On 8 April 1546 with the Council of Trent, the Catholic Church had approved the 4th century Vulgate of Jerome as its official Bible.[2] When this decree came into effect there did not exist a single authoritative copy of this text. Rather a great variety of manuscript copies (up to 10,000) and editions. Over time different authors had attempted to improve the Vulgate with no regard for Jerome's wording, while others had attempted to restore the text to a more original version, since the 13th century this task had taken a more professional shape in the form of correctories dedicated to identifying textual variants to help scribes avoid the reproduction of common errors. By 1528 these undertakings had even led to the first critical edition of the Vulgate by Robert Estienne comparing textual variants found in different correctories, which by 1540 was already in its 4th revision.[3]
Pius V had attempted to solve the problem created by decreeing a single text to be the Church's official Bible, but not providing a copy, by appointing a commission to oversee the creation of a single authoritative Vulgate edition. His successor Gregory XIII however did not continue appointments to this commission.[4] This led to a 44-year gap between the decree and the first authorized version of the Vulgate, the 1590 Sixtine Vulgate. This version was short lived however due to Jesuit objections to it.[3] It was succeeded by the 1592 Sixto-Clementine Vulgate, which remained in liturgical use until this apostolic constitution was issued.[3] The Abbey of St Jerome in Rome was founded by Pius XI to prepare the revision of the Vulgate.[5]
