Latin and Vernacular in the Cántico espiritual of St John of the Cross

Abstract

This article addresses three questions relating to St John of the Cross’ Cántico espiritual, a sacred pastoral, rooted in the Bible and inspired by the Song of Songs. Which text (or texts) of the Vulgate did he know? Was he familiar with Latin translations of the Song based on the Greek of the Septuagint? And was he familiar with recent renderings of the Hebrew text? It demonstrates, first, that St John was familiar with sixteenth-century editions of the Vulgate, was acquainted with certain variants in wording and punctuation that scholars had proposed, and made use of them in his own work. Second, the Vulgate was not the only Latin version of the Song that St John knew. Through the liturgy and the writings of the Fathers of the Church, he was acquainted with the Vetus Latina, based on the Septuagint, and its subsequent revision by St Jerome. Third, the Vulgate, based on the Hebrew, and the Vetus Latina, based on the Greek, made him aware of textual differences between the two traditions, as well as the divergent interpretations they had caused. His awareness of such differences appears to explain why on occasion, but not regularly, his readings coincide with those formulated by contemporary Spanish Hebraists.