New Translation of the Old and New Testament

Among the earliest complete Latin Bibles of the Renaissance to be rendered directly from Hebrew and Greek rather than merely revising the Vulgate, the Pagninus Bible belongs to the humanist movement to return to the original languages of scripture. It is a fresh translation encompassing the whole Bible, drawing on Hebrew and Greek sources, with the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament serving as its base texts, while its predecessor or base translation lay in the Vulgate tradition that had long governed Latin biblical reading in the West. Its translation philosophy is very literal and philological, aiming to mirror the wording and structure of the originals closely, and the work became known for this extreme literalness. Though less suited to liturgical or devotional use than smoother renderings, it was widely consulted by later scholars and translators and exercised lasting influence on subsequent philological scholarship.