NOTICES OF BOOKS.

I. Variae lectiones Vulgatae Bibliorum Editionis, quas Carolus Vercellone sodalis Barnabites digessit. Tom. II. Romae, apud Josephim Spithöver, anno 1864, 4º, pagg. 561.

The minute attention which Biblical students have paid to the original Hebrew and to the Septuagint version, with a view to fix the genuine readings of the text, has hitherto not been given to the Vulgate. Not to speak of the labours of Mill, Kennicott, and others, the Italian priest, John Bernard De Rossi collated more than seven hundred MSS. of the Hebrew text; and in his private library at Parma, 712 such codices were brought together by his industry. Walton's Polyglot, the publications of Tischendorf, and the collections made by Cardinal Mai, have contributed much to establish with accuracy the text of the Septuagint. It remained for Father Vercellone to undertake, in our day, a similar task in favour of the Vulgate. His master, the learned Father Ungarelli, had already commenced the work, and between 1830 and 1845, had amassed a considerable amount of materials for a book on the variae lectiones of the Vulgate. In 1845, shortly before his death, he confided these materials to his disciple, Father Vercellone, of whose erudition and critical judgment he had had so many proofs. To the old riches his master had brought forth from his storehouse, the scholar added new treasures of his own; and the result of his labours upon and among both, is to be found in the work under notice.

We shall now briefly state the method which the author has followed. As the basis of his researches, he has taken the Clementine edition of 1592, purified from typographical errors, according to the other Vatican editions of 1595 and 1598. The editors of the Clementine of 1592, did but correct the text of the Sixtine edition of 1590. From the documents belonging to the congregation appointed by Sixtus V. to edit the Vulgate in that year, it appears that the editors took as the foundation of their corrections the text of the folio edition published by the Dominican Father, John Hunter, in 1583. But as the Hunterian edition of 1583 is identical with the Louvain folio edition published by Hunter in 1547, it follows that the Louvain text of 1547 may be considered as the basis upon which all the subsequent Vatican corrections have been made.

To correct this text, Father Vercellone has directed his studies, and in the volumes before us the fruit of his labours has been given to the world. How arduous these labours have been, and what confidence we may feel in his selection of readings, will best be learned from an enumeration of the sources whence, with incredible pains, he has drawn the information required for the execution of his design. These sources may be classed under three heads: Vatican papers, MSS. codices, and printed books. As to the first class, Pius IX. has assisted Father Vercellone by placing at his disposal the treasures stored up in the Vatican archives. Hence, our author has been enabled to examine, 1º, the documents of the corrections proposed and adopted by the congregation appointed to edit the Vulgate under Saint Pius V. in 1569, which documents he has compared with the writings of Cardinal Serleto, who had a great share in making those corrections; 2º, the documents concerning the corrections proposed or adopted in a similar congregation, under Sixtus V. in 1588 and 1589; 3º, the Sixtine edition of 1590; 4º, notes of the corrections discussed in the congregations appointed under Gregory XIV. and Clement VIII. to free the Sixtine edition, from its many mistakes of the press; 5º, the readings proposed by the learned Angelo Rocca; 6º, the annotations of Cardinal Toleto, preserved in the Vatican; and 7º, the Clementine edition of 1592.

As to the MSS., our author has confined himself to a few, but these few are of the highest authority. Of the twenty consulted by him, the remarkable Florentine Codex of Monte Amiata is deservedly placed first. Saint Pius V. had caused the Benedictines of Florence to collate 12 codices, and the archivist of Monte Cassino to examine 24 others. The notes of both these undertakings are still in the Vatican, and have been of great assistance to Father Vercellone.

Of printed editions prior to the Clementine of 1590, the author has consulted more than 80, many of them the work of excellent critical scholars. To these are to be added liturgical books, for example, the works of the B. Cardinal Thomasi, the Mozarabic liturgy, edited by Cardinal Lorenzana, and the Roman liturgy. To these again we must add, the Latin Fathers, whose works give much valuable assistance in determining the text of the Vulgate. Finally, F. Vercellone has carefully studied the commentaries of Hesychius, Rodolphus, Bruno of Asti, and the publications of Cardinals Mai and Pitra. This is the labour of a life, and few indeed could be found with the qualities required to undertake it and bring it to a happy termination.

We shall now set before our readers a few specimens of the practical results of F. Vercellone's researches. The first volume treats of the various readings that occur in the Pentateuch; the second volume of those in the books of Josue, Judges, Ruth, and the four books of Kings. It is a well known fact that there are to be found in the Vulgate some additions (additamenta) which are wanting in the Hebrew text, and even in the best codices of St Jerome's version. These additions have been distributed by F. Vercellone in four classes: 1º, those found only in codices of no great antiquity; 2º, those found in old and accurate editions of the Vulgate; 3º, those allowed to stand in the Sixtine edition; 4º, those allowed to stand even in the Clementine. It must not be believed that the Vatican editors were ignorant of the character of these additions, or that they admitted them through carelessness; for, in their preface, they distinctly say, "Nonnulla quae mutanda videbantur, consulto immutata relicta sunt, ad offensionem populorum vitandam".... These additions found their way into the text, according to our author, from four sources; 1. most of them from the Greek version, or the Vetus Itala; 2. not a few from a double version made of a verse, and transcribed as if the translation of two distinct verses; 3. from marginal glosses; and, 4. lastly, from parallel passages in the Scripture.

In the first two books of Kings, the author discovers sixty-nine such additions. Of these, thirty have been allowed to remain in the Clementine, fifteen more in the Sixtine, and nine more in the early editions, making in all fifty-four, fifteen others being found in MSS. of no great antiquity. The fifteen in the Clementine which we daily use, are as follows:—I. Reg., iv. 1; v. 6, v. 9; viii. 18; ix. 25; x. i; xi. 1; xiii. 15; xiv. 22; xiv. 41; xv. 3; xv. 12-13; xvii. 36; xix. 21; xx. 15; xxi. 11; xxiii. 13-14; xxx. 15. II. Reg., i. 18; i. 26; iv. 5; v. 23; vi. 12; x. 19; xiii. 21; xiii. 27; xiv. 30; xv. 18; xv. 20.

A few of these examples will show the author's method of dealing with such additions. I. Reg., iv. 1, we read, Et factum est in diebus illis, convenerunt Philisthiim in pugnam, et egressus est Israel obviam Philisthiim in praelium et castrametatus est, etc. Now, the words et factum est, etc., are additions; and upon an examination of MSS. and editions, the author traces them to the LXX. version (vol. ii. page 194).

In II. Reg., i. 26, we read: "Doleo super te frater mi Jonatha decore nimis et amabilis super amorem mulierum. Sicut mater unicum amat filium suum ita ego te diligebam." The words sicut mater unicum, etc., are wanting both in the Hebrew and in the Greek, and are probably a marginal gloss, inserted in the text through the ignorance of copyists. They are an explanation of the phrase, super amorem mulierum, as our author shows at page 322.

We need not say any more to show how important is the addition to our Catholic Biblical literature made by F. Vercellone.

II. S. Pietro in Roma, etc. St. Peter in Rome, or the historical truth of St. Peter's journey to Rome, proved against a recent assailant. By John Perrone, S.J. Rome: Tipografia Forense, 1864—1 vol. 8vo, pag. 168.

Any new work by Father Perrone is sure to be received with respect and attention. The assailant, whose attack on the historical truth of St. Peter's journey to Rome is refuted in this book, is the author of an anonymous treatise published at Turin in 1861, entitled The historical impossibility of St. Peter's journey to Rome demonstrated, by substituting the true for the false tradition. In an introduction, headed "The Protestants in Italy", Father Perrone laments the great mischief they have done to his country, and at the same time expresses his hopes that their attempts at proselytism will end in failure. He commences by an examination of the statements made by his adversary, to the effect that even Catholic writers of the highest authority had denied St. Peter's presence in Rome, that it is proved from the sacred Scriptures that St. Peter could not have come to Rome either in the time of Claudius or in that of Nero, and that, therefore, he could not have been there at all. In reply, F. Perrone proves that no Catholic author has ever denied St. Peter's journey to Rome; that we neither can nor ought to expect from Sacred Scripture a history of the journey in question, but only a proof that it was possible; and that, because the precise year of the event is not known, it does not follow that the event itself could never have taken place. He then proceeds to develope the arguments which prove the Prince of the Apostles to have been at Rome. 1º, from the writers of the first three centuries, and then from those of the fourth; 2º, from the monuments existing at Rome, sarcophagi, figured glasses from the Catacombs (one of which he illustrates at great length), inscriptions, and spots ever held sacred at Rome to the memory of St. Peter; 3º, from the pilgrimages made to his shrine by Christians from every portion of the Church during the first three centuries; and 4º, from the catalogues of the Roman Pontiffs drawn up by writers of the early ages. In the next two chapters he defends the authority of several of the fathers from the ignorant and malicious misrepresentations of his adversary, and crowns the work by reprinting at the end of his volume a dissertation delivered by him some years ago in one of the Roman academies, in which he proves that "the love and the hatred men show to Rome are two consequences of the presence, the episcopate, and the martyrdom of St. Peter in the Eternal City".

III. Regles pour le Choix d'un Etat de Vie, proposées a la Jeunesse Chretienne. Par Mgr. J. B. Malou, Evêque de Bruges. Bruxelles, Goemaers, 1860 (iv.—249 pp.).

Although this book is not of recent publication, we feel it a kind of duty to bring it under the notice of the clergy of this country. The prelate who wrote it expressed to us his earnest desire that it might be translated for the use of the Catholics of Ireland, for whom he ever professed warm esteem and admiration. Indeed, we have very few books in which the question of vocations to the ecclesiastical or religious life is treated with such accuracy and solidity as in the Rules of Monsignor Malou. On the other hand, vocations are, through the grace of God, so abundant in Ireland, that there is hardly any priest, having care of souls, who must not have felt, at times, the want of some help to enable him to determine with confidence the state of life to which some youthful member of his flock may have been called. Such a guide he may find in the book under notice. Chapter i. treats of the nature of a state of life, and limits the number of such states to four, viz., the priesthood, the religious state, matrimony, and celibacy in the world. The second chapter examines the nature of a vocation to a state of life, and how far it imposes an obligation. Mgr. Malou thus defines a vocation: "A disposition of Divine Providence, which prepares, invites, and sometimes morally obliges, a Christian soul to embrace one state of life in preference to another; which disposition is ordinarily manifested in the qualities, the sentiments, and the position of the person called". Chapter iii. shows the necessity of Christian deliberation before making a choice of a state of life. Chapter iv. deals with the conditions requisite for a good deliberation, paragraphs being devoted respectively to interior conditions, to exterior conditions, and to the method of proceeding in the deliberation. The vocation to the ecclesiastical state is the subject of the fifth chapter, in which is shown that this vocation comes from God in a special manner, and that it is at once a great honour and a great benefit. The signs of vocation are detailed in the seventh, and the signs of non-vocation in the ninth chapters; in the tenth, the motives and the duty of following this vocation. The religious state, its origin, its end, its nature, and its properties; the different religious orders to which a person may be called; the vocation to the religious state; its principal signs; the deliberation required before adopting it are the subjects of the next five chapters. The sixteenth and last chapter discusses the question of vocation to the foreign missions, considered with respect to its motives, the qualities it demands, and the precautions which should be taken in carrying it into effect. This is the substance of the entire treatise; and for accuracy of doctrine, clearness of style, unction of Catholic spirit, it is worthy of its important subject and of its author.

IV. RECENT PUBLICATIONS.

L'Evangile et la Critique, examen de la Vie de Jesus de M. Ernest Renan. Par T. I. Lamy, Professeur a la facultè de Theologie, et President du College Marie-Therese a l'Université Catholique de Louvain. Louvain.

Bernardi Papiensis, Faventini Episcopi, Summa Decretalium ad Librorum MSS. fidem cum aliis ejusdem scriptoris anecdotis , edidit Ern. Ad. Theod. Laspeyres, etc. Ratisbon, apud Manz, 1861, lxiii.-367.

Memoir of the Abbè Lacordaire. By the Count de Montalembert, one of the forty of the French Academy. Authorized translation. Bentley, 1864, xv.-312.

Importanza della Storia, considerata nelle cose che le servono di materia. Par Domenico Solimani, D.C.D.G. Roma: Tipografia Forense, 1861, pp. 529.

Percy Grange, or the Ocean of Life, a tale in three books. By the Rev. Thomas J. Potter, of All Hallows College. Dublin: Duffy, 1864, pp. 320.

Tavole Cronologiche Critiche della Storia della Chiesa Universale, illustrate con argomenti d'Archeologia e di Geografia, Par Ignazio Mozzoni, etc. Roma: Cromolitografia Pontificia. 1861. Vols. i. to ix.

Notes upon the Errors of Geology illustrated by reference to facts observed in Ireland. By John Kelly, Vice-President of the Royal Geological Society of Ireland. Dublin: John F. Fowler, 1864, pp. xvi.-300.

Address Introductory to the Clinical Session 1864-65, delivered November 9, 1864, at the Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Eccles Street, Dublin. By Thomas Hayden, F.R.C.S.I., etc. Dublin: John F. Fowler, pp. 26.