It is, however, only in the canonical books of the Old Test, that Stephens follows Pagninus. In Matthew's gospel, Pagninus has 577 verses and Stephens 1071. The number of verses in each chapter in Stepliens is often double, frequently treble, that in Pagninus. In
John V, for instance, Pagninus has 7 and Stephens 22 verses. In the deutero-canonical books, into which no Masoretic distinction had found its way, Stephens has also a different division; thus in Tobit he has 292 verses, while Pagninus has but 70; and the same pro- portion pre\-ails tiirou^hout the other books, only Pag- ninus has not the thinl and fourth books of Esdras, tl>e prayer of Manasses, nor the addenda to Daniel.
The next edition containing this division into verses is Stephens's eighth and last edition of the Vulgate, 15.56-57, 3 vols. fol. This is one of the editions called Vatablus's Bibles, of which there are three, viz. Ste- phens's nonpareil (1545), his eighth edition of which we are now treating, and the triglot edition published at Heidelberg in 1599. It is the Bible which Morinus {Exercit. Bibl.), Prideaux {Connect, vol. i), and so many others conceived to have been the first containing the division of verses. Prideaux observes that Vatablus soon after published a Latin Bible after this pattern, viz. that of rabbi Nathan (1450), with the chapters di- vided into verses. "Soon" after, however, meant about a century; Vatablus died March 10, 1547. It is evi- dent also, from Prideaux's note, that he was not aware that Vatablus's Bible was no other than Stephens's eighth edition.
There was a beautiful edition of the Psalter publish- ed in 1555 by Robert Stephens containing the Latin of Jerome, with that of Pagninus, the lumierals attach- ed to each verse being placed in the centre column be- tween perpendicular rubricated lines. It is entitled Liber Psalmoium Davidis, Tralatio Duplex, Vetus et Nova. Hcec Posterior Sanctis Pagnini, partim ab ijjso Pagnino Recognita partim et Francisco Vatablo, in Prce- lectionibus Emendata et Exposita. The title bears the date MDLV., but in the colophon is the subscription " Imprimebat Rob. Stephanus, in sua officina, Anno MDLVII, Cal.Jan."
The form of printing the Bible in verses, with nu- merals, now became established. It appeared in 1556 in Hamelin's French version. It found its way the next year into the Geneva New Test. (English), print- ed by Conrad Badius, of which a beautiful fac-simile has latelj' issued from the press of Mr. Bagster. It was adopted, by marking every fifth verse with a Hebrew numeral, into the Hebrew Pentateuch, printed that same year (1557) at Sabionetta. In 1559 Hentenius introduced Stephens's division and figures into his cor- rect Antwerp edition of the Vulg., which was follow- ed by that of Planfin in 1569-72, and passed into the Antwerp Polyglot (1509).
The Sixtine edition of the Vulgate (1590) having adopted this division, it was continued in the Clemen- tine (1592), and has ever since been used in all editions and translations in the Roman Catholic Church. Hen- tenius, however, having printed the text continuously, with the figures in the margin, and a mark (thus, 9 ) at the commencement of each verse, this plan was fol- lowed in the Clementine and Sixtine editions, in which the verses are marked with an asterisk, capitals being used only at the commencement of a period, while the Protestant Bibles of Basle and Geneva commence the verse with the line and with a capital letter. In the Roman editions the only exceptions are the metrical books of Psalms, Job, and Proverbs, from the tenth chapter.
This division appeared in the Geneva (English) Bi- ble in 1560 and 1502, the Bishops' Bible in 1508, and passed into the Authorized Version in 1611. Some of the Protestant editions followed the Roman in adopting a continued text, of whicii it will be sufficient to name the beautiful Zurich edition of Osiander, in which each verse is distinguished by an obelus in the body of the text; and it is to be regretted that this practice has not been generally continued either in Protestant or Roman Catholic Bibles. We may add that Pagninus, Stephens, Frellon, and the Roman editions, all slightly vary among each other, both in the divisions and the
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placing of the figures. Nor do the chapters, owing to a iliversity in the manuscripts, invariably coinciile, as the versicular tlivisiuiis of the Psalms in the Sept. ami Vujg. are not always liic same with the Ik-brew; Ste- pliens's figures sometimes occur in tlie middle of a verse in the Homan editions.
The Roman edition of the Sept. (l.'JSr and 1589) was printed without any division or figures; and the pres- ent notation first apjK'ared in Plaiitin's edition of tiie deutero-canonical books (^Antwer|), 1;"))S4), from Tobit iv, 2i (rlie commencement fo iv, 23 being marived by dec- a<les). The Franivfort edition of tlie Sept. (l.o97) has the present numeration througliout. but without any notice of tlie fact by the editors. Tlie numbers are placed in the margin, but eac;h verse commences with a capital, while in Plantin they are separated by spaces only.
2. Having now succee<led in detecting the errors of former writers, we are arrived at the more difficult task of eliciting the truth out of so many contradictory statements. Our limits will not allow us, liowever, to do more than offer the following view as the result of our inquiries.