Abstract: The term ’Old Latin’ (Vetus Latina) is conventionally applied to those forms of the Latin Bible that predate in origin the Vulgate of Jerome. They are preserved in two forms: in citations in the early Christian writers, and in various manuscripts dating over some 1000 years, from late antiquity to the high Middle Ages. This study particularly addresses the manuscript traditions of the four canonical Gospels, and seeks to answer three questions: How did the extant traditions come into being? What distinct techniques of translation can be identified? What is their relationship to the sort of language traditionally described as ’Late Latin’ or ’Vulgar Latin’? The work concludes with a comparison of the Old Latin translation techniques and those employed by Jerome in his revision.

Keywords: Old Latin, Vulgar Latin, Late Latin, Translation technique, Vulgate, Vetus Latina