Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/318

 VATABLE

276

VATICAN

imNCjscusvjaymr

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-