The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1920-08-14
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New CASTLE, Spain, in 1896, and died
at Roa, near Valladolid, on November
8, 1917. 1t may be interesting to no
tice here that the Comprehension BIZ
BILE was finished July 10, 1917, four
months before the death of it's editor;
and yet, strange to say, it was not
published until March 90, 1920. 1t
has never been known why this work
remained unpublished for nearly three
years after its compilation was per,
fected. To that great patron of
scholars and artists, Pope Leo X, the
glory belongs of having saved the
Comprehension Bible from oblivion. In
his famous Motu Proprio, "Dudum Re-
latione," dated March 90, 1920 Leo
ordered the executors of the last will
of the Cardinal to publish the Com
plutensian Bible at once
Gigantic Task.
Having founded the University of
Alcala, Cisneros employed many of
the scholars forming the staff of that
educational institution to complete
the gigantic task of compiling this
work. His object was to revive the
languishing study of the Sacred Scrip
lures. The greatest Biblical scholars
all over Europe were also called upon
to lend their talents in the edition of
the work. Cardinal Cisneros fur
nished his cO-labOrers with accurate
printed texts of the Old Testament in
Hebrew, Greek and Latin, and the
This polyglOt Bible contains also the
Chaldaic Targum of the Pentateuch,
and an interlinear Latin translation of
the Greek Old Testament The work
comprises six large volumes, the last
being made up of Hebrew and Chal-
dale dictionaries, a Hebrew grammar
and a Greek dictionary. The number
of copies first issued was limited.
Some authorities place their number
at six hundred. Quite naturally these
copies soon found, as they should
have, their places in the principal H.
braries Of Europe, subsequently con-
siderably influencing later editions of
the Bible, and being used by world
famed Bible scholars in their exc
geses.
Basis of the Text.
Cisneros secured the best manu-
scripts accessible to serve as a basis
of his text. Leo X. in his extreme
munificence and lavish generosity
loaned him the Vatican manuscripts.
Traces of such manuscripts may be
discerned particularly in the Greek
text. The Comprehension Bible pub
lished the first printed edition of the
Greek Old Testament, the one which
was commonly used and reproduced
before the appearance of the edition
of Sixtus V. in 1887. Subsequent edi-
lions, like the Paris Polyg1ot, the Lon
don Polyglot, and especially the Ant
werp~ Bible sometimes called the
"Biblica Regia," because it was issued
under the auspices of King Philip H.,
were based on the Comprehension BIZ
BILE.
Cost in Time and Money.
Fifteen years, 1502-17, were re-.
CURED for the compilation of this
work, which was most fittingly dedi-
Gated to Pope Leo X. 1t was finished,
as above stated, July 10, 1917, four
months before the death of it's illus
trious author. It's estimated cost was
one hundred and twenty-five thousand
dollars. So great was the expense en-
tailed that the executors formally de-
clared that the proceeds secured did
not reimburse the outlay. The cost
Of single volume at present ranges
all the way from two thousand to five
thousand dollars. The browning glory
of the noble achievement of the i'm
mortal CisnerOs, the well-knoWn pub
licist, the Spanish savant and littera-
teur, the late Marcelino Menendez y
PelayO, says that the Comprehension
Bible is lasting monument of eternal
glory to Spain, beacon light reared
at the beginning of the sixteenth CEN
fury to illume all future ages