http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15367a.htm
German versions
The history of Biblical research in
Germany shows that of the numerous partial versions in the vernacular some go back to the seventh and eighth centuries. It also establishes the
certainty of such versions on a considerable scale in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and points to a complete Bible of the fifteenth in general use before the invention of printing. Of special interest are the five complete folio editions printed before 1477, nine from 1477 to 1522, and four in Low German, all prior to
Luther's New Testament in 1522.
Dutch and Flemish versions
The first Bible for
Catholics in
Holland was printed at Delft in 1475. Among several issued from the press of Jacob van Leisveldt at
Antwerp, one (1540) with the text of the
Vulgate is called the Biblia Belgica. The first authoritative version for
Catholics was translated from
Henten's Vulgate by Nicholas van Wingh, Peter de Cort, and Godevaert Stryode, O.P. (Louvain, 1545). After seventeen complete editions it was revised according to the Clementine
Vulgate and became the celebrated Bible of Moerentorf or Moretus (1599).
Scandinavian versions
In the fourteenth century, versions of the
Sunday Epistles and
Gospels were made for popular use in
Denmark. Large portions of the
Bible, if not an entire version, were published about 1470. The historical books of the
Old Testament and the
Apocalypse in
Swedish are all that are preserved of a complete version made in the fifteenth century and derived from earlier translations in use in the time of
St. Bridget (d. 1373).
Hungarian versions
A fourteenth-fifteenth-century
manuscript in
Vienna gives parts of the
Old Testament from the
Vulgate by the
Friars Minor, Thomas and Valentine. A fifteenth-century
manuscript of the whole Bible at
Gran, the
Codex Jordanszky, is
believed to contain at least in part a version that was made by Ladislaus Bathory,
Hermit of the Order of
St. Paul (d. 1456).
Celtic versions
Irish Ancient Gaelic versions of the Psalms, of a Gospel of
St. Matthew, and other sacred writings with
glosses and commentaries are found as early as the seventh century, Most of the literature through subsequent centuries abounds in
Scriptural quotations. A fourteenth-century
manuscript, the "Leabhar Braec" (Speckled Book), published at
Dublin (1872-5), contains a history of
Israel and a compendious history of the
New Testament. It has also the Passion of
Jesus Christ, a translation from the
apocryphal Gospel of
Nicodemus. Another fourteenth-century
manuscript, the "Leabhar Buide Lecain", also gives the Passion and a brief
Old-Testament history. Some scholars see in these writings indications of an early Gaelic version of the
Scriptures previous to the time of
St. Jerome. A modern
Protestant Gaelic
New Testament, begun from the original Greek by John
Kearney, 1574, Nicholas Walsh (later
Bishop of
Ossory), and Nehemias Donellan (later
Archbishop of
Tuam), and finished by William O'Donnell and Mortogh O'Cionga (King), was printed in 1602.
The English work in Bible study of the following nine centuries will be conveniently divided into three periods comprising three centuries each.
Eighth to tenth century
In the first period extending from the eighth to the tenth century we meet: (1)
St. Bede's translation of John, i, 1-vi, 9; (2) interlinear
glosses on the Psalms; (3) the
Paris Psalter; (4) the so-called
Lindisfarne Gospels; (5) the Rushworth version; (6) the West-Saxon
Gospels; (7)
Ælfric's version of a number of
Old-Testament books.
(1) The
proof for the
existence of
St. Bede's work rests on the authority of his pupil Guthberht who wrote about this fact to his fellow-student Cuthwine (see Mayor and Lumby, "Bedæ hist. eccl.", 178).
(2) The "Glossed
Psalters" have come down to us in twelve
manuscripts, six of which represent the Roman
Psalter, and six the Gallican. The oldest and most important of these
manuscripts is the so called Vespesian
Psalter, written in Mercia in the first half of the ninth century.
(3) The
Paris Psalter advances beyond the
glosses in as far as it is a real translation of Ps. i, 1-l, 10, ascribed by some scholars to
King Alfred (d. 901), though others deny this view. Cf.
William of Malmesbury. "Gesta regum Anglorum", II, 123.
(4) The
Lindisfarne Gospels, called also the
Durham Book, the Book of
St. Cuthbert, present the Latin text of the
Gospels dating from Redfrith,
Bishop of
Lindisfarne (698-721), with the so-called Northumbrian Gloss on the
Gospels, added about 950 by Aldred. Cf. Dr.
Charles O'Conor, "Bibl. stowensis", II (1818-19), 180.
(5) The Rushworth version of the first Gospel, with
glosses on the second, third, and
fourth Gospels, based on the
Lindisfarne glosses. Faerman, a
priest of Harewood (Harwood), made the translation of
St. Matthew and furnished the
glosses on
St. Mark, i, 1-ii, 15; St. John, xviii, 1-3; the rest of the work is taken from Owun's
glosses.
(6) The West-Saxon
Gospels are a rendering of the
Gospels originating in the south of
England about the year 1000; seven
manuscripts of this version have come down to us. Cf. W.W. Skeat, "The Gospels in Anglo-Saxon etc." (Cambridge, 1871-87).
(7)
Ælfric himself states in his work "De vetere testamento", written about 1010, that he had translated the
Pentateuch,
Josue, Judges, Kings, Job,
Esther, Judith, and the
Books of the Machabees. The translator frequently abridges, slightly in Genesis, more notably in the
Book of Judges and the following books; he adopts a metrical form in Judith. Cf. Nieder in "Zeitschrift für historische Theologie" (1855-56).
Eleventh to fourteenth century
The second period coincides with the Anglo-Norman
time, extending from the tenth to the thirteenth or fourteenth century. During this
time, French or the Anglo-Norman dialect reigned supreme among the upper classes, and in academic and official circles, while English was confined to the lower classes and the country-districts. The Bible renderings during the twelfth, thirteenth, and early fourteenth centuries were in French, whether they were made in
England or brought over from
France. Before the middle of the fourteenth century the entire
Old Testament and a great part of the
New Testament had been translated into the Anglo-Norman dialect of the period (cf. Berger, "La Bible française au moyen âge", Paris, 1884, 78 sqq.). As to English work, we may note two transcripts of the West-Saxon
Gospels during the course of the eleventh century and some copies of the same
Gospels into the Kentish dialect made in the twelfth century. The thirteenth century is an absolute blank as far as our
knowledge of its English Bible study is concerned. The English which emerged about the middle and during the second half of the fourteenth century was practically a new language, so that both the Old English versions which might have remained, and the French versions hitherto in use, failed to fulfil their purpose.
