many different recensions of the text, generally called the Doway Bible, does not much commend itself to the English ear, and is indeed, especially in the earlier recensions, difficult to understand for any one who does not know Latin, and indeed other languages also; and more over, none o/ the recensions possess that ecclesiastical authority which is enjoyed, for instance, in Italy, by the Italian version of Archbishop Martini. Under these circumstances, it has been the custom for English - speaking Catholics, in compiling books of devotion, to make renderings of the Latin at their own convenience, and indeed in the recently published Hortus Anim<z> which bears the imprimatur of the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, the Psalms in the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin were translated from the Hebrew without any regard to the Latin at all. The present Translator has therefore felt himself abundantly justified in using any good English at his command, while adhering to the sense of the Latin, of which he trusts that his text will be found a faithful rendering.
As regards the proper names in the Old Testament, it has seemed to him most convenient to use the transliteration from the Hebrew which is most commonly used by the Jews, as well as by the general world, in this country, instead of reproducing the Vulgate's imperfect transliteration of the imperfect transliteration of the LXX. from the Hebrew. But where the names, even of the same persons, occur in quotations from the New Testament, the transliteration is equally made from the original, and therefore the Greek form preserved.
In those parts of the office which are not taken from the Scriptures, such as the readings from the Fathers, the Translator has not been care ful to give the same word-for-word rendering as in the passages from Scripture. The genius of the Latin language, its long and involved sen tences, and such forms as the Ablative Absolute, would make a trans lation like a school-boy's exercise a piece of very inelegant English com position, and almost intolerable as a devotional formula. His aim, therefore, has been to reflect the ideas of the Latin in the best English mirror he can command, and he must deprecate criticism upon the mere ground of freedom of translation. Besides this, he has only to call attention to the treatment of the quotations from Scripture found
