The Vulgata Sixtina was a Latin edition of the Bible from 1590, prepared on the orders of Pope Sixtus V. It was the first edition of the Latin Vulgate authorised by a pope, but its official recognition was short-lived.

On 8 April 1546 the Council of Trent required that the Vulgate be printed quam emendatissime (fewest possible faults).^[1] There was no authoritative edition at that time.^[2]

The first committee was appointed by Pope Pius IV in 1561 to undertake the work, but the committee worked slowly and ineffectively. The second committee was appointed by Pope Pius V in 1569 (Congregatio pro emendatione Bibliorum), with four Cardinals Marcus Antonius, Sirleto, Madrutius, and Antonio Carafa.^[3][4] The committee was resolved under Pope Gregory XIII.^[5]

The Pope Sixtus V had appointed the 3rd committee of scholars to continue the work. The committee was under the presidency of Cardinal Carafa. The work was prepared on the basis of the edition of Francis Lucas 'of Bruges' from Louvain (1583)^[6] and good manuscripts were used as authorities, including notably the Codex Amiatinus.^[7] Carafa presented the result of their work, in the beginning of 1589, but Sixtus rejected their work and in 18 months prepared another text he corrected to agree with the Greek and Hebrew.^[8] He used the Codex Carafianus^[9] (the codex containing the propositions made to Sixtus V by the comittee presided by cardinal Carafa^[10]), but the Bible was hurried into print and suffered from many printing errors,^[11] as well as serious problems reflecting the incompetence of Sixtus as a Bible scholar. Three whole verses were dropped from the Book of Numbers, Numbers 30:11–13, though it is unclear whether this was an error in printing, or an editorial choice by Sixtus himself.^[2]

In May 1590 the completed work was issued from the press in three volumes;^[2] but even after printing, Sixtus continued to tinker with the text, revising it either by handwriting or by pasting strips of paper on the text.^[12] After his death Robert Bellarmine warned that this work was an embarrassment, and a great danger to the church.^[13]

The full title of edition was: Biblica Sacra Vulgatae editionnis, ad Concilii Tridenti praescriptum emendata et a Sixto V P. M. recognita et approbata.^[14] The edition was preceded by the Bull Aeternus Ille (1 March 1590), in which the Pope declared the authenticity of the new Bible, the Vulgata Sixtina.^[15][16] This edition was short-lived, because of its textual inaccuracy.^[2][17] Basing himself on his study of testimonies of those who were present around the pope during the making of the Vulgata Sixtina, and the fact the bull Aeternus Ille is not present in the bullarium, jesuit Xavier-Marie Le Bachalet claims the publication of this Bible does not ail papal infallibility, because the bull establishing this edition as the standard was never promulgated by Sixtus V. Le Bachalet says that the bull was only printed within the edition of the Bible at the order of Sixtus V in order not to delay the printing and that the published edition of the Bible was not final, i.e. Sixtus was still revising the text of the edition of the Bible and his death prevented him from promulgating a final edition and an official bull.^[12][a]

On 27 August Sixtus V died suddenly, and on 5 September the college of Cardinals stopped all further sales, bought and destroyed as many copies as possible.^[2] Faced with about six thousand on matters of detail, and a hundred that were important, and saving the honour of Sixtus V, Bellarmine undertook the preface, and ascribed all the imperfections of his Vulgate to being errors of the press.^[18] Some believe that the attack against the edition had been instigated by the Jesuits, whom Sixtus had offended by putting one of Bellarmine's books on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.^[19]

In 1592, Pope Clement VIII published a new official version of the Vulgate known as the Sixto-Clementine Vulgate.

Vulgata Sixtina is cited only in some present critical editions and it is designated by siglum vg^s.^[20]

In Book of Genesis chapters 40-50, 43 corrections were made (on the basis of Codex Carafianus):^[21]

Of these 43 corrections, 31 are of purely orthographic significance, of which 6 relate to proper nouns.^[22]

Changes in versification

In 30 first chapters of the Book of Genesis following changes were made:^[23]

• Sixto-Clementine Vulgate

• Quentin, Henri (1922). Mémoire sur l'établissement du texte de la Vulgate (in French). Rome: Desclée. pp. 168 ff. Retrieved 2011-01-14.
• Carlo Vercellone (1860). Variae lectiones Vulgatae Latinae Bibliorum editionis (in Latin). Romae.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Paul Maria Baumgarten, Die Vulgata Sixtina von 1590 und ihre Einführungsbulle Aktenstücke und Untersuchungen, Münster i. W. Aschendorff 1911.
• Amann, Fridolin (1911). Die Vulgata Sixtina von 1590: Eine quellenmässige Darstellung ihrer Geschichte. Münster i. W.: Aschendorff. (online references)