Notes of the Early History of the Vulgate Gospels

All those who are not strangers in the field of higher or literary criticism, readily understand why Pope Pius X, when ordering a new edition of the Vulgate to be undertaken, confided the work to the Benedictine Order. Catholic scholarship thus far has produced nothing that will be more useful for the restoration of St. Jerome's text of the Gospels than these Notes on the Early History of the Vulgate Gospels by Dom Chapman, one of those many learned Benedictines, who at the present day...
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All those who are not strangers in the field of higher or literary criticism, readily understand why Pope Pius X, when ordering a new edition of the Vulgate to be undertaken, confided the work to the Benedictine Order. Catholic scholarship thus far has produced nothing that will be more useful for the restoration of St. Jerome's text of the Gospels than these Notes on the Early History of the Vulgate Gospels by Dom Chapman, one of those many learned Benedictines, who at the present day are the living Apologetics of the Catholic Church.
No doubt, we cannot contradict the author when he states that the study of the whole of the Bible, in the light of careful collations, is needed for the perfect editing of any part of it. But it certainly is merely a new illustration of the extreme modesty which characterizes the great Benedictine scholars, when, in the Preface, Dom Chapman warns the readers that "this essay does not aim to any form of completeness, and is published only in the hope that it may be found suggestive" (p. i). True, the restoration of St. Jerome's text of the Gospels, based on Dom Chapman's Notes, will not differ substantially from the text given us by Wordsworth and White. Literary criticism has reached a stage in which great scholars are able to offer critical editions that will stand the test of all future ages and hardly leave room for still greater perfection. However, as the author himself very modestly suggests, by the Notes of this monk of Erdington Abbey, "in some difficult places the verdict [will] be altered, or (what is just as important) confirmed by stronger reasons" (p. vi). Besides, we, Catholics, will no longer be obliged to admit the superiority of the works of Protestant scholars, in studying the history of the official Bible of the Catholic Church.
It is hard to give a satisfactory review of Dom Chapman's recent book, because '' the argument is involved and hard to follow.'' This statement cannot be construed to be a criticism or reproach. The author himself makes this declaration in the preface (p. vi). From the very nature of the subject which he studies, and of the material with which he has to deal, it could not possibly be otherwise. Moreover, this work supposes so much previous knowledge, that, to follow without much difficulty the author's line of argument, one has to be himself an expert in this special branch of literary criticism and thoroughly acquainted with the history of the Latin editions of the Bible.
-The Catholic University Bulletin, Vol. 15