Vulgate, a. and n.
(ˈvʌlgət)
[ad. L. vulgāta (sc. ēditio or lectio) and vulgāt-us (sc. textus), fem. and masc. pa. pple. of vulgāre: see next. Cf. (in sense B. 1 b) F. Vulgate, It., Sp., Pg. Vulgata.]
A. adj.
1. In common use as a version of the Bible (or portion of this); employed or occurring in one of these versions.
Ordinarily limited to the versions specified in B 1, and particularly to St. Jerome's. In various contexts the adj. coalesces with attributive uses of the n.
| 1609 Bible (Douay) To Rdr. p. iii b, So that the old Vulgate Latin Edition hath bene preferred, and vsed for most authentical aboue a thousand and three hundered yeares. 1727 Blackwall Sacred Classics II. Pref. 16 The Latin vulgate Bible was declar'd authentic and canoniz'd by the council of Trent, a.d. 1546. 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v., M. Simon calls the Greek Version of the Seventy..The antient Vulgate Greek. 1782 V. Knox Lord's Supper xvii. Wks. 1824 VII. 423 At this hour it stands so translated in the Vulgate Bible, for ages the only Bible of the people. 1818 Hallam Mid. Ages ix. i. (1819) III. 338 The vulgate Latin of the Bible was still more venerable. 1863 W. A. Wright in Smith Dict. Bible I. 857/2 The Vulgate rendering of Prov. xxvi. 8. 1872 (title), The Vulgate New Testament, with The Douay Version of 1582, in Parallel Columns. |
2. Forming (part of) the common or usual version of a literary work.
| 1861 Paley æschylus (ed. 2) Prometh. 966 note, His objection to the vulgate reading and interpretation..appears quite groundless. 1894 Athenæum 26 May 681/2 [The papyri,] as is generally the case with Homer papyri of this period, support the vulgate text. |
B. n.
1. a. The old Italic version of the Bible, preceding that of St. Jerome.
| 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v., The antient Vulgate of the Old Testament, was translated almost Word for Word, from the Greek of the Seventy. 1855 Cassell's Pop. Bibl. Educator II. 39/1 At that time the old Itala was the Vulgate, or Common Version. |
b. The Latin version of the Bible made by St. Jerome (completed in 405).
| 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Septuagint, The Chronology of the Seventy, is..very different from what is found in the Hebrew Text, and the Vulgate. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. v. i. (1869) II. 352 The Latin translation of the Bible, commonly called the Latin Vulgate. 1843 Penny Cycl. XXVI. 465 All the Romish translations of the Bible into the modern languages profess to have been made not from the Greek and Hebrew, but from the Vulgate. 1846 A. Marsh Father Darcy II. ii. 65 The answer of the priest..was to repeat..the following passage of Scripture from the Vulgate. 1881 Westcott & Hort Grk. N.T. Introd. §111 The name Vulgate has long denoted exclusively the Latin Bible as revised by Jerome. |
c. The usual or received text or version of the Bible or of some portion of this.
| 1815 F. Nolan (title), An Enquiry into the Integrity of the Greek Vulgate, or Received Text of the New Testament. 1865 Smith's Concise Dict. Bible 992 But both the Greek and the Latin Vulgates have been long neglected. 1883 Athenæum 22 Dec. 809/2 This pre-Lutheran Bible version has been fittingly termed by Geffcken the ‘German Vulgate’. 1887 Encycl. Brit. XXII. 824/1 The so-called Pĕshīṭtā,..the Syriac vulgate. |
d. An edition of the Vulgate.
| 1865 Smith's Concise Dict. Bible 994 The splendid pages of the Mazarin Vulgate. Ibid. 995 The Sixtine and Clementine Vulgates. |
2. The ordinary reading in a text; the ordinary text of a work or author.
| 1861 Paley æschylus (ed. 2) Supplices 61 note, This is ingenious; but he fails to show that the vulgate is wrong. 1886 Leaf Iliad I. Introd. p. xiv, The conclusion is..that the edition of Antimachos was in the main the same as our present vulgate. |
3. Common or colloquial speech.
| 1855 J. E. Cooke Virginia Comedians I. xiii. (Cent.), ‘Here's a pretty mess’, returned the pompous gentleman, descending to the vulgate; ‘you threaten me, forsooth!’ 1883 D. H. Wheeler By-Ways Lit. ix. 176 There is always ‘a free and easy’ vulgate for the street, the market, and the fireside. |