Textual critics, patristics scholars (Patrology/Patristics), and students of art and cultural studies often have recourse to the Latin Bible. All need to be aware of this version’s complicated story and the relentless attempts over 15 centuries to produce a commonly accepted (vulgate) edition of it.

Present-day readers of the Latin Bible are likely to make the recent Stuttgart edition, prominently entitled on its cover Biblia Sacra Vulgata, their first port of call. Albeit a ha…