Guyart des Moulins was a medieval monk. He is famous for being the author of the first Bible translation in French, the '' Bible Historiale''. __NOTOC__

Life

According to Alexis Paulin Paris, his name is written in "The Directory of manuscripts in the Library of the King" as Guyart des Moulins or Guyart-des-Moulins. His name is also found transcribed as Guiard Desmoulins; Guiart Desmoulins; Guiart des Moulins; and Guyar des Moulins. All these names refer to the author of the Bible Historiale. In the prologue of the ''Bible Historiale'', his year of birth is given as 1251. He was a ''chanoine de Saint Pierre'' (canon of St Peter) in

Aire-sur-la-Lys Aire-sur-la-Lys (, literally ''Aire on the Lys''; vls, Ariën-aan-de-Leie) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. Geography The commune is located 16 kilometres (10 mi) southeast of Saint-Omer, at the junctio ...

, and became dean there in 1297. He held this office until his death in 1312 or 1322.

Works

His ''Bible Historiale'' was largely translated from

Peter Comestor Petrus Comestor, also called Pierre le Mangeur (died 22 October 1178), was a twelfth-century French theological writer and university teacher. Life Petrus Comestor was born in Troyes. Although the name ''Comestor'' (Latin for 'eater', ''le Ma ...

's ''Historia Scholastica'', and was later augmented with translations from the

Vulgate The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...

. Paulin Paris wrote of his work, "It was for the people of the world that our Guyart des Moulins translated the Bible into French, more than a century after the death of Petrus Comestor."

References

Rosemarie Potz McGerr, "Guyart Desmoulins, the Vernacular Master of Histories, and his Bible Historiale", Viator 14 (1983), 211-244. {{authority control Bible translations into French French translators French Christian monks 13th-century French people 13th-century Christian monks 14th-century French people 14th-century Christian monks