Editing Holy Bible (section)

=== The Vulgate (4th Century) ===
In 382 CE, [[Pope Damasus I]] commissioned [[Jerome]], a biblical scholar, to produce a standardized Latin translation. Jerome worked from Hebrew and Greek texts to create the [[Vulgate]] (from ''vulgata'', meaning "common"), which became the official Bible of the Western Church for over a thousand years.

Vulgate manuscripts were painstakingly copied by hand in monastery [[scriptoriums]]. Each copy took months or even years to complete, making Bibles extremely expensive and rare. They were often richly illuminated with decorative artwork, making individual copies valuable works of art as well as religious texts.