Diese Ausgabe enthält Vorworte auf Lateinisch, Deutsch, Englisch und Französisch, sowie eine gute Bindung in Grünem Leder mit Lesebändsel.
This version includes both the Gallican and Hebrew Psalters side by side (on facing pages), as there is sufficient authority to attest to the validity and integrity of each. Jerome's prologues are included here, placed according to the biblical books' arrangement (not as Clement's printing had it); Clement's more modern division is retained for books that for Jerome were joined -- I and II Samuel, I and II Kings, I and II Chronicles, and Ezra-Nehemiah were each single books for Jerome, but modern chapter/verse/book division has them separate, and for ease of modern scholarship, that is retained here.
The text is printed 'per cola et commata', that is, without punctuation and divisions that would not have appeared in the original Hebrew or Greek manuscripts (many people do not realise that the earliest manuscripts lacked punctuation, chapter, verse, and book designations; many even lacked spaces between words, which thankfully has been incorporated here). Capital letters are used for proper names and sacred names/terms.
Variants are included, but this is not an exhaustive manual of variations, so only a few primary authorities for variations are cited in general.
The text of the Bible, from Genesis to the Revelation, with some apocryphal books, prologues, notes, and even the preface, is all in Latin, the Latin of the Vulgate, which places it several centuries later than 'classical' Latin of Cicero and Catullus, but centuries prior to 'church Latin' proper. There are nearly 2000 pages in two volumes, bound with strong binding and a silk page marker for each sewn into the binding.
Meant for scholars, its use is probably not really appropriate for 'church' use -- given its lack of punctuation, it isn't a text from which to read aloud generally. However, it is a very useful text for those who wish to study the development of Bible -- while it is more 'in vogue' to study the earliest, original language editions, it is undoubtedly true that the Bible in Latin has had perhaps the greatest effect on overall Christendom for the longest period of any language for the Bible, probably rivaled only by the current linguistic champion, English.
Confitebor tibi Domine in toto corde meo narrabo omnia mirabilia tua!
