Of tmnslations of parts of Scripture, chiefly the Psalters, into the more modern French, a large number exist in MS., of which a copious list is given by Le Long in his Bibliotheca Sacra. About thc year 138o a translation was undertaken by command of Charles V. of France by Raoul de Prailles, of which more than one copy exists. Le Long gives a description of a codex containing it, with some extracts, by way of specimen, of the language ; and there is another MS. of it in the British Museum, of which a full description is given in the Eibliotheca lartsdoumiana, p. 284, ff. The version in these codices does not go beyond Pro verbs.
Emerging from these obscurer regions of inquiry we come to those versions which have bcen printed, and of which it is possible to give a certain account.
1. That of Guiars des Moulins, an ecclesiastic of Picardy. Taking as his basis the Historia Scholas tica of Peter Comestor, a digest of the Bible Ills tory with glosses, he freely translated this ; adding a sketch of the history of Job, the Proverbs, and probably the other books ascribed to Solomon ; substituting for Comestor's history of the Macca bees a translation of this from the Vulgate ; and in general conforming the whole more closely to the text of the Vulgate than Comestor had done. The Psalms, Prophets, and Epistles, were not in the work as first issued ; and it is uncertain whether the Acts was not also omitted ; all these, however, were added in later copies. Many MSS. of this work exist, the most important of which is at Jena. An edition of this Bible, as completed by different hands, was issued from the press by order of Charles VIII. about the year 1487, edited by the king's confessor, J. de Rely, and printed by Verard, Paris, 2 tomes, fol. Twelve editions of this, some at Faris and some at Lyons, appeared between 1487 and 1545. This is called La Grant Bible, to dis tinguish it from a work entitled La Bible 'our ler simples gems, which is a summary of the history of the O. T., and of which several undated editions have been examined. Previous to the edition of 1487, an edition of the N. T., of the same transla tion as that found in the completed work of Guiars, but not by Gniars himself, was printed at Lyons by Barth. Buyer, fol., and edited by two Augustinian monks, Julien Macho and Peter Farget ; it is un dated, but is referred to the year 1478, and justly claims to be the Edell° Princep of the French Scriptures.
2. In the year 1523, appeared at Paris, from the press of Simon De Colines, an anonymous transla tion of the N. T., which was often reprinted, and to which in 1525 was added the Psalter, and in 1528 the rest of the O. T. (together 7 vols. Svo), the last portion being issued at Antwerp, in conse quence of attempts on the part of the French clergy to prevent its appearance. Tradition ascribes this version to Jacques Le Fevre d' Etaples, who had before this distinguished himself by a Latin trans lation of St. Paul's Epistles, and by exegetical works on the Gospels and Epistles; and there is no reason to question the justice of the ascription. This version is made from the Vulgate with slight variations in the N. T., where the author follows the Greek. The complete work appeared in one vol. fol., at Antwerp, in 153o, and again from the same types in 1532. It was placed in the Papal Index, in 1546; but in 1550 it was re-issued at Louvain in fol., edited by two priests, Nicolas de Leuze, and Franz van Larben, who corrected the style, and struck out all that savoured of what they deemed heresy. Of this corrected version many editions have been issued.
3. The first French Protestant version was pre pared by Pierre Robert Olivetan, a relation of Calvin, and was printed at Serrieres near Neufcha tel in Switzerland, in 1535, fol. Of this edition very few copies survive. It was reprinted at Geneva in 154o, at Lyons in 1541, and, with a few emendations from the pen of Calvin, again at Geneva in 1545. In 1551, a thoroughly revised edition, with the addition of some of the Apo cryphal books by I3eza, and a new tianslation of the Psalms by Dude, was issued at Geneva. It has been often reprinted since. An edition for the use of the Vaudois, and for which they subscribed isoo golden crowns, was printed at Neufchatel in 1556. This translation was made for the O. T., from the Latin version of Santes Pagninus, and for the N. T. after the versions of Lefevre and Erasmus. In its first form it was very imperfect, and even afteF the revisal of Calvin, and the emendations of subsequent editors, it remained behind the requirements of an authorized version.