BIBLICAL CORRECTORIA (Correctoria biblica). — Critical works undertaken in the 13th–15th centuries to eliminate Vulgate (v.) the errors that had gradually accumulated in them. As the text of the version or recension of s. Girolamo spread widely, it was easily altered by copyists, both through negligence and because they mixed into it readings from the old Latin version or introduced arbitrary emendations; thus the Vulgate already appeared interpolated at many points, and textual corruptions rapidly multiplied. As early as the 9th century, scholars attempted to stem this tendency by making corrections to the text of the Vulgate: such were Alcuino, Teodulfo, Nicola Maniacoria, and others. When, in the 13th century, the University of Paris became a center of theological studies, the need for a uniform biblical text was felt even more strongly; consequently, a copy of the Latin Bible then in use was selected and declared the normative text under the name Exemplar Parisiense. But since this text too was corrupt and interpolated, an attempt was made to remedy the situation by means of the c. b. All the corrections were made to the Parisian text, and two kinds of c. are distinguished: some contain the biblical text, with readings to be rejected, retained, or corrected indicated in the margin; others contain no biblical text and present only the same readings, discussed at greater length. These c. were produced by the Friars Preachers and the Friars Minor, who were then teaching at the University of Paris.
Among the Friars Preachers there are three c.: the Senonense (Sens in France), which was rejected by the Dominicans themselves, who replaced it with the Parisiense (1256). Another was produced by Ugo di S. Caro (d. 1263), whose principal codex is Vatican Ottobonianus 293. Since, however, in his corrections Ugo had attached too much importance to the Hebrew and Greek text, instead of correcting according to the manuscripts of the Vulgate, his c. was not a correction of the text but rather a further corruption of II.
The c. of the Franciscans were: 1) the Sorbonicum, so called because the codex containing it belonged to the Sorbonne (today in the Bibliothèque Nationale, cod. 15554); it is attributed to Guglielmo il Brettone (v.), and differs little from the c. of the Dominicans; 2) another c., whose principal manuscript is cod. Vat. lat. 3466, MARIA (v.), whose name is found in cod. n. 28 of the abbey of Einsiedeln; 3) Vatican Latin cod. 4240 contains the c. Hoio (v.). This work, like that of Guglielmo de Mara, follows, unlike those of its predecessors, the principles indicated by Ruggero Bacone (v.), correcting not according to the original texts but according to the manuscripts of the Vulgate. Of particular importance is Gerardo de Hoio’s introduction to his c., in which he sets out his critical principles and treats precisely of the origin of the Vulgate and of the Greek versions. Two other c. of lesser importance are one by Gerardo da Buxo (cod. 61 of the bibliothèque Communale of Toulouse, 15th century), and the other by Giovanni da Colonia, also in cod. 28, fol. 49, of the library of Einsiedeln. Since all these works, however, were private initiatives, they could not effectively remedy the corruption of the biblical text. For this, the authority of the Church was necessary. The Council of Trent ordered an official revision of the Vulgate, which was completed with the Sixto-Clementine edition (1592), and Pio X (1907) entrusted the Benedictine Order with the restoration of the text of the Vulgate, a task being carried out by the monks of the abbey of S. Girolamo de Urbe.
BIBLI: H. Denille, Die Handschriften der Bibel-Correction des 13. Jahrhunderts, in Archiv für Literatur- und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters, 4 (1888), pp. 236-311, 471-601; E. Mangenot, Corrections de la Bible, in DB, II, coll. 1022-26; Institutions Biblica, I, 5ª ed., Roma 1937, p. 311 ff.