transferring the meaning. I have cut away the highly flawed variety of many manuscripts 1: I have expressed in Latin only those things which I was able to find intact in their understanding within the Chaldean words. Receive the widow Judith 2, an example of chastity, and declare her with triumphant praise in perpetual commendations. For he note: likely referring to the author or God, contextually implying the subject of the virtue gave her as an example to be imitated not only by women, but also by men 3, who, as the rewarder of her chastity, bestowed upon her such virtue that she conquered what was invincible to all men, and overcame the insurmountable.

A

1 It is still possible to see so much variance in those manuscripts of the older Vulgate that survive. Martianay had indeed intended to present these in an appendix to this part, but later, overcome by the arduous labor, he reserved them for a broader work and finally omitted them entirely. However, P. Calmet communicated an old Corbie exemplar, which he cites here and there in his commentaries under the name of the old Vulgate. It also happened that we saw one or two such copies, which we name in the preface, and we observed that they approach the Greek more closely, even while in other places they agree more with the Vulgate.
2 The Queen’s manuscript reads: "and only those things which, etc." From this it may be seen that the holy interpreter sometimes reduced that history into a compendium.
3 From this passage, we seem to correctly gather that this preface was intended for men, not women, and that the very version of Judith was dedicated by Jerome [to them]. Indeed, since there is no mention of the persons to whom it is inscribed in the published or manuscript books, Tillemont and others after him conjecture, from the suitability of the work itself, that it was given to the most industrious Paula and her daughter Eustochium. It seems more credible to us that he is here addressing the twin bishops, Chromatius and Heliodorus, to whom he had dedicated the preceding Book of Tobias, and is saying that the virtue of such a woman is the reason why he dedicates her history to men, as she "gave herself as an example to be imitated not only by women, but also by men." If this is true, the timing of when the holy Father finished this work will also appear more plausible. However, I do not understand what the scribe who copied the Queen’s manuscript meant when he added at the end, "to his brother Girard."
B

4 Many manuscripts read: that she might conquer the invincible by all men.

BOOK OF JUDITH.

[Chap. I.] Arphaxad, therefore, king of the Medes, had brought many nations under his empire, and he built a most powerful city, which he called Ecbatana, of squared and hewn stones: he made its walls seventy cubits in width 1, and thirty cubits in height, and he placed its towers to a height of one hundred cubits. By the square of these, each side was stretched to a space of twenty feet, and he placed its gates to the height of the towers: and he boasted as one powerful in the might of his army, and in the glory of his chariots.

In the twelfth year, therefore, of his reign, Nabuchodonosor, king of the Assyrians, who reigned in the great city of Nineveh, fought against Arphaxad, and overcame him in the great plain which is called Ragau, near the Euphrates, and the Tigris, and the Jadason 2, in the plain of Erioch, king of the Elicians. Then the kingdom of Nabuchodonosor was exalted, and his heart was lifted up, and he sent to all who dwelt in Cilicia, and Damascus, and Lebanon, and to the nations which are in Carmel, and Cedar, and those inhabiting Galilee in the great plain of Esdrelon, and to all who were in Samaria, and beyond the river Jordan as far as Jerusalem, and

C

all the land of Jesse, as far as the borders 3 of Ethiopia. To all these, Nabuchodonosor, king of the Assyrians, sent messengers: all of whom refused with one mind, and sent them back empty, and rejected them without honor. Then Nabuchodonosor, being indignant against all that land, swore by his throne and his kingdom, that he would avenge himself of all these regions 4.

[Chap. II.] In the thirteenth year of King Nabuchodonosor, on the twenty-second day of the first month, the word came into the house of Nabuchodonosor, king of the Assyrians, that he should avenge himself. And he called all his elders, and all his commanders and warriors, and held the secret of his counsel with them. And he stated his thought, which was to bring all the earth under his empire. When this statement pleased everyone, King Nabuchodonosor called Holofernes, the prince of his army, and said to him: Go forth against all the kingdom of the West, and against those especially who have despised my empire. Your eye shall not spare any kingdom, and you shall subjugate every fortified city to me.

Then Holofernes called the commanders and the magistrates of the might of the Assyrians: and he numbered the men for the expedition,

D

1 The Queen’s manuscript prefers height for width here, and then conversely width for height. A little later, vicinorum [neighboring] was read erroneously for vicenorum [twenty].
2 For Jadason, the Queen’s manuscript reads Ydasan.
3 The Palatine manuscript reads to the mountains, instead of to the borders.
4 Our manuscripts with equal consensus read of all only, and do not add the words these regions. A little above, one manuscript of the Queen, for against all the land, reads to all the land.