GERARDO da HUY (de Hojo). - Franciscan scholar of the thirteenth century, born at Huy (Hojum), apparently in the diocese of Liège (Belgium). He was a disciple of Ruggero Bacone, whose principles he faithfully followed in his Correctorium Biblicum. He composed the Triglossos, that is, three metrical treatises on the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages.
His masterpiece is the Correctorium Biblicum (contained in cod. Vat. lat. 4240 and in other codices), which is the best of all. In it, in reconstructing the text, he followed the sound principles already employed by s. Girolamo. Like him, G. also sought to discover the genuine text; he therefore attributed the greatest value to Latin manuscripts of s. Girolamo’s version (the Vulgate). Only when the codices disagreed among themselves did he consult the Greek or Hebrew text. In this G. followed and expressly affirmed, even in the thirteenth century, the principle still adopted today for the revision of the Vulgate. G. knew well the history of biblical versions and the origin of errors in the sacred text. He corrected the
Paris text and justified his corrections in the marginal notes, which show that he knew Greek better than Hebrew. The Latin codices used by G. belong to the recension of Alcuino and are no older than the ninth or tenth century.