XIV. 1. Two passages in different parts of the works of St. Augustine clearly shew the nature of the Vetus Italica, and the other Latin versions, prior to the time of St. Jerom. In his treatise de Doctrina Christianá, lib. ii. cap. xi. St. Augustine says, "that the number of those, who had trans"lated the Scriptures from the Hebrew into the "Greek, might be computed; but that, the num"ber of those, who had translated the Greek "into the Latin, could not. For immediately

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upon the first introduction of Christianity, if a

person got possession of a Greek manuscript, "and thought he had any knowledge of the two

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languages, he set about translating the Scrip"tures." In another part of his works, Lib. ii.

cap. xv. he says, "in ipsis interpretationibus, Itala

"cæteris præferatur, nam est verborum tenacior,

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cum perspicuitate sententiæ." It should seem difficult to mistake the import of these expressions, yet they have given rise to much controversy. One side, with a view to rob the Vulgate of all pretension, even to a remote affinity with the translation pointed at by St. Augustine, in this place, has, in stern defiance of all manuscripts and all printed editions, proposed to read "illa" for "Itala ;" and, (to make sense and grammar of the passage, of which the alteration in question, if it were to stand alone, would totally bereave it), to substitute quæ" for "nam,"-an emendation, certainly not of the gentlest touch. The other side, to exalt

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the Vulgate, has supposed it may be fairly inferred, from the passage in St. Augustine, that there was a version, which, having been first sanctioned by the Roman pontiff, was received by the whole Latin Church, and was generally used in the service of the Church. But this is carrying his words much beyond their natural import, as they certainly neither express nor imply more, than that there was a version called the Italic, and that in St. Augustine's opinion, it ought to be preferred to all the other Latin versions. The high terms of commendation, in which St. Augustine expresses himself of the Vetus Italica, have raised a general wish, that it should be discovered and published, particularly as it might materially assist in ascertaining the readings of the Antehexaplar Septuagint version. The first publication of the kind is that of Flaminius Nobilius, printed at Rome in 1588, in one volume folio, under the auspices of Sixtus Quintus. But, as this work, which was reprinted in the London Polyglott, was intended only to be a Latin translation of the Septuagint version, published in the preceding year by the same authority, and as therefore no more of the Itala was adopted than what agreed with that version, while the rest was either supplied by Flaminius Nobilius himself, or from the Vulgate, without any distinction of the respective parts, it can, with the exception of the notes only, be of little or no critical use. Of more value on this account are the editions of the Psalms,

according to this version, published by Faber Stapulensis, in his Psalterium Quintuplex, Paris, 1568, folio; by Joseph Maria Carus, Rome, 1683; by Cardinal Thomasius, 1697, also at Rome; and by Blanchini, with other Parts, in his Prodromus, and in his Vindicia Canonicorum Scriptorum, Rome, 1740, folio. In 1695, Dom Martianay, the learned editor of the works of St. Jerom, (the first volume of which contains the Psalms and Job, with Asterisks and Obeluses, according to this version), published at Paris, in octavo, what he supposed was the Vetus Italica of the Gospel of St. Matthew, and of St. James's Epistle. In 1743, Peter Sabatier published at Rheims, in three large volumes folio, his "Biblio

rum sacrorum Latina versiones antiquæ, seu "vetus Italica, et cæteræ quæcumque in codicibus

manuscriptis et antiquorum libris reperiri po"tuerunt, quæ cum vulgatá Latiná et cum textu "Græco comparantur." Where in his manuscripts there were chasms, he supplied them from the Vulgate. He published a new edition of his work in 1749-1751.The last publication of the kind is by Father Joseph Blanchini, an oratorian;-"Evangelistarium quadruplex Latina "versionis antiquæ, seu veteris Italicæ, ex codi"cibus manuscriptis aureis, argenteis, purpureis,

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aliisque plusquam millenariæ antiquitatis, Romæ, "1748," two volumes large folio. It contains five, or rather four manuscripts of a Latin version.

In many places they differ; and Blanchini's arguments, that the differences are merely errors of the transcribers, are, by no means, conclusive. It seems generally believed, that they are four distinct versions. The value of the work is greatly enhanced by several learned dissertations, and curious plates. The various citations made in the Gospel by Christ, the Apostles and Evangelists, of passages in the Old Testament, are brought together, as they stand in the Hebrew, the Septuagint, the Vulgate and the old Italic, with a view of ascertaining the important and much contested point, whether Christ, the Apostles and the Evangelists, cited them from the Hebrew or the version of the Seventy. It was printed at the expence of the king of Portugal, at the instigation of Cardinal Corsini, and, till Dr. Kennicott's Collation appeared, was thought the most splendid work that had issued from the press, during the present century. It is most earnestly wished, that a new edition of this and Sabatier's work were published in such a form as would make the price of them more suitable to the generality of readers; and that, to the edition of Montfaucon's Hexapla, by Bahrdt, were added, as a supplemental volume, those which he has injudiciously omitted.A Latin translation, perhaps anterior to that of St. Jerom, is published by Dr. Kipling, with the Codex Bezæ.

That this and the other translations we have mentioned, may be anterior to St. Jerom, all

allow; that any one of them is the Vetus Italica, no satisfactory evidence, no convincing argument, has yet been produced: but there is reason to suppose, that in the generality of these versions, there is more of the Vetus Italica, than of any other.

XIV. 2. The great multiplicity of versions, and the confusion which prevailed among them, were the motives which first urged St. JEROM to his Biblical labours. He began by correcting the Psalms; but the people at large, being accustomed to their old version, could not be induced to lay it aside, in favour of St. Jerom's. He therefore published another edition. In that, he made few alterations in the text itself, but shewed, by obeluses and asterisks, where it differed from the Septuagint, or the Hebrew. From this last edition, and the old Italic, is formed the Vulgate edition of the Psalms, which is now used in the Roman Catholic Church. St. Jerom's original correction of the Psalms never came into public use. On the same plan, on which he made that correction, he corrected the Proverbs of Solomon, the Ecclesiastes, the Canticum Canticorum, the book of Job and the Paralipomena. He afterwards undertook, and executed with the greatest applause, a complete version into Latin of all the Old Testament. He translated also the New Testament from the Greek into the Latin. This translation, made by St. Jerom, of the Old Testament from the