Le Nouveau Testament de nostre seigneur Jesus Christ, traduit en françois selon l'edition Vulgate, avec les différences du grec

First edition of the Port-Royal translation of the New Testament. The work was initiated by Antoine Le Maistre, and continued by Antoine Arnauld and Louis-Isaac Le Maistre de Sacy. The preface was revised by Pierre Nicole and Claude de Sainte-Marthe. This edition is generally attributed to Daniel Elzevier of Amsterdam and is finely printed. Frontispiece after Philippe de Champaigne, engraved by Van Schuppen. According to Brunet, who provides an extensive description of this first edition (V. 749), it was printed by Elzevier and sold by Migeot; he also notes that there were two printings of this first edition, the second distinguished by the absence of a title page in the second volume. First title page printed in red and black. Copy entirely ruled in red. Although the second printing is characterized by the missing title page, another issue—possibly earlier—without privilege also exists; the present copy includes both the privilege and a title page in the second volume. One may therefore wonder whether there were not in fact three distinct printings of this first edition.
Contemporary full green morocco bindings. Spines with raised bands, richly gilt. Gilt titles and volume numbers. Triple gilt fillet borders on covers. Gold-stamped decorative paper endpapers. Gilt edges. Inner dentelles. Spines slightly faded. Some rubbing. Opposite the frontispiece, a manuscript page reproducing Brunet’s note on this edition.

A handsome contemporary morocco-bound copy.

This translation, celebrated in the history of Jansenism, was the result of collaborative work (Antoine Arnauld, Le Maistre de Sacy...) led and initiated by Antoine Le Maistre, whose ambitious project was to translate the entire Bible. This undertaking later became known as the Port-Royal Bible, into which this first publication of the New Testament was incorporated. Though this edition was a great success due to its accessibility, it immediately caused a scandal in religious circles, and many pamphlets and publications harshly condemned it. While it was unanimously embraced by the Jansenists, the Jesuits denounced it as diabolical. The preface, a masterful justification of the translators’ work, was written by Le Maistre de Sacy, brother of Antoine Le Maistre; it is said that he was imprisoned in the Bastille while en route to a meeting with Pierre Nicole and Antoine Arnauld to discuss this very preface, which he was carrying in his pocket.
It was during his imprisonment that Le Maistre de Sacy finalized the revision of the translation begun by Antoine Le Maistre. Learning that copies were beginning to circulate clandestinely, he decided to have the New Testament printed. As the chancery refused to grant a privilege, the publication had to be done abroad, with a fictitious French publisher’s name. The Testament de Mons met with immediate success: nearly 5,000 copies were sold within six months. In 1668, it was reprinted four times. Nevertheless, several bishops banned it from their dioceses, and even Pope Clement IX threatened excommunication for anyone using it. To this day, the Port-Royal Bible remains a model of prose; it was the Bible of 19th-century writers and long favored by the literary elite. The Council of Trent (1545–1563) had mandated that all Bible translations include explanatory notes. The Port-Royal version contains no annotations but features a preface regarded as a foundational text of the Port-Royal School, asserting the moral obligation of every layperson to read the Bible. It was banned for failing to comply with the Council’s decree.