SAINT JEROME, ABBEY OF. - It was established in Rome by Pius XI, with the apostolic constitution Inter praecipuas of June 15, 1933.
By virtue of the pontifical document, the new monastery replaces in its office and purpose the Pontifical Commission for the revision and emendation of the Vulgate, established by Pius X in 1907 and reorganized by Benedict XV with the motu proprio Consilium of Nov. 23, 1914. Its purpose is to restore, as far as possible, the original reading of the text of the Vulgate and to prepare a new edition that responds to the demands of the most rigorous criticism, applying to it, in the most rigorous manner, the principles of the new scientific methodology. At the same time other no less important aims are achieved, such as that of giving scholars of biblical matters new elements for the criticism of the original text, and that of establishing the stages of the history of the official text of the Bible in the Latin Church. After the work of researching the manuscripts to be adopted, of studying the method (inserted in part in the Mémoire sur l'établissement du texte de la Vulgate, Rome 1922, by Fr. H. Quentin) and of determining the principles adopted for the constitution of the text, the various volumes were published under the title: Biblia Sacra iuxta latinam Vulgatam versionem ad codicum fidem iussu Pii PP. XI. cura et studio Monachorum Abbatiae Pontificae Sancti Hieronymi in Urbe, O. S. B. edita ex interpretatione sancti Hieronymi cum praefationibus et variis capitulorum seriebus (Rome, Poliglotta Vaticana). Up to now there have appeared: I: Liber Genesis, 1926; II: Libri Exodi et Levitici, 1929; III: Libri Numerorum et Deuteronomii, 1936; IV: Libri Iosue, Iudicum, Ruth, 1939; V: Liber Samuhelis, 1944; VI: Liber Malachim, 1945; VII: Liber Verborum Dierum, 1948; VIII: Libri Ezrae, Tobiae, Iudith, 1950; IX: Libri Hester et Iob, 1951; X: Psalmi, 1953. Alongside this principal work, the monks of St. J. direct a series of monographs, intended to publish texts of the Latin Bible: Collectanea Biblica Latina. There have appeared: I: A. Amelli, Liber Psalmorum iuxta antiquissimam latinam versionem ex Cusin. cod. 557, 1912; II: H. J. Vogels, Codex Rehdigeranus, 1913; III: card. A. Gasquet, Codex Vercellensis, 1914 (2 vols.); IV: P. Capelle, Le texte du Psautier latin en Afrique, 1913; V: D. De Bruyne, Les fragments de Freising, 1921; VI: H. Quentin, Mémoire sur l'établissement du texte de la Vulgate, part 1: Octateuque, 1922; VII: P. Salmon, Le lectionnaire de Luxeuil, 1944; VIII: V. R. Weber, Les anciennes versions latines du deuxième livre des Paralipomènes, 1945. Under press for 1953: IX: Le lectionnaire de Luxeuil, vol. II; X: Psalterium « iuxta Hebraeos » ad codicum fidem; XI: Le Psautier romain et les anciens psautiers latins, édit. critique.
It is provided in the pontifical document that, in the future, the monks of St. J. may be entrusted with other similar works, assigned by the Pontiff. For this reason the abbey is immediately subject to the Holy See and the monastery of St. Maurice and St. Maurus of Clervaux, in Luxembourg, has the task in perpetuity of preparing and supplying subjects suited to these works. By the will of the Supreme Pontiff (motu proprio Monasterium, Jan. 25, 1934) the a. of St. J., although it belongs to no Benedictine congregation, is part of the Benedictine confederation.
Pietro Salmon