The Vulgate Latin Bible Handbook – a comprehensive research bibliography

Especially in the humanities, scholars need – and appreciate – publications that Germans call “Forschungsbericht”, for which there is no adequate English term. Meant is an inventory of past publications relevant to a subject, carefully assessed or presented so that they can be assessed and used (or rejected) in further research. This kind of publication is needed to restart and reinvigorate research on the Vulgate Latin Bible. Bernhard Lang, who has edited the International Review of Biblical Studies (Internationale Zeitschriftenschau für Bibelwissenschaft und Grenzgebiete) for three decades and acted as its master bibliographer, has compiled a comprehensive Vulgate bibliography, soon to be available in print under the title The Vulgate Latin Bible Handbook: Annotated Bibliography, Latin Glossary, Textual Notes (VLBH). More than 1000 bibliographical items are listed, arranged according to subject and year of publication, and often accompanied by an abstract. There are also three sections for quick reference: Jerome’s biblical commentaries, a Latin glossary, and textual notes. The notes are canonically arranged from Genesis through the book of Revelation (and through the appended books, down to the letter to the Laodiceans, the final item of the Weber/Gryson Vulgate). The new VLBH will be a fundamental resource for Vulgate research, supplementing other reference works such as the forthcoming Oxford Handbook to the Latin Bible and Sprache und Welt der Vulgata.

Website Bernhard Lang