Paris Bible

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The Paris Bible (Latin : Biblia Parisiensia [1] ) was a standardized format of codex of the Vulgate Latin Bible originally produced in Paris in the 13th century. These bibles signalled a significant change in the organization and structure of medieval bibles and were the template upon which the structure of the modern bible is based.

Contents

Leaf from a Paris Bible. Illustration shows St. Peter writing Paris Bible.jpg
Leaf from a Paris Bible. Illustration shows St. Peter writing

Up to the beginning of the 13th century there was no single structure for the order of the biblical books, and it was often presented in 4 volumes. The Paris Bible was unique for its time; it was a pandect (complete single volume) with a uniform order, which is similar to the order of the modern Bible used today. Between 1230 and 1280 AD this bible was copied more frequently and spread more widely across Europe than any other copy of the Bible. [2]

Common characteristics

Paris Bible is the name given to bibles produced by scribes mainly in Paris and areas of Northern France although examples are believed to have originated in England and Italy. [3] However, scholars caution that the term is used too broadly as it is often confused with the 'pocket bible' [4] which is applied to bibles produced from the 12th century onwards. These were small enough to be carried in a saddle or travelling bag or indeed a pocket. [5]

Scholars apply the term to bibles which possess a number of common characteristics. Each pandect contained the apocryphal books, 64 prologues mostly based on the commentaries of Jerome and an index of the interpretations of Hebrew names (IHN).  Whilst the thirteenth century bibles were divided into chapters, they were yet to include numbered verses. [6]

Structure and format

Scholars have disputed the fact that all Paris Bibles were single volume manuscripts as several two volume bibles are still in existence. Several leading Book Historians have suggested that where there is evidence of highly decorated pages mid-way through a one volume bible it is evidence of a two-volume manuscript being rebound at a later date as one volume. [2]

Readers and owners

The founding of a flurry of universities in the thirteenth century can be regarded as one of the major changes which determined how the Bible would change. One of the often-heard comments of the Paris Bible is that it was designed for studying the newly introduced theology which raised questions about the Articles of Faith and the doctrine of the Church. Mendicant Orders also created schools (studia) which had, at the heart of the education program, an academic study of the scriptures. It was these changes which led to the desire to rearrange the format of the Bible in order that students, masters and preachers could retrieve information effectively. Adding reading aids like running headers and chapter numbers allowed readers to find the Books of the Bible and essential text. [7]

Related Research Articles

The deuterocanonical books are books and passages considered by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and/or the Assyrian Church of the East to be canonical books of the Old Testament, but which Jews and Protestants regard as apocrypha. They date from 300 BC to 100 AD, before the separation of the Christian church from Judaism. While the New Testament never directly quotes from or names these books, the apostles quoted the Septuagint, which includes them. Some say there is a correspondence of thought, and others see texts from these books being paraphrased, referred, or alluded to many times in the New Testament, depending in large measure on what is counted as a reference.

<i>Vulgate</i> Translation of the Bible by Jerome

The Vulgate, sometimes referred to as the Latin Vulgate, is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bible translations</span> Translations of the Bible

The Bible has been translated into many languages from the biblical languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. As of September 2023 all of the Bible has been translated into 736 languages, the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,658 languages, and smaller portions of the Bible have been translated into 1,264 other languages according to Wycliffe Global Alliance. Thus, at least some portions of the Bible have been translated into 3,658 languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douay–Rheims Bible</span> English-language Catholic Bible

The Douay–Rheims Bible, also known as the Douay–Rheims Version, Rheims–Douai Bible or Douai Bible, and abbreviated as D–R, DRB, and DRV, is a translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into English made by members of the English College, Douai, in the service of the Catholic Church. The New Testament portion was published in Reims, France, in 1582, in one volume with extensive commentary and notes. The Old Testament portion was published in two volumes twenty-seven years later in 1609 and 1610 by the University of Douai. The first volume, covering Genesis to Job, was published in 1609; the second, covering the Book of Psalms to 2 Maccabees plus the three apocryphal books of the Vulgate appendix following the Old Testament, was published in 1610. Marginal notes took up the bulk of the volumes and offered insights on issues of translation, and on the Hebrew and Greek source texts of the Vulgate.

<i>Vetus Latina</i> Bible translations into Latin before Jeromes Vulgate

Vetus Latina, also known as Vetus Itala, Itala ("Italian") and Old Italic, and denoted by the siglum , is the collective name given to the Latin translations of biblical texts that preceded the Vulgate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wycliffe's Bible</span> Middle English translations of the Bible

Wycliffe's Bible or Wycliffite Bibles or Wycliffian Bibles (WYC) are names given for a sequence of Middle English Bible translations believed to have been made under the direction or instigation of English theologian John Wycliffe of the University of Oxford. They are the earliest known literal translations of the entire Bible into English. They appeared over a period from approximately 1382 to 1395.

1 Esdras, also Esdras A, Greek Esdras, Greek Ezra, or 3 Esdras, is the ancient Greek Septuagint version of the biblical Book of Ezra in use within the early church, and among many modern Christians with varying degrees of canonicity. 1 Esdras is substantially similar to the standard Hebrew version of Ezra–Nehemiah, with the passages specific to the career of Nehemiah removed or re-attributed to Ezra, and some additional material.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Codex Amiatinus</span> Considered the best-preserved copy of the Vulgate version of the Bible

The Codex Amiatinus is considered the best-preserved manuscript of the Latin Vulgate version of the Christian Bible. It was produced around 700 in the northeast of England, at the Benedictine Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey in the Kingdom of Northumbria, now South Tyneside, and taken to Italy as a gift for Pope Gregory II in 716. It was one of three giant single-volume Bibles then made at Monkwearmouth–Jarrow, and is the earliest complete one-volume Latin Bible to survive, only the León palimpsest being older. It is the oldest Bible where all the biblical canon present what would be their Vulgate texts.

The name "Esdras" is found in the title of four texts attributed to, or associated with, the prophet Ezra. The naming convention of the four books of Esdras differs between church traditions; and has changed over time.

<i>Nova Vulgata</i> Classical Latin translation of the Bible

The Nova Vulgata, also called the Neo-Vulgate, is the official Classical Latin translation of the original-language texts of the Bible published by the Holy See. It was completed in 1979, and was promulgated the same year by John Paul II in Scripturarum thesaurus. A second, revised edition was published in 1986. It is the official Latin text of the Bible of the Catholic Church. The Nova Vulgata is also called the New Latin Vulgate or the New Vulgate.

These are the books of the Vulgate along with the names and numbers given them in the Douay–Rheims and King James versions of the Bible. They are all translations, and the Vulgate exists in many forms. There are 76 books in the Clementine edition of the Latin Vulgate, 46 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament, and 3 in the Apocrypha.

A correctory is any of the text-forms of the Latin Vulgate resulting from the critical emendation as practised during the course of the thirteenth century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Latin Psalters</span> Translations of the Book of Psalms into Latin

There exist a number of translations of the Book of Psalms into the Latin language. They are a resource used in the Liturgy of the Hours and other forms of the canonical hours in the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church.

The Old Testament is the first section of the two-part Christian biblical canon; the second section is the New Testament. The Old Testament includes the books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) or protocanon, and in various Christian denominations also includes deuterocanonical books. Orthodox Christians, Catholics and Protestants use different canons, which differ with respect to the texts that are included in the Old Testament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bible Historiale</span>

The Bible Historiale was the predominant medieval translation of the Bible into French. It translates from the Latin Vulgate significant portions from the Bible accompanied by selections from the Historia Scholastica by Peter Comestor, a literal-historical commentary that summarizes and interprets episodes from the historical books of the Bible and situates them chronologically with respect to events from pagan history and mythology.

In Biblical studies, a gloss or glossa is an annotation written on margins or within the text of biblical manuscripts or printed editions of the scriptures. With regard to the Hebrew texts, the glosses chiefly contained explanations of purely verbal difficulties of the text; some of these glosses are of importance for the correct reading or understanding of the original Hebrew, while nearly all have contributed to its uniform transmission since the 11th century. Later on, Christian glosses also contained scriptural commentaries; St. Jerome extensively used glosses in the process of translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bible translations in the Middle Ages</span>

Bible translations in the Middle Ages went through several phases, all using the Vulgate. In the Early Middle Ages, they tended to be associated with royal or episcopal patronage, or with glosses on Latin texts; in the High Middle Ages with monasteries and universities; in the Late Middle Ages, with popular movements which caused, when the movement were associated with violence, official crackdowns of various kinds on vernacular scripture in Spain, England and France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sixto-Clementine Vulgate</span> Catholic edition of Vulgate published in 1592

The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate or Clementine Vulgate is an edition of the Latin Vulgate, the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. It was the second edition of the Vulgate to be formally authorized by the Catholic Church, the first being the Sixtine Vulgate. The Clementine Vulgate was promulgated in 1592 by Pope Clement VIII, hence its name. The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate was used officially in the Catholic Church until 1979, when the Nova Vulgata was promulgated by Pope John Paul II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bible translations into Latin</span>

The Bible translations into Latin date back to classical antiquity.

The León Palimpsest, designated l or 67, is a 7th-century Latin manuscript pandect of the Christian Bible conserved in the cathedral of León, Spain. The text, written on vellum, is in a fragmentary condition. In some parts it represents the Old Latin version, while following Jerome's Vulgate in others. The codex is a palimpsest.

References

  1. Canellis, Aline, ed. (2017). "Introduction : Du travail de Jérôme à la Vulgate" [Introduction: From Jerome's work to the Vulgate]. Jérôme : Préfaces aux livres de la Bible[Jerome : Preface to the books of the Bible] (in French). Abbeville: Éditions du Cerf. p. 217. ISBN   978-2-204-12618-2.
  2. 1 2 Light, Laura (2012). "The thirteenth century and the Paris Bible". The New Cambridge History of the Bible. 2: 380–391 via Cambridge Core.
  3. Ruzzier, Chiara. "The miniaturisation of Bible manuscripts in the 13th century. A comparative study". Form and Function in the Late Medieval Bible, ed. by L. Light – E. Poleg, pp. 105-125. via Academia.edu.
  4. O’Daly, Irene (July 25, 2014). "Size Matters: Portable Medieval Manuscripts". medievalfragments. Archived from the original on Sep 7, 2023.
  5. Light, Laura (1994). 'French Bibles c. 1200-30: A New Look at the Origin of the Paris Bible' in Richard Gameson (ed.), The Early Medieval Bible: Its Production, Decoration and Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 155–76.
  6. Liere, Frans Van (2012). "The Latin Bible, c. 900 to the Council of Trent, 1546". The New Cambridge History of the Bible.
  7. Rouse, R.H and M.A (1982). 'Statim invenire. Schools, Preachers, and new attitudes to the page', in R.L. Benson and G. Constable (eds.), Renaissance and Renewal in the Twelfth Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 201–25.