Of the OT, the only part which has found a place in these MSS is that which includes the Sapiential books, and that probably has a different origin from the NT. The version is based on the Latin, corresponding exactly with the revision made at Paris at the beginning of the 13th cent., and ‘ con- tains none of the peculiarities of the southern texts of the end of the 13th cent., of which the Vaud NT seems to be the translation.’
4, All these translations with which we have so far been engaged were local and partial; but the same century which gave birth to the translations of Provence and Vaud also saw the origin of the first complete French Bible. ‘This dates from some time after the year 1226, the time to which Roger Bacon assigns the Paris revision of the Vulgate, the chapter divisions of which (as found in MSS Bibl. Nat. Jat. 15185, 15467) are adopted by the French Bible. An inferior date is fixed by the second Dominican revision of the Vulgate made by Hugh of St. Cher about 1250. The limits of time within which this complete French Bible was made are therefore fixed pretty narrowly. The trans- lation was made at Paris ‘by several translators working under the same guidance and using several Latin MSS, of which the chief was a copy of the Bible, corrected by the University.’ The character of the translations varies widely in the different parts of the Bible. Some books, for example Genesis, are glossed throughout ; in the rest of the Pentateuch there are no glosses, in other books there are few. The translation also varies very much in merit in respect of style and accuracy. There are many resemblances between the Gospels and the Prophets. The translation of the Acts and Catholic Epistles is poor ; on the other hand, that of St. Paul’s Epistles, especially the Epistle to the Romans, is very good. Some MSS give two ver- sions of the Epistle to Titus. All these things indi- cate that the work was not that of one translator, but of many.
Of the entire Bible we have only one perfect MS (Bibl. Nat. 77. 6 and 7), which dates from the end of the 14th century. Another MS in the same library (fr. 899) is a good deal older, dating from about 1250; but several books are not found in it, and it is mutilated at the beginning and end, for it begins with Gn 2™ and ends with 1 P 2%. Of the first part of the Bible we have three MSS of the 13th and 14th cents., viz. Arsenal MS 5056,
CONTINENTAL VERSIONS
Brit. Mus. Harleian 616, and Cambridge MS Ee. 3. 52. Of the second part of the Bible we have very many MSS. Amongst the oldest and most important of these, all of them belonging to the 13th cent., are Mazarin 684, Bibl. Nat. fr. 398, Brussels MS A. 211, Bibl. Nat. fv. 12581. It is not, however, easy to distinguish between MSS of the second part of the French Bible and MSS of the second volume, the so-called Bible Historiale (which incorporated bodily the Bible text), unless the MSS are older than the date of the Bible His- toriale. This work was a translation into French of the Historia Scholastica, composed by Peter Comestor about 1179. It was a réswmé of Bible history, incorporating many legends and a good deal of secular history. The French translation, or edition, was made by Guiars des Moulins, of Aire, in the N.E. of France, at the end of the 13th cent. He dealt very freely with the original, sometimes abridging, sometimes inserting, extracts of Bible text. The Bible Historiale Complétée— of which the oldest MS (A.D. 1312) is Brit. Mus. i. A, xx.—is the name given to Guiars’ work when accompanied by a translation of the actual text of the Bible. The smallest copies do not contain the text of Chron., Ezra, Neh., Job. Some add Job, while the so-called Grandes Bibles Historiales give the complete text of Chron., Ezra, and Nehemiah. The popularity rapidly attained by the work of Guiars des Moulins secured a wide circulation for the French translation of the Bible of which it incorporated so much.
5. In the 14th cent. there are only three trans- lations which require to be noticed—
(a) The first is an Anglo-Norman version made in England, which never had any influence in France. The earliest MS (Bibl. Nat. jf. 1) ends with He 13, and belongs to the first half of the
14th century. A second MS (Brit. Mus. i. C. iii).
dates from the 15th cent., and contains from Genesis to Tobit. The translation is not a good one.
(6) The second translation belonging to this period is the so-called Bible of king John, at whose command the work was begun by John of Sy in the diocese of Rheims. It is found in a MS (Bibl. Nat. fr. 15397) of the year 1355. Berger describes it as an ‘ excellent revision of the Anglo-Norman Bible,’ giving a text independent of the 18th cent. trans- lation. :
(c) Thirdly, we have to notice the incomplete ver- sion made by Raoul de Presles. This is the ‘ Bible of Charles V.,’ a revised text of which, containing the whole OT, is found in MS Bibl. Nat. fr. 158, a 14th cent. MS.