Erasmus on Vaticanus

Erasmian scholar H. J. De Jonge comments on this subject. Here are some excerpts and a link.

“Erasmus believed that the Ecumenical Council of Ferrera and Florence (1438-45), whose chief object had been the reunion of the Latin and Greek churches, had decided in favour of adapting the Greek manuscripts to the Vulgate.”

“‘It should be pointed out here in passing, that certain Greek manuscripts of the New Testament have been corrected in agreement with those of the Latin Christians. This was done at the time of the reunion of the Greeks and the Roman church. This union was confirmed in writing in the so-called Golden Bull…We too once came across a manuscript of this nature, and it is said that such a manuscript is still preserved in the papal library (  ) written in majuscule characters.’

“The manuscript to which Erasmus refers at the end of this passage is the Codex Vaticanus par excellence, now Gr 1209, designated as B. Erasmus regarded the text of this codex as influenced by the Vulgate and therefore inferior. For the same reasons he had earlier, in 1515/6, also excluded Gregory I as an inferior manuscript, from the constitution of the Greek text of his own Novum Instrumentum although this manuscript is now generally regarded as more reliable than the Codices which Erasmus preferred and made use of. Erasmus passed the same verdict on the Codex Rhodiensis (minuscule Wettstein Paul 50 = Apostolos 52) from which Stunica cited readings in his polemic against Erasmus.”

de Jonge points out that the Golden Bull did not mention Latinizing Greek texts. Later, Erasmus would clarify that he had heard that it had done so. He nevertheless continued to maintain that the latinizing of Greek manuscripts was done.

Erasmus and the Comma Johanneum, Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses, 1980, pp. 381-389