FRENCH PROTESTANT BIBLE 1535 FIRST EDITION DISPLAY LEAF
 
OFFER CONTENTS
 
1. An original display leaf from the 1535 first edition PROTESTANT FRENCH BIBLE with Certificate of Authetitcity. NOTE: THE ABOVE ORIGINAL LEAF IS FOR DISPLAY PURPOSE ONLY. Feel free to ask for your favourite text. 
2. A fine art reproduction of the title page of the1535 first edition PROTESTANT FRENCH BIBLE 
3. Reference material from Darlow and Moule Catalogue 1903-1911.
 
The first French Protestant version; a revision, based on the Hebrew and Greek, by Pierre Robert Olivetan. Sometimes known as ‘La Bible de Serrieresf from the village of that name near Neuchatel, where it was published. 
 
P. R. Olivetan was born at Noyon, in Picardy, in 1500, and was a kinsman of J. Calvin. At the conference of Angrogne in Piedmont (Sept. 1532), ‘ rencontre momentanee des Réformes d’avant la Réforme avec les enfants de la renaissance littéraire et biblique,’ the delegates urged the necessity of preparing a revision of the French Bible, based on the original texts, and of printing a large edition of such a work. In seeking a fit translator, the Reformers’ choice fell on Olivetan, a competent Hebrew and Greek scholar, who accepted the task only after the repeated solicitation of leaders like Farel and Viret. Calvin, in his Latin preface (see below), while enumerating the qualities which fitted Olivetan for this labour, alludes to his modesttu, or rather unrnoclieus pudor, quo pene eb hoc td sencto Zctbore susctpiedo ctbstrctctus est, nist hortatu ee etid ftegitattone sue vtctu sdcti vtri . . . Gusemeth ef} Ohlorotes [Fare] and Viret—see below] tddem menus dere coegissent. Olivetan died at Ferrara in 1538.
 
In basing his revision of Le Fevre’s version on the Hebrew and the Greek, Olivetan appears to have followed generally the guidance of Pagninus and Erasmus, using their Latin translations of the O. T. and the N. T. respectively; and he also consulted versions such as those of Luther and Bruccioli. Some of his notes are borrowed from Nicolaus de Lyra and from Erasmus’ Paraphrase. To Olivetan is due the introduction of the French' term L’Eternel as an equivalent for the Ineffable Name.
 
E. Reuss has made an exhaustive study of Olivetan’s Bible, and published his results in the Strassburg Revue cle Theologte (Series III, vols. 3 and 4). Though throughout the translator had before him Le Fevre’s Bible, yet, in the O. T. at least, his version is practically a new translation. This is shown in a marked manner in the Psalter, which is here based on the Hebrew text, and not, as in Le Fevre’s version and in nearly all mediaeval French Psalters, on the Gallican Psalter. Graf asserts that Olivetan’s marginal notes alone are sufficient to prove that he made an independent use of the Hebrew text, and did not merely rely on Pagninus. In the Apocrypha—which, like his contemporary the English translator Miles Coverdale, he separated from the canonical books—Olivetan reproduced with slight alterations Le Fevre’s text. In the N. T. he corrected his predecessor’s version by the Greek, probably following Erasmus’ edition of 1527, and was careful to print in smaller type all words not represented in the Greek text.
 
There seems no proof that Calvin, who in 1535 published his Institutes, collaborated with Olivetan in the original work of translation: he contributed, however, a Latin preface, and an introduction to the N. T., and afterwards took a large share in repeated revisions of the version. For other Reformers mentioned in the preliminary matter, see below. Olivetan’s amanuensis Bonaventure des Periers (c. 15104544) subsequently achieved fame as author of Oyrnbelurn Metndt, Les Nouveltes Recreations et Joyeux Devis and poems. He was a courtier of Marguerite, Queen of Navarre, whose Heptmneron is sometimes- though without warrant—ascribed to his pen.