VATABLE
276
VATICAN
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Vatable, Francois (or better, Watebled, the
name is also written Gastebled or Ouateble),
French Hellenist and Hebraist of the eighteenth
century, b. at Gamaches (85 miles north-west of
Paris), Picardy, probably in the latter years of the
fifteenth century;
d. in Paris, 16
March, 1547. He
was for a time
rector of Bramet
in Valois, in 1530
or 1531. King
Francis I ap-
pointed him to the
chair of Hebrew in
the newlv-founded
(1530) '^"CoOegeof
the Three Lan-
guages", after-
wards better
known as "College
de France". At a
later date a royal
grant conferred
upon Vatable the
title of Abbot of
Bellozane, with
the benefices at-
tached thereto.
Vatable is justly
regarded as the re-
st orer of Hebrew
scholarship in
France, and his
lect ures in Paris
were largely attended, even by Jews. Yet he published
nothing during his lifetime. He had, however, com-
pleted a Latin translation of Aristotle's "Meterolog-
ica", which appeared at Lyons in 1548, and
another of the same author's "Parva naturaUa",
which was published in Paris (1619). From
the lecture notes taken by Vatable's pupils
Robert Stephens drew the material for the scholia
which he added to his edition of the new Latin
translation of the Bible by Leo of Juda (4 vols.,
Paris, 1539-45) ; but it has been proven beyond doubt
that these notes had been shamefully garbled by the
Protestants of Zurich. The Sorbonnc doctors sharply
inveighed against the Lutheran tendencies of the
notes of Stephens's Bible, and Vatable himself dis-
owned them; yet, as they are a model of clear, concise,
Uterary, and critical exegesis, the Salamanca theolo-
gians, with the authorization of the Spanish Inquisi-
tion, issued a new thoroughly-revised edition of them
in their Latin Bible of 1584. From the edition of
1729 Migne republished, in his " Script urae sacrse cur-
sus completus" (XII, Paris, 1841), the scholia on
the Books of Esdi-as and Nehemias. The (garbled)
notes on the Psalms, re-edited in R. Stephens's "Liber
Psalmorum Davidis" (1557), were printed ag in,
together with remarks of H. Grotius, by Vogel under
the misleading title: "Francisci Vatabh annotationes
in Psalmos" (Halle, 1767).
Sainte-Marthe; Gallorum doctrina iltustrium elogia (Paris, l.')9.s): HiTHTER, Nnmcnclator literarms: Calmet, Bibliothkque sacree, IV (Paris. 1730): Dupm, Table universelle des auteurs ecvUsdaatiques, I (Paris. 1704) ; Feller, Dictionnaire historique, VIII (Paris, 1822). 311; Lichtenberger. EncydopMie des sciences religieuses, XII (Paris, 1877-82), 307; Simon, Hisl. crit. du Vieux Testament, III (Paris, 1680), 15; Hanebero, Gesch. der bibl. Offenb. (4th ed., Ratisbon, 1876). 849.
Charles L. Souvat
Vatican, The. — This subject will be treated under the following heads: I. Introduction; II. Archi- tectural History of the Vatican Palace; III. De- scription of the Palace; IV. Description of the Gardens; V. The Chapels of the Vatican; VI. The Palace as a Place of Residence; VII. The Palace as a
Treasury of Art; VIII. The Palace as a Scientific
Institute; IX. The State-Halls of the Vatican; X. The
State Staircases of the Vatican; XL The Adminis-
trative Boards of the Vatican; XII. The Juridical
and Hygienic Boards of the Vatican; XIII. The
PoUcing of the Vatican; XIV. The Vatican as a
Business Centre; XV. The Tipografia Poliglotta Vati-
cana; XVI. The Legal Position of the Vatican. Inas-
much as by this disposition of the subject analogous
things may be treated together, regardless of their
various locations in the Palace, this has an advantage
over others which follow a topographical and histori-
cal method.
I. Introduction. — The territory on the right bank of the Tiber between Monte Alario and Giani- colo (Janiculum) was known to antiquity as the Ager Vaticanus, and, owing to its marshj' character, the low-lying portion of this district enjoyed an ill repute. The origin of the name Vaticanus is uncertain; some claim that the name comes from a vanished Etruscan town called Vaticum. This district did not belong to ancient Rome, nor was it included within the city walls built by Emperor Aurelian. In the imperial gardens situated in this section was the Circus of Nero. At the foot of the Vatican Hill lay the ancient Basihca of vSt. Peter. By extensive purchases of land the medieval popes acquired possession of the whole hill, thus preparing the way for building activity. Communication with the city was established by the Pons -^<;iius, which led directly to the mausoleum of Hadrian. Between 848 and 852 Leo IV surroimded the whole settlement with a wall, which included it within the city boundaries. Until the pontificate of Sixtus V this section of Rome remained a private papal possession and was entrusted to a special ad- ministration. Sixtus, however, placed it under the jurisdiction of the urban authorities as the fourteenth region.
II. Architectur.^l History of the V.\tic.an Palace. — It is certain that Pope Symmachus (498- 514) built a residence to the right and left of St. Peter's and immediately contiguous to it. There was probably a former residence, since, from the very beginning, the popes must have found a house of ac- commodation necessary in the vicinity of so prominent a basilica as St. Peter's. By the end of the thirteenth century the building activity of Eugene III, Alex- ander III, and Innocent III had developed the resi- dence of Symmachus into a palatiiim which lay be- tween the portico of St. Peter's and the Vatican Hill. Nicholas III began building on the Vatican Hill a palace of extraordinary dimensions, which was com-
f)leted by his immediate successors. He also secured and for the Vatican Gardens. The group of build- ings then erected correspond more or less with the an- cient portions of the present palace which extend around the Cortile del Maresciallo and the eastern, southern, and western sides of the Cortile del Papa- gallo. These buildings were scarcely finished or fitted when the popes moved to Avignon, and from 1305 to 1377 no pope resided permanently in the Vatican Palace. Turban V spent a short time in Rome, and Gregory XI died there. When Trban V resolved to return to Rome, the Lateran Palace having been de- stroyed by fire, the ordinary papal residence was fixed at the Vatican. The apartments, roofs, gardens, and chapels of the Vatican Palace had to be entirely over- hauled, so grievous had been the decay and ruin into which the buildings had fallen within sixty years (see Kirsch, "Die Riichkehr der Piipste Urban V. u. Gregor. XL", Padorborn, 190S). The funds devoted to the repairs of the Vatican during the residence at Avignon had been entirely inadequate.
Urban VI (1378) and his succe.s.sors restored to the palace a degree of comfort as .a place of residence, so th.Tt, when Martin V came from Constance to Rome (28 September, 1420), little remained to be under-
