The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate or Clementine Vulgate () is the edition promulgated in 1592 by Pope Clement VIII of the Vulgate—a 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible that was written largely by Jerome. It was the second edition of the Vulgate to be authorised by the Catholic Church, the first being the Sixtine Vulgate. The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate was used officially in the Catholic Church until 1979, when the Nova Vulgata was promulgated by Pope John Paul II.
The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate is a revision of the Sixtine Vulgate; the latter had been published two years earlier under Sixtus V. Nine days after the death of Sixtus V, who had issued the Sixtine Vulgate, the College of Cardinals suspended the sale of the Sixtine Vulgate and later ordered the destruction of the copies. Thereafter, two commissions under Gregory XIV were in charge of the revision of the Sixtine Vulgate. In 1592, Clement VIII, arguing printing errors in the Sixtine Vulgate, recalled all copies of the Sixtine Vulgate still in circulation; some suspect his decision was in fact due to the influence of the Jesuits. In the same year, a revised edition of the Sixtine Vulgate was published and promulgated by Clement VIII; this edition is known as the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate, or Clementine Vulgate.
History
Sixtine Vulgate
The Sixtine Vulgate prepared under Pope Sixtus V was published in 1590; it was "accompanied by a Bull [Aeternus Ille], in which [...] Sixtus V declared it was to be considered the authentic edition recommended by the Council of Trent, that it should be taken as the standard of all future reprints, and that all copies should be corrected by it". The College of Cardinals was dissatisfied with the Sixtine Vulgate; on 5 September 1590, nine days after Pope Sixtus V's death, they ordered the suspension of its sales, withdrew as many copies as possible, and shortly afterwards ordered the destruction of the printed copies.
Gregory XIV's two pontifical commissions
An official version of the Vulgate was still needed. Therefore, Pope Gregory XIV in 1591 created a fourth commission to revise the Sixtine Vulgate, which was subsequently reorganised as the fifth and final commission later the same year. The fourth commission was created by Gregory XIV on 7 February 1591. It was presided over by M. A. Colonna and comprised six other cardinals working on the revision. Ten other people were part of the commission as advisors, including Robert Bellarmine. These last commissions decided to make only the changes which were really necessary: to do so, the commission would consult ancient manuscripts in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. It was also decided to restore the passages unduly removed by Sixtus V, remove the additions, examine the other passages and correct them if needed, and revise the punctuation.
The fourth commission worked slightly more than one month; during this time the revision of the Book of Genesis was completed and on 18 March the revision of Exodus began. However, the commission was progressing slowly, and the revision was expected to take a year. Due to this slowness, the size of the commission was reduced, its mode of operation changed, and its workplace moved to the villa of M. A. Colonna in Zagarolo. Two people were members of this commission: M. A. Colonna, its president, and William Allen. This commission also comprised eight other people as advisors: Bartholomew Miranda, Andrea Salvener, Antonius Agellius, Robert Bellarmine, Bartholomew Valverde, Lelio Landi, Petrus Morinus, and Angelo Rocca.
Supposedly, the work of revision was finished in nineteen days thanks to the guidance of the Codex Carafianus—the codex which contained the propositions made to Sixtus V by the commission presided over by Cardinal Carafa, which is a 1583 edition of the Leuven Vulgate that had been emended by the third commission under Carafa—and the experience of four members of the commission who had previously taken part in the work to produce the Sixtine edition (Landi, Valverde, Agellius, and Rocca). The work was completed either after 19 days on 23 June, or on 5 July or before, or in early October, 1591. Brooke Foss Westcott notes that "even if it can be shown that the work extended over six months, it is obvious that there was no time for the examination of new authorities, but only for making a rapid revision with the help of the materials already collected". The basis of the commission's work was the Codex Carafianus.