During the Romanesque period there was some activ- ity in sculpture. The chief works in tliis branch of art were in ivory. Many of them are extremely interest- ing from the fact that they show an earnest spirit, though witli much naiveness and almost crudeness of execution. In painting, the chief works were in minia- ture, in the decoration of missals, and other MS. books of devotion. In France, more especially, manj' impor- tant compositions were executed in fresco, after the style current in the Orient, and probably done by Byz- antine artists. See Lhbke, Hist, of Art ; Kugler, Gesch. der Baukunst ; id. Gesch. der Mulerei; Schnaase, Gesch. dtr Kiinste ; Fergusson, Hist, of Architecture ; Rosen- garten, Iland-hovk of A rchitectural Styles. (G. F. C.)
Romanic Versions of the Holy Sckiptures. Under this head we mention —
1. The French Veisions. — As these versions have al- readj' been treated in this Cyclopcedia s. v. Fkench Veksioxs, we add the following as supplement. Ar- thur Dinaux has the merit of having pointed towards the first translator of the Bible, viz. Herman de Valen- ciennes, born about 1100. He was a priest and canon, and his version, free as it is for the greater part, was of the greatest importance for that time. He undertook it under the protection of the empress jMatliilde, wife of the (ierman emperor Henry V, and daughter of Henry I of England. His Genesis is preserved in the Har- leian Library, MS. 222, and his Livi-e de la Bible, or Histoire de VA ncien et du Nomeuu Testament en Vers, in the Imperial Library, MS. 7986. The assertion made by A. Paulin Paris, in his Maniiscrits Fran^ais de la Bibliotheque du Roi, that before the year 1170 no trans- lation of any note had been made, and that Etienne de Hansa. or d'Ansa, of Lyons, was the first who undertook a work of this kind, has Ijeen proved erroneous by Arthur Dinaux; yet Paulin refers to Le Long and to a letter written by pope Innocent IH to the bish- op of Mctz, published by Baluze, and translated into French by Le Roux de Lincy in his Introduction to the A ncienne Traduction des Quutre Lirres de Roi (Paris, 1841). Although Herman de Valenciennes must be re- garded as the first translator, the merits of litienne de Hansa, who undertook a translation at the request of Peter Valdo, are not diminished thereby in the least. Etienne's translation, i)res('rved in MS. 72()8--2-, and belonging to the first half of the i;5th century, is a work of great value concerning the language and the letters. A. I'aidin Paris saw many copies of that MS., which in part must be regarded as a revision. A version of this kind belongs to the beginning of the 14th eenturv, and to judge from its style, it nuist have been made in England. Tiiis version we find in MS. 0701, and the
MS. 6701. Mes le serpent estoit plus colut de tottes chosee te terre que Dieu tist, leqnel dit a la fenmie : Por quel vous comaunda Dieu que vous ne niengeasses de cheicun fust de paradis.
following specimen will best illustrate the difference be- tween the translation of 1170 (72G8 "•'•'■'•) and the version from the beginning of the 14th century (6701) : MS. 72GS2.2. I
Mes li serpenz estoit li plus voiseus de toutes las choses qui out ame et que Dame Dex* avoir fet. Et il dist a la feme : Por quoi vous a Dex commaude que vos ne meii- giez pas de lous les fuz de paradis (Gen. iii, 1).
With regard to the translation of 1170, we only mention that Innocent III, not knowing its source, subjected it about the year 1200 to the censor, and many writers of the 13th century believed it to be a pernicious book. Its language bears the original Romanic stamp, and re- minds one of the modern French. But it is striking that the translator, Etienne de Hansa, should be from Lyons. We maj' suppose that the northern French stamp of the translation of 1170, as we find it in the MS. 7268 '^■'^■, for the greater part belongs to the copyist. A. Paulin Paris conjectures that the language of the MS. is the same as that which was used at Rlieims or Sens in the loth century. The translation of 1170 is known as that of the " Bible des Pauvres." Le Roux de Lincy pronounces the translation of the MS. 7268 '^•^- an ex- cellent one, although he believes it to have been made in the 13th centur\- at the request of Louis the Saint. Etienne de Hansa's work is the more remarkable as it can be called with certainty thejirst which gives a cor- rect and literal translation of the whole Bible. The MS. 6818'-' contains a second literal translation, the author of which, according to the investigations of scholars, es- pecially of Aime Champollion, is said to have been Raoul de Presles. Le Roux de Lincy acquaints us also with translations of single parts of the Bible, the re- daction of which he puts in the 12th century, while the MSS. belong to the 13th century. As such he mentions:
1. Les Quatres Livresdu Hois; a MS. of which is in the IJiblotheque Mazariri.
2. Les Psauvies; MS. 1152 bis Supplement Fransais, 278 Latin, 'iSSl fonds Frau'.ais.