Biblia, Piibli, Paipera

[Bible in Dutch]. Biblia: dat is de gantsche heylige schrift. D. Mart. Lutheri; Gelijck de selve in de Christlycke Gemeente der Confessie van Augspurg in de Nederlanden gebruyckt wort; mitsgaders de Psalmen Davids ... als mede de Catechismus ... Amsterdam: bij Ian Ianssen Inde Paskaert, 1633.

This seventeenth century Dutch Bible was translated from the German of Martin Luther (1483-1546) and issued by the Amsterdam printer Jan Jansson (1588-1664).

The first edition of any portion of the Bible in Dutch was a two-volume Old Testament translated from a fourteenth century Vulgate Bible and printed at Delft in 1477. The editio princeps of the Dutch New Testament, also translated from the Vulgate, appeared in 1522. That same year saw the first printing of Luther’s German New Testament, soon to be followed by the first Dutch translation of Luther’s German Testament, by an unknown author, in 1523.

[Bible in Dutch]. Biblia: dat is de gantsche heylige schrift. D. Mart. Lutheri; Gelijck de selve in de Christlycke Gemeente der Confessie van Augspurg in de Nederlanden gebruyckt wort; mitsgaders de Psalmen Davids ... als mede de Catechismus ... Amsterdam: bij Ian Ianssen Inde Paskaert, 1633.
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[New Testament in French]. Le Nouveau Testament de nostre seigneur Jesus Christ: traduit en francois selon l'edition vulgate, avec les differences du Grec. Nouvelle ed., revue & exactement corrigee. Mons [Belgium]: Gaspard Migeot, 1710.

This 1710 New Testament is a revision of the Port Royal version, first printed at Mons by Gaspard Migeot in 1667. It is also known as the Mons Testament, or De Sacy’s version.

The translation, from the Vulgate, was begun by Antoine le Maistre (1608-1658) then revised and completed by his brother, Louis Isaac le Maistre (1613-1684), known by the pseudonym of De Sacy – who utilised the original Greek.

De Sacy also translated the Old Testament (from the Vulgate) during a period of imprisonment in the Bastille. His translations are said to pay more attention to clarity and elegance than to faithfulness. The Port Royal version was the most widespread French Bible in the eighteenth century.

[New Testament in French]. Le Nouveau Testament de nostre seigneur Jesus Christ: traduit en francois selon l'edition vulgate, avec les differences du Grec. Nouvelle ed., revue & exactement corrigee. Mons [Belgium]: Gaspard Migeot, 1710.
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[New Testament in Upper Sorbian]. Nowy Testament aby Sakon nascheho Knesa Jesom Krysta, predy wot D. Mertena Luthera do njemskeje … Czischczany we Ljeczi [Rudolstadt]: [s.n.], 1773.

Upper Sorbian is a minority language spoken by Sorbs in the historical province of Upper Lusatia, today part of Saxony and Brandenburg in Germany, and Lower Silesia and Lubusz in Poland. It belongs to the West Slavic language branch, which includes Czech, Slovak and Polish.

The first New Testament in Upper Sorbian was translated by Michael Frenzel (1628-1706) from the German of Martin Luther and published as a diglot (with the German version) in 1706. The first complete Bible in Upper Sorbian was printed at Bautzen in 1728.

The Upper Sorbian New Testament on display is a revised edition based upon Frenzel’s translation and printed at Rudolstadt in 1773.

[New Testament in Upper Sorbian]. Nowy Testament aby Sakon nascheho Knesa Jesom Krysta, predy wot D. Mertena Luthera do njemskeje … Czischczany we Ljeczi [Rudolstadt]: [s.n.], 1773.
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