All printed editions of the Septuagint may be re duced to four ; viz., the Aldine, the Compluten sian, the Roman, and the Grabian.
The Aldine or Venetian appeared at Venice in 1518, fol. The editor has not specified the AISS. from which the text was taken. He merely affirms that lie collated many very ancient copies, and was favoured with the advice of some learned men. According to Walton, the text of this edition is purer than the Complutensian, and resembles most the Roman text. It has been interpolated, how ever, in various instances, out of Theodotion, Aquila, and the N. T.
The Complutensian was printed 1514-1517, but not published till 1522, as a column -of the Com plutensian Polyglott. It has been suspected that the text was altered by the editors to bring it into agreement with the Hebrew. So Ussher, Walton, Hody, and Frankel suppose. But the conjecture is unfounded. The text was taken from Greek MSS. containing Origen's improved Hexaplaric text, as Simon believed.
The Roman edition appeared under the auspices of Sixtus the Fifth, in 1587, fol., superintended by Cardinal Carafa and others. The text follows the celebrated codex Vaticanus. Yet the editors made alterations in the orthography, and in particulars which they looked upon as the mistakes of copyists. Other AISS. were necessarily used ; since almost the entire book of Genesis is wanting in cod. B., besides froin Psalm cv. 27 to cxxxvii. 6, and other parts.
The Grabian edition appeared at Oxford, in i7o7 and following years, 4 vols. fol., and 8 vols. 8vo, being prepared for the press by Dr. Grabe, a learned Prussian, and published in part by himself. This edition exhibits the text of the Codex Alex andrinus, but not perfectly ; since Grabe altered and improved many places.
The latest and most splendid critical edition is that begun in 1798 by Dr. Holmes and finished by Parsons, Oxford, 1798-1827, five vols. folio, with a lame critical apparatus. The continuator appears tohave become weary of his task ; for he has only selected the readings most important in his ON171 judgment. The text is that of the Roman edition, not a critically revised one. The work is
merely a storehouse of materials for such an edition. The Roman edition is still the best ; though no one edition should be followed absolutely (see Cred ner's Beitriige vol. ii. pp. 74-93), In 1857 dardinal Alai published the O. and N. T. from the Vatican MS. The Old is in 4 vols. 4to. Unfortunately this edition offers no seem ity for its being an exact and faithful repre sentation of the AIS. The gaps are supplied from other AISS., and so careless was the Cardinal, that many leaves had to be reprinted before publication. Doubtless many errors still remain. A very con venient manual edition is that of Tischendorf, 2 VOIS. SVO, 3d edition, 186o, with a good selection of various readings taken in part from AISS. which he published for the first time. The text is that of the Vatican MS.
The proper Alexandrine version of Daniel was first published from a MS. in the library of Cardi nal Chigi, at Rome, 1772, fol. After being re printed at Gottingen (by Michaelis), and at Leyden (by Segaar), it was critically edited by Hahn (1845) ; and by Tischendorf in his edition of the Seventy. In IS59 Tischendorf found a MS. in the convent of St. Catherine at Mount Sinai, which lie rightly supposes to belong to the 4th centurY, and to be more valuable internally than any other existing one. Be,ides the New Testament entire, it has the Old imperfectly. If the Codex Frid erico-Augustanus, previously discovered by the same scholar, be part of the Sinaitic one, as seems to be the case, a good portion of the O. T. is thus preserved. The text of the MS., after hav ing been described (see Notitia editionis codicis Bibliorzent Sinaitici, etc., by Prof. Tischendorf, 1S6o,_ fol.), has since been published in fac-simile at St. Petersburgh, at the expense of the Einperor of Russia 4 vols. folio, 1862).
The best Lexicon to the Septuagint is that of Schleusner, published at Leipzig, in 1S2o, 1821, in five parts, and reprinted at Glasgow, 3 vols. Svo., 1822. The best Concordance is that of Trom p:nes, published at Amsterdam, vols. fol., 1718.