A 1500 year old list of Hebrew Bible books in Latin characters

As one of the early Church Hebraists, Jerome's writings contain many interesting elements to people interested in Hebrew and Tanakh, among them issues of pronunciation.

Here is a list of the names of the books of Tanakh, as the Jews called them, in his introduction to Kings:

Bresith
Hellesmoth
Vaiecra
Vaiedabber
Addabarim
Iosue Bennum
Sopthim
Ruth
Samuhel
Malachim
Esaias
Hieremias
Cinoth
Hiezecihel
Thareasra
Iob
Psalmorum
Masaloth
Accoeleth
Sirassirim
Danihel
Dabreiamin
Ezras
Hester

It should be noted that I merely copied this list from someone who translated his Latin introduction into English. I didn't compare it to any other versions; I realize the anachronism of using the letter J rather than I in some of the words (but then, it is also an anachronism to call him Jerome) (ed.--thanks to Reb Berel I was able to correct the list; minor things like Daniel to Danihel, I to J have been corrected). Furthermore, these words were obviously subject to the same potential copyist errors that all manuscripts are, particularly as most scribes over the years did not know Hebrew (which could account, for instance, for Iosue bennum or Dabreiamin).

I recently came across a wonderful and fascinating book called Pantographia; containing accurate copies of all the known alphabets in the world; together with an English explanation of the peculiar force or power of each letter (by Edmund Fry, London, 1799).

In the entry on Hebrew it contains the following, on the authority of Jerome:

"St. Jerom, in his preface to the books of Kings, puts
"this matter in a still stronger light : he says, the Samaritans
"often copy the five books of Moses, in the same number
"of letters as the Jews do, but their letters differ in form,
"and the use of points

This last line is interesting because Jerome lived in the 4th and 5th century. He did receive Hebrew instruction from Jews living in Israel. Doesn't this quote confirm the widely believed traditional view that the points, that is the nekkudot, were not invented by the Masoretes after the Talmudic period?

In fact, the Pantographia is in error, but it's understandable. Jerome wrote "The Samaritans still write the Pentateuch of Moses in the same number of letters, only they differ in shapes and points (apicibus). The misunderstanding is in the meaning of apicibus in this context. It can mean points, but it also means endings. Jerome's intention was to note the existence of final forms in Hebrew letters used by Jews (מנצפ"ך). See.

More on the Pantographia will be at English Hebraica.