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Rating: 
Summary: Critical edition of the New Vulgate
Review: I'm a very new student of Latin, and not an expert on the Vulgate, so take my review for what it's worth. As far as I can tell, there are three versions of the Vulgate in print today, and I have copies of all three of them. So I thought that perhaps those who don't want to buy three versions might appreciate a neophyte's impression of their relative strengths and weaknesses. The full names on the title pages are rather long, so I'll just refer to these three versions briefly as the Stuttgart Vulgate (Biblia Sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem), the New Vulgate (Bibliorum Sacrorum nova vulgata editio), and the Madrid Clementina (Biblia Sacra iuxta Vulgatam Clementinam).The Stuttgart Vulgate is available here on Amazon. It is a critical attempt to restore the Vulgate to its original Latin text. It comes with a complete critical apparatus showing variant readings from the most important Latin manuscripts. This version comes with the prefaces of St. Jerome, the old medieval critical apparatus of the Gospels (canones evangelorum), the apocryphal books of III and IV Ezra, Psalm 151, Prayer of Manasses, and the Epistle to the Laodiceans, as well as the complete Catholic canon. It also contains two complete Psalters, both by St. Jerome: The Psalterium Gallicanum and the Psalterium juxta Hebraicum. The two psalters are laid out side-by-side on facing pages to facilitate comparison. This version attempts to reconstruct the experience of reading a medieval manuscript, so the spelling is inconsistent and medieval, which can be a problem for anyone used to the Clementina, and to anyone looking up words in a dictionary. The text also lacks punctuation: no commas, colons, periods, question marks, or quotation marks; this actually is not a major problem in Latin, which is so rich in conjunctions. However, the lack of question marks sometimes gives me pause, as when Caiaphas says to Jesus "Tu es Christus Filius Benedicti" (Mc 14,61). The text is well cross referenced, and the typeface is modern and easy to read. The Madrid Clementina does not seem to be currently (May 2002) available at Amazon, but it is available elsewhere on the internet. The Clementina was the official Latin text of the Catholic Church from 1502 to 1979. The Madrid edition includes a great many magisterial documents, and the biblical text is footnoted also with references to magisterial documents, although the prefaces of St. Jerome are missing, and there is no critical apparatus. Color maps are provided, but they are labeled in Spanish, not Latin. The orthography is fully modern, with modern punctuation and typeface. Like the Stuttgart Vulgate, this edition has two psalters (in adjacent columns for easy comparison): The traditional Psalterium Gallicanum, and the new Psalterium Pianum, a modern (1940's) translation of the Hebrew into neo-classical Latin. One of the delights of the Clementina is that it eclectically preserves some of the text from the ancient pre-Vulgate Latin versions, which reflect the early Latin liturgy of the Church. The New Vulgate has replaced the Clementina as the official Latin text of the Catholic Church. Its New Testament and most of its Old, like the Stuttgart Vulgate, are based on a critical reconstruction of the original Vulgate text. However, in some cases the ancient text was amended to accord with the modern Greek and Hebrew critical editions. The spelling and punctuation are all modern, so in the majority of the verses the New Vulgate text is identical to the Clementina, but in Psalms, Judith, and Tobit, there are significant differences. I know of two editions of the new Vulgate, the one from Libraria Editrix Vaticana, and the Nestle-Aland edition; both editions are available here at Amazon. We can expect to see much more of the New Vulgate now that its use has been endorsed in the recent encyclical Litugiam Authenticam. The Vatican edition is available used here on Amazon under the title Bibliorum Sacrorum nova vulgata editio. It contains the complete Old and New Testaments, but no prefaces, cross references, nor commentary, and has a minimal critical apparatus. It seems to be designed more for use in the pulpit than the armchair. Physically, it is an excellent tome made from red leather with gold lettering, large typeface in one column with plenty of margin on thick pages. It looks magnificent on my bookshelf. More likely to be on my bureau is the Nestle-Aland edition of the New Vulgate. It contains only the New Testament, and is sold here under the title "Novum Testamentum Latine". The editors provide you with a thorough critical apparatus comparing the New Vulgate with other printed Latin versions such as the Clementina and Stuttgart, mentioned above, the Sistina, the Gutenberg, and some other editions I'm not very familiar with (the Complutensian, Roberti Stephani, Bartolomaei Gravii, and Christophori Plantini). Like the Madrid Clementina, this edition has color maps, but they are labeled in English, not Latin.
Rating:
Summary: Critical edition of the New Vulgate
Review: I'm a very new student of Latin, and not an expert on the
Vulgate, so take my review for what it's worth. As far as I
can tell, there are three versions of the Vulgate in print
today, and I have copies of all three of them. So I thought
that perhaps those who don't want to buy three versions might
appreciate a neophyte's impression of their relative strengths
and weaknesses. The full names on the title pages are rather
long, so I'll just refer to these three versions briefly as
the Stuttgart Vulgate (Biblia Sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem),
the New Vulgate (Bibliorum Sacrorum nova vulgata editio), and
the Madrid Clementina (Biblia Sacra iuxta Vulgatam
Clementinam). The Stuttgart Vulgate is available here on Amazon. It is a
critical attempt to restore the Vulgate to its original Latin
text. It comes with a complete critical apparatus showing
variant readings from the most important Latin manuscripts.
This version comes with the prefaces of St. Jerome, the old medieval critical apparatus of the Gospels (canones
evangelorum), the apocryphal books of III and IV Ezra, Psalm
151, Prayer of Manasses, and the Epistle to the Laodiceans, as
well as the complete Catholic canon. It also contains two
complete Psalters, both by St. Jerome: The Psalterium
Gallicanum and the Psalterium juxta Hebraicum. The two
psalters are laid out side-by-side on facing pages to
facilitate comparison. This version attempts to reconstruct
the experience of reading a medieval manuscript, so the
spelling is medieval, which can be a problem for anyone used
to the Clementina, and to anyone looking up words in a
dictionary. The text also lacks punctuation: no commas,
colons, periods, question marks, or quotation marks; this
actually is not a major problem in Latin, which is so rich in
conjunctions. However, the lack of question marks sometimes
makes me double take, as when Caiaphas says to Jesus "Tu es
Christus Filius Benedicti" (Mc 14,61). The text is well cross
referenced, and the typeface is modern and easy to read. The Madrid Clementina does not seem to be currently (May 2002)
available at Amazon, but it is available elsewhere on the
internet. The Clementina was the official Latin text of the
Catholic Church from 1502 to 1979. The Madrid edition includes
a great many magisterial documents, and the biblical text is
footnoted also with references to magisterial documents,
although the prefaces of St. Jerome are missing, and there is
no critical apparatus. Color maps are provided, but they are
labeled in Spanish. The orthography is fully modern, with
modern punctuation and typeface. Like the Stuttgart Vulgate,
this edition has two psalters (in adjacent columns for easy
comparison): The traditional Psalterium Gallicanum, and the
new Psalterium Pianum, a modern (1940's) translation of the
Hebrew into neo-classical Latin. One of the delights of the
Clementina is that it eclectically preserves some of the text from the ancient pre-Vulgate Latin versions, which reflect the
second century Latin liturgy of the Church. The New Vulgate has replaced the Clementina as the official
Latin text of the Catholic Church. Like the Stuttgart Vulgate,
it is based on a critical reconstruction of the original
Vulgate text. However, in some cases the ancient text was
amended to accord with the latest notions of biblical
scholarship. The spelling and punctuation are all modern, so
in the vast majority of the verses the New Vulgate text is
identical to the Clementina. The biggest exception is the Book
of Psalms. The Psalter of the New Vulgate is a thorough,
modern revision of the traditional Gallican, making it accord
much more closely to the Hebrew Massorah. I know of two
editions of the new Vulgate, the one from Libreria Editrix
Vaticana, and the Nestle-Aland edition; both editions are
available here at Amazon. We can expect to see much more of
the New Vulgate now that its use has been endorsed in the
recent encyclical Litugiam Authenticam. The Vatican edition is available used here on Amazon under the
title Bibliorum Sacrorum nova vulgata editio. It contains the
complete Old and New Testaments, but no prefaces, cross
references, nor commentary, and has a minimal critical
apparatus. It seems to be designed more for use in the pulpit
than the armchair. Physically, it is an excellent tome made
from red leather with gold lettering, large typeface in one
column with plenty of margin on thick pages. It looks
magnificent on my bookshelf. More likely to be on my bureau is the Nestle-Aland edition
of the New Vulgate. It contains only the New Testament, and
is sold here under the title "Novum Testamentum Latine". The
editors provide you with a thorough critical apparatus
comparing the New Vulgate with other printed Latin versions
such as the Clementina and Stuttgart, mentioned above, the
Sistina, the Gutenberg, and some other editions I'm not very
familiar with (Ximenes, Roberti Stephani, Bartolomaei
Gravii, and Christophori Plantini). Like the Madrid
Clementina, this edition has color maps, but they are
labeled in English, not Latin.
Rating: 
Summary: A must for Catholics that know some Latin
Review: This Latin translation of the Bible (in this case, only the New Testament) is probably the most hated Bible translation ever. Progressive Catholics hate it because is in Latin, while conservatives hate it because it is not the traditional "Jerome" Vulgate. So why read it at all? Because this is the best translation of the Greek New Testament (GNT) available, in any language. This particular edition of the Neo-Vulgate (NVU) New Testament is not a product of the Catholic Church, but of the Alands (the editors of the GNT critical editions). This is a critical version of the Latin translation. Besides the Neo-Vulgate text, several variants are included, like the old Clementina, and the new Stuttgart edition of Jerome's Vulgate. This should pacify the extreme Catholic traditionalists that seem to hate the New Vulgate because of its linkage with the "Novus Ordo" Latin Mass and Office, produced by the Vatican II Council. The Neo-Vulgate is presently the Vatican-approved Latin text of the Bible. The Vatican Instruction "Liturgiam Authenticam" gives great importance to the Neo-Vulgate, for use (for instance) as a guide to translators of the Bible from the original languages into local languages. It is the last word in Catholic Biblical scholarship. In fact, it is the last word in Biblical scholarship period. It is based on the latest critical editions of the Greek New Testament, and thanks to the greater similarity of Greek to Latin than to more modern Indo-European languages, the translation is more literal than it is possible in English. My favorite English Bible (English is not my native language) is the Revised Standard Version (RSV) but, as good as it is, the RSV cannot match the NVU in accuracy. As an example, Luke 2:14 in Greek is:
"DOXA EN UPSISTOIS THEO KAI EPI GES EIRENE EN ANTHROPOIS EUDOKIAS". The RSV translation is:
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!" The Neo Vulgate translation is:
"Gloria in altissimis Deo, et super terram pax in hominibus bonae voluntatis." The RSV resolves the ambiguity of EUDOKIAS to mean God's EUDOKIAS vs. men's. However, this resolution is a way of forcing a particular interpretation into the more ambiguous original Greek. The Latin translation keeps the ambiguity, remaining very close to the Greek. Also, note that "in hominibus" is identical to "EN ANTHROPOIS". "Among men" does not convey the sense that the peace is inside the men, like "in hominibus" does. I hope this simple example gave you an impression of the insights into the Greek text that this much-hated translation can provide. The cheapest way to acquire it is in the parallel Greek-Latin version (ISBN 3438054019). I actually prefer the stand-alone version (ISBN 3438053004) that I am reviewing here. It is best used together with your favorite version of the Greek text.
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