is close, literal ad- herence to the original, so as often to transgress the genius of the Latin language; its phraseology being marked by solecisms and improprieties which may be due to its having been originally produced either in a region remote from the centre of classical ciUture, or among the more illiterate of the community. Thus Swrf/p is rendered by suli(turis, cia(puptiv by siiperpo- nere (e.g. "quanto ergo supcrponit homo ab ove,''Matt. xii, 12), ■KpQtXmZiiv by prwspera re, KorrpoKpuTopec by munditenentes, etc. ; and we have such constructions as " stellam quam viderant in orientem" (i\Xatt. ii, 9) ; " ut ego veniens adorem ei" (Matt, ii, 8) ; " qui autem audi- entes" (ii, 9) ; " pressuris quibus sustinetis" ("2 Thess. i, 4) ; " habitavit in Capharnaum maritimam" (JIatt. iv, 13) ; '• terra Naphthalim viam maris" (iv, 15) ; " verbum audit et continuo cum gaudio accipit eum" (xiii, 20) ; "dominantur eorum, principantur eorum" (xx, 25), etc. It must be borne in mind, however, that the current text was exposed to innumerable corruptions, and that we can hardly, from the specimens that have come down to us, form ax\x very accurate judgment of the state in which it was at first. One can hardly suppose that by any Latin-speaking people, the following version, which is that presented by the Colbertine IMS. of Col. ii, 18, 19, could have been accepted as idiomatic, or even intelli- gible: "Nemo vos convincat volens in humilitate et re- ligione angelorum, quiB vidit ambiUans, sine causa infla- tus sensu carnis suw, et non tenens caput Christum, ex quo omne corpus connexum et conductione subministra- tuni et provectum crescit in increment um Dei." If this be (to borrow the remark of Eichliorn, from whose Ein- leitunrj ins N. T. iv, 354, we have taken these specimens) '■verborum tenax," where is the '■ perspicuitas senten- tiie" of which Augustine speaks ?
II. Iliernnymiun or Vti/r/ate Version. See Vltlg.vte.
III. Later Latin Versions. — Both before and since the invention of printing attempts have been made to pre- sent, through the medium of Latin, a more correct ver- sion of the original text than that found in the ancient Latin versions. Of these we have space only for a bare catalogue. (See notices of the authors under their names in this work.)
1. Adam Eston, a monk of Norwich, and cardinal (died 1397), seems to have been the first who thought of a new version ; he translated the O. T., with the ex- ception of the Psalter, from the Hebrew; his work is lost (Hody, p. 440; Le Long— Masch ii, 3, p. 432).
'2. (iiannozzo ]Manetti,who died in 1459, began a trans- lation of the Bible, of which he finished only the Psalms and the N. T. ; this is lost (Tiraboschi, Storia dtlla Lett. Ital. vi, 2, p. 109 sq.).
3. Erasmus translated the N. Test., and published the translation along with the Greek text (Basil. 1510), fob).
4. Til. Beza issued his translation of the N. T. in 1 556 ; it appeared along witli the Vulgate version. Four other editions Iblloweil during the author's lifetime, and these present the Greek text as well as the Vulgate and Be- za's own translation; many other editions have since followed. Beza aimed at presenting a just rendering of the original, williout departing more than necessary from the Vulgate. His renderings are sometimes af- fected by his theological views.