DOUAI, BIBBIA di. – English Catholic translation of Holy Scripture, completed between 1578 and 1610.
During the reign of Elizabeth (1558–1603), biblical texts were continually employed by Protestant polemicists against the Church. Catholic versions in current English for public use were lacking; the medieval one was antiquated, while the recent versions (Tindale, Coverdale, the Geneva and Bishops’ Bibles) were Protestant. In 1578 Dr. Gregory Martin, with the assistance of the future Cardinal Allen, and of Thomas Worthington, Richard Bristowe, John Reynolds, and others, began a translation based on the Vulgate. The New Testament was published at Reims in 1582; it is therefore often called The Rheims Testament (later eds.: 1600, 1621, 1633, 1728, 1788, 1803); the Old Testament at D. in 1609. The entire Bible appeared in 2 vols. in 4ᵉ in 1609–10.
This version is good, accurate, and learned, but it is excessively Latinate and cumbersome in format. The Anglican authorised version (1611) owes it much, as many non-Catholics today admit. Allen (v.) supplied the marginal notes to the Rheims Testament; a learned preface explained the reason for undertaking the work.
The name B. di D. is now generally, but incorrectly, given to the new version composed by Challoner (v.) in 1749–52 (various later editions), which is much more fluent, more convenient in format, and much closer in style to the Anglican authorised of 1611. The other Catholic versions, by Carpenter (1783), Troy (1791), Haydock (1811–12), Murray (1835), Denvir (1836), and Kenrick (1849–50), achieved little circulation; but Challoner’s remained the classic Catholic Bible in the English language until the version of Mons. Knox (1945 ff.) was published. Both enjoy the full approval and encouragement of the episcopate.
Enrico G. Rope