PROLEGOMENA

Latin: "Prolegomena" - Preliminary remarks or introduction.

XVII
b

once approved, it received a distinguished increase; just as it fostered the belief of many Fathers and that superstitious diligence regarding the ancient tradition of the translation's origin—which Jerome St. Jerome (c. 347–420 AD), the scholar who translated the Bible into Latin (the Vulgate). had already rejected—so it could not fail to be confirmed by the faith and practice of the Church itself. This matter is clearly evidenced by the translations of that same Greek text which appeared from the first centuries after Christ in both the eastern and western parts of the Christian world. For the Syrians and Armenians, Copts and Ethiopians, Arabs, Iberians Referring here to Georgians from the Caucasus., and Slavs, just like the Latins, sought their Old Testament either solely or primarily from the celebrated Greek text. And although Jerome had substituted a new translation drawn from the Hebrew source in place of the text used by his countrymen (which he himself had previously corrected with great zeal), and while that new version gradually gained great authority in the Latin Church, it was not powerful enough to cause the Greek text to lose its ancient dignity or be driven out of common use.

VII. Hence it happened that, as soon as the new light of letters arose after the long darkness of the Middle Ages, not only did learned and pious men apply strenuous efforts to preparing editions of the Seventy interpreters The Septuagint, often abbreviated as LXX., but the Roman Pontiffs themselves, acting for the good of the Christian world, took the care of publishing them upon themselves. For in the year of salvation 1587, the edition of Sixtus V appeared; even before he had ascended the apostolic throne, he had stood forth as the advisor and promoter for Gregory XIII to undertake the work. 1) This edition soon attained such fame that it was preferred everywhere to both the Venetian and the Complutensian The Complutensian Polyglot (1514–1517), the first printed multilingual Bible. editions, which had been made public more than sixty years earlier; nor was it later displaced from its preeminence by the Alexandrian Codex Codex Alexandrinus, a 5th-century manuscript. brought to light through the studies of Ernest Grabe. This preeminence it has held since then—

1. Pius V had already turned his mind to this same matter, although no mention of him is made either in the dedicatory letter of Antonio Carafa to Sixtus V, nor in the preface to the reader, nor in the Pope's decree. However, Joseph Silos bears witness to this in his History of the Regular Clerics, Part I, Book XIII, for the year 1575: "The holy Council of Trent The ecumenical council (1545–1563) that defined Catholic doctrine in response to the Reformation. took accurate care for this splendor of the Divine Scriptures, and according to its decrees, Pope Pius V attempted their correction; and since Agellius Girolamo Agelli (1532–1608), a scholar of Greek and Oriental languages. was then flourishing in Rome with distinguished praise for his erudition and literature in such sacred bibles, being especially equipped with skill in languages, these matters of the gravest importance could not be discussed without him being consulted among the few and applied to the work. Therefore, as he himself testifies in a letter given to Latinus Latinius, this business was entrusted to him along with the most learned men: Mariano Vittorio, Bishop of Rieti; Paulinus of the Dominican family; and Father Emmanuel Sa of the Society of Jesus." Lest these words seem to refer to the Latin bibles (to which the decrees of the Council of Trent certainly look) rather than the Greek, the things that follow—where the Seventy themselves are mentioned—forbid it. For the rest, compare below (section X, middle) what Antonio Carafa writes in the dedicatory letter concerning the acts of the Council of Trent not yet made public.