A letter from Jerome (386-392)

Translated letter:

Having determined to emend the psalter swiftly hammered out at Rome according to the Septuagint translators, I corrected it in great part. Which since, o Paula and Eustochium, you see again that it was corrupted by the faults of scribes and that ancient error prevailed over new emendation, you compel me to go over the field which has been ploughed but not sown and as in a newly ploughed field root out the thorns growing again with slanting furrows, saying it is just that what badly sprouts thick should be more thickly cut off. Whence I remind you for whom this labor sweats as well as those who wish to have copies of this, with the usual preface, that what I have diligently emended, should be transcribed with care and diligence. Let everyone take note of a vertical line or radiant signs, that is, obelisks/daggers or asterisks. And wherever there is a preceding stroke, what is written from there to the colon is in the Septuagint translations. Where there is a star, on the other hand, also up to a colon, it has been added from the Hebrew books, like the edition of Theodotion who does not differ from the Septuagint translation in simplicity of speech. Knowing that I have done these things for you and for any studious/zealous person, I do not doubt that there will be many who out of envy or arrogance prefer to scorn what seems very clear rather than to learn, and to drink from the turbulent stream rather than the purest source.

Original letter:

Psalterium Romae dudum positus emendaram, et juxta Septuaginta interpretes, licet cursim, magna illud ex parte correxeram. Quod quia rursum videtis, o Paula et Eustochium, scriptorum vitio depravatum, plusque antiquum errorem, quam novam emendationem valere: cogitis, ut veluti quodam novali, scissum jam arvum exerceam, et obliquis sulcis renascentes spinas eradicem: aequum esse, dicentes, ut quod crebro male pullulat, crebrius succidatur. Unde consueta praefatione commoneo tam vos, quibus forte labor iste desudat, quam eos qui exemplaria istiusmodi habere voluerint, ut quae diligenter emendavi, cum cura et diligentia transcribantur. Notet sibi unusquisque vel jacentem lineam, vel signa radiantia: id est, vel obelos ÷ vel asteriscos +. Et ubicumque viderit virgulam praecedentem ÷, ab ea usque ad duo puncta ** quae impressimus, sciat in Septuaginta translatoribus [Al. interpretibus] plus haberi. Ubi autem stellae + similitudinem perspexerit, de Hebraeis voluminibus additum noverit, aeque usque ad duo puncta, juxta Theodotionis dumtaxat editionem, qui simplicitate sermonis a Septuaginta interpretibus non discordat. Haec ergo et vobis et studioso cuique fecisse me sciens, non ambigo multos fore, qui vel invidia, vel supercilio malint contemnere videri praeclara, quam discere, et de turbulento magis rivulo [Al. rivo], quam de purissimo fonte potare.

Historical context:

Jerome sends his corrected translation of the Psalms to Paula and her daughter Eustochium, with a list of the critical marks he used in it to distinguish what differs in the Hebrew from the Septuagint. This is one of the works Jerome had earlier translated from the Septuagint Greek, and later emended according to the Hebrew text at their request.

Printed source:

Praefatio Hieronymi in Librum Psalmorum, PL29 c.117-120.

Date:

386-392