PREFACE

TO THE READER.

Among the many great benefits that God has bestowed upon His Church through the holy Council of Trent original: "sacram Tridentinam Synodum," the 16th-century ecumenical council that defined Catholic doctrine in response to the Reformation, this seems to be counted among the foremost: that from among so many Latin editions of the Holy Scriptures, he declared by a most solemn Decree that the ancient and Vulgate Vulgate: derived from "vulgata," meaning "common" or "popularly used" edition alone—which had been approved in the Church by the long usage of so many centuries—should be held as authentic. For, setting aside the fact that many recent editions appeared to be licentiously distorted to confirm the heresies of this time, certainly such a great variety and diversity of versions could have produced immense confusion in the Church of God. Indeed, it is well known that in this age of ours, that which Saint Jerome witnessed happening in his own time has almost come to pass: namely, that there were as many versions as there were manuscripts, since each person added or subtracted according to his own judgment.
Preface to Joshua.

Furthermore, the authority of this ancient and Vulgate edition has always been so great, and its excellence so outstanding, that among fair-minded judges it could not be called into doubt that it should be preferred by far over all other Latin editions. For the books contained within it (as has been handed down to us by the greatest men, almost from hand to hand) were partly taken from the translation or emendation of Saint Jerome, and partly retained from a certain very ancient Latin edition, which Saint Jerome calls "Common and Vulgate," Saint Augustine calls "the Itala," and Saint Gregory calls "the Old Translation."
St. Jerome on Isaiah chapter 49.

Isaiah.

And regarding the integrity and excellence of this Old, or Itala, edition, a notable testimony of Saint Augustine exists in the second book of On Christian Doctrine, where he judged that the Itala should be preferred to all the Latin editions then circulating in great numbers, because it was—as he himself says—"more tenacious of the words while maintaining clarity of meaning."
Book 2, On Christian Doctrine, chapter 15.

St. Gregory, Dedicatory Letter to Leander.

St. Augustine, 5. at the end.

Concerning Saint Jerome Saint Jerome (c. 342–420 AD) was the priest and scholar who produced the most influential Latin translation of the Bible, there exist many outstanding testimonies from the ancient Fathers: for Saint Augustine calls him a most learned man and most skilled in three languages Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and confirms that his translation is truthful even by the testimony of the Hebrews themselves.
St. Augustine, On the City of God, Book 11, chapter 43.

Morals, Book 6.

Saint Gregory praises him in such a way that he says his translation, which he calls "the New," more truly conveyed everything from the Hebrew speech original: "Hebræo eloquio", and therefore it is most worthy to be trusted in all things.
Letter 6 to Eugymius.

Moreover, Saint Isidore, in more than one place, places the Hieronymian Jerome-authored version before all others, and affirms that it is commonly received and approved by the Christian churches because it is clearer in its words and truer in its meanings.
St. Isidore, Preface to the books on Divine Scripture, Book 1, Chapter 22.

Sophronius also, a most erudite man, observing that Saint Jerome's translation was highly approved not only by the Latins but even by the Greeks, valued it so much that he translated the Psalter The Book of Psalms and the Prophets from Jerome's version into the Greek language in elegant prose.