Sixteenth Century Bibles and Biblical History From 1500-1599

Chronological History of the Bible - 16th Century

| home | chronology page | updated 11/27/2014

1500 The first Spanish Bible.

1501 Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the Papal Bull of Pope Alexander VI is published, being the first censorship list of printed books.

1506 Jacobus Sacon of Lyons, France prints his first edition of the Latin Bible.

1512 Epistles and Gospels published in Spanish by Ambrose de Montesian.

1514 -18 First Polyglot Bible, Cardinal Ximenes' Complutensian Polyglot; Printed at Alcala de Henares by De Brocar; contains only noble style of Greek employed between the invention of printing and recent times; contains first Hebrew Bible published by Christians, and first separately printed Greek New Testament.

1515 Latin translation 'after the Hebrew' of the Psalter by Felix Pratensis. (additional info courtesy Dick Wursten of Antwerp, Belgium)

1516 First Polyglot portion of Bible, the Genoa Psalterium (Book of Psalms)

1516 Desiderius Erasmus' (1466-1536) first Greek New Testament. Printed and published by Froben in Basel; said to have had greater influence on Tyndale than either the Vulgate or Luther.

1517 First Biblia Rabbinica (Venice), printed by Daniel Bomberg, and included the Targum and other traditional explanations.

1518 First separate complete Greek Bible, printed and published in Venice by Aldus Manutius, being the Greek text of the Septuagint, translated by Erasmus.

1522 Latin Paraphrase New Testament (Erasmus)

1522 First Dutch New Testament

1522 Wolff's Bibliorum

1522 First German New Testament of Martin Luther (Wittenberg)

1524 First Danish New Testament - published in Leipzig, Germany. Translated by Hans Mikkelsen (former mayor of Malmo, Denmark) and Dr. Kristian Winther, from the Vulgate and Luther's German translation; both Mikkelsen and Winther were allies of exiled Danish King Christian II. Mikkelsen's preface defends the King and attacks his foes, which caused the book to be banned in Denmark; later copies omitted the preface and were sent to Denmark, becoming popular; critics of this poorly translated work called it "neither German nor Danish."

1525 In Cologne, Germany, William Tyndale completes the New Testament, translated directly from the Greek into English; Printed by Peter Quentell in 4to (Quarto), and finished in 8vo (Octavo) at Worms office of Schoeffer; of 6000 copies printed, 3 copies exist of the original octavo edition (one at Baptist College, Bristol; one at St. Paul's, London; and the third ?); a mere fragment (31 leaves) of the quarto edition survives in the British Museum; there were 40 reprinted editions before 1566. This is the first printed book to be officially banned in England.

1526 First complete Dutch Bible

1526 First Edition of the First complete Swedish translation of the New Testament by Olaus Petri, the great reformer of the Church of Sweden, assisted by Archdeacon and fellow-reformer Laurentius Andreae; translation made from the edited Greek text of Erasmus and Luther's German translation of 1522; printed on the King's Royal printing press in Stockholm, bearing the Swedish national coat-of-arms on the last page of text, and dated MDXXVI, with no translator's name given; by the 1930's only six copies were known to exist.

1526 First separate Latin Septuagint (the oldest translation from Hebrew to Greek of the Old Testament)

1528 First Latin Bible of modern times - translated from the original languages by the Dominican, Sanctus Pagninus, under Papal authority

1528 Robert Stephen's First Latin Bible

1529 First Swiss-German Bible. The Zurich Bible, a collective effort by Leo Juda and Ulrich Zwingli

1530 The English Parliament declares Henry VIII "ecclesiastically supreme" and he becomes "Protector and Supreme Head of the English Church"

1530 First Pentateuch (first 5 books of the Old Testament) in English

1530 English Psalter

1530 Brucioli's First Italian Testament. Complete Bible in 1532

1530 Lempereur's French Bible, a translation of the Vulgate by Lefèvre d'Etaples. (additional info provided by Dick Wursten of Antwerp, Belgium)

1530 The Swiss or Alemannic Bible; a “composite” Bible, a term coined by the scholar Georg Wolfgang Panzer, it consisted of translations by Luther and others, and the introduction has been attributed to Zwingli.

1534 Dietenberger's Catholic German Bible

1534 Martin Luther completes a German Bible

1534 Joye's Antwerp revision of Tyndale

1534-5 First Hebrew Bible printed by Gentile

1535 First Hebrew-Latin Bible (Basle)

1535 First French Protestant Bible (Pierre-Robert Olivetan)

1535 First complete Bible in English by Miles Coverdale (1488-1568) who finished his manuscript on October 4th. The sheets were printed either in Zurich or Antwerp, probably in 1536, and then shipped to England for rebinding and publication in 1537. Also known as the Treacle Bible.

1537 Coverdale Bible first printed in England (see previous listing). Bound and published by James Nicholson as a small folio. Coverdale's dedication referred to Henry VIII as "Defender of the Faith, and under God the chief and Supreme Head of the Church of England"

1537 Two revised editions of the Coverdale Bible are published, officially sanctioned by Henry VIII

1537 Libri Salomonis

1537 Eck's German Catholic Bible

1537 Rogers-Matthew Bible; better known as the Matthew's Bible, edited and compiled by John Rogers and printed in Antwerp by Richard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch. Largely a Tyndale translation but also a compilation of various translations, with abrasive anti-Catholic notes. The name "Thomas Matthew" appears on the title page (a pseudonym for John Rogers) since for political expediency William Tyndale's name was left out.

1538 Coverdale's Diglot (Latin and English) edition of the New Testament.

1539 Genesis (Pietro Aretino) in Italian

1539 (Richard) Taverner Bible (a revision of Matthew's Bible). Although licensed by Henry VIII, it was not as well done as the other English editions, including the Great Bible

1539 Great Bible (Cromwell) Authorized English; of "lavish size and adornment" a large folio with frontispiece by Hans Holbein showing Henry VIII enthroned, handing the Bible down to Cranmer and Cromwell; seven editions were published from 1539-1541. Also known as the “Chained Bible” because it was chained to its stand in many churches.

1540 Bokes of Salomon

1540 First Icelandic New Testament, translated by a Lutheran convert, Oddur Gottskálksson; his translation work was carried on in secret at Skálholt, Iceland. The book was published in Roskilde, Denmark, and is the first book published in Icelandic; A copy may be found in the library of Cornell University.

1540 First Latin New Testament of England

1541 First Hungarian New Testament

1541 First complete Swedish Bible, published in Stockholm; translated under the supervision of Archbishop of Sweden Laurentius Petri, the brother of Olaus Petri; text similar to Luther's complete translation of 1534 and remained the Church Bible of Sweden until 1917.

1542 Servetus Bible

1543 First Zurich Latin Bible

1543 First Spanish New Testament, and dedicated to the emperor Charles V, by Francis Enzina (Driander).

1544 First North American printed document; (Mexico City)- Doctrina breve muy p[ro] vechosa de las cosas que per tenecen…, by Juan de Zumarraga, the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Mexico.

1544-5 First Standard German Luther Bible, last to be revised by Luther

1546 Robert Stephen's First Greek Testament

1548 Flemish Bible translated by Nicholas Vinck, printed and published at Louvain.

1548 First Finnish New Testament, translated by Michael Agricola, and printed in Stockholm, Sweden; Agricola also translated several books of the Old Testament, such that a quarter of the work was complete when he died in 1557.

1548-9 Erasmus' English paraphrase of New Testament

1549 First separate English Apocrypha

1550 First Greek-Latin Bible

1550 Royal (Stephens) Edition Greek Testament

1550 First Danish-Norwegian Bible

1550 First French Louvain Bible, by order of the Emperor, Charles V.

1551-1599

1551 The Inquisitorial Index of Valentia, Spain (supplement) forbids Bibles in Spanish or any other vernacular.

1551 Teofilo's Italian New Testament

1551 Castelione's First Latin Bible (Basle)

1551-52 First New Testament With Verses

1552 Les Pseaulmes de David

1553 First French Bible in Verses

1553 Biblia en Lengua Espanola Traducida Palabra por Palabra de la Verdad Hebrayca por Muy Excelentes Letrados, Vista y Examinada por el Oficio de la Inquisicion (The Bible in the Spanish Language, Translated Word for Word from the True Hebrew by Very Excellent Literati, Viewed and Examined by the Office of the Inquisition) First Spanish Old Testament, printed at Ferrara in gothic characters, and dedicated to Hercules D'Este, duke of Ferrara. Two editions were printed.

1553 First Polish New Testament, translated by Jan Sieklutzki, said to be a personal friend of Luther.

1553 First Crespin Greek Testament

1554 The Inquisitorial Index of Valladolid, Spain, lists 103 editions of the Bible condemned because of errors and heresies to suppression, correction or cancellation.

1555 First Latin Bible in Verses

1555 A proclamation by Britain’s Queen Mary commands “that no manner of persons presume to bring into this realm any mss., books, papers, etc., in the name of Martin Luther, John Calvin, Miles Coverdale, Erasmus, Tyndale, etc. or any like books containing false doctrines against the Catholic faith.”

1557 The Whittingham New Testament, aka the Geneva New Testament - the first Critical Edition of the New Testament in English, printed at Geneva by Conrad Badius; translated by William Whittingham, brother-in-law of John Calvin; introduction by John Calvin; First English language version to use verses and italics for supplied words; first translation to be printed in Roman type; one edition, never reprinted.

1560 French Psalter in meter

1560 Geneva Bible (also known as the Puritan or Breeches Bible); compiled by Whittingham, Anthony Gilbey, Thomas Sampson, Christopher Goodman, and William Cole; a small quarto, printed by Rovland Hall, Geneva; a meticulous rendering from Greek and Hebrew original translations; first complete English Bible to be divided into verses, the first to be set in Roman type and to use italics for omitted words in the original; meant for the common people, 140 editions were published from 1560-1644.

1561 First Polish Bible (Leopolita); also known as the Cracow Bible.

1561 The Place Makers’ Bible. The Geneva Bible, Second Edition, Folio. “Blessed are the place makers; for they shall be called the children of God.” – Matt. v. 9. Published at Geneva, this extraordinary misprint was corrected to read peace and never occurred again.

1562 First complete Croatian New Testament; translated by Antonius Dalmata and Stephanus Consul Istrianus, edited in Tubingen, Germany.

1562 Durone's Italian Bible

1562 Harrison Great Bible

1562 Sternhold & Hopkin's First Psalter

1565 Radziwill, Socinian, or Brest Litovsk Bible (Polish Protestant version); a translation from the original languages by eighteen scholars under the patronage of Prince Nikolas Radziwill (Czarny’), and not popular with Polish Protestants.

1565 First Greek Testament of Beza

1566 Buchanan's Latin Psalter

1566 Carmarden Great Bible

1567 First Welch New Testament

1568 Bishop's Bible, also called Parker Bible, Episcopal Bible; went through 22 editions, with the last in 1606; not a popular version, not well edited.

1569 First Spanish Bible

1569 Plantin Polyglot Bible; printed and published by a Frenchman, Christopher Plantin, in Antwerp; text edited by Benedictus Arias Montanus, Chaplain to Philip II of Spain; Plantin's Bible is in five languages - Latin Vulgate, Hebrew, Greek, and Chaldaic (in the Old Testament), with Syriac replacing the Chaldaic in the New Testament; Special types were required, with the Greek and Syriac fonts cut by Robert Granjon and the Hebrew by Guillaume Le Bé. 1,200 paper copies and 12 vellum copies were produced, and is considered Plantin's masterpiece.

1571 Anglo-Saxon Gospels

1574 Beza's First Separate Latin Testament

1576 Henry Stephen's First Greek New Testament

1576 First Bible printed in Scotland

1579 First Latin Bible of Tremelius & Junius

1580 First Slavonic New Testament

1581 First Cyrillic Bible, (aka the “Russian Gutenberg”) printed by Ivan Fedorow.

1581 First Slavonic Bible.

1582 First Catholic New Testament printed in English by Fogny, at Rheims. The O.T. was printed in 1609 at Douai.

1582 First Slovenian New Testament; translated by Primus Truber, surnamed Creiner, a reformed minister; published at Tubingen, Germany.

1584 First complete Icelandic Bible, the Gudbrandar Biblia; a work translated, printed and published by Bishop Gudbrandur Thorláksson at Hólar, Iceland; Bishop Thorláksson obtained the printing press that had belonged to the last Roman Catholic Bishop of Iceland, Jón Arason; this edition is praised for its typography and for being a “faithful mirror of Luther's German version.”

1584 Plantin's Biblia Hebraica

1585 First South American imprint; (Lima, Peru) Tercero Cathecismo y exposicion de la Doctrina Christiana; the printer was Antonio Ricardo; the book is a religious manual for work in converting the Indians to Christianity.

1586 Heildelberg Triglot

1587 Hutter's Hebrew Bible

1587 Sixtine (Roman) Septuagint

1587 First Greek Testament printed in England

1588 First Welsh Bible, printed in folio.

1590 First Hungarian Bible

1590 Revised Vulgate Bible published by Pope Sixtus V; after his sudden death in August, 1590, the publication was canceled by the College of Cardinals and all copies that could be located were destroyed.

1591 Legate's Geneva Bible, first English Bible printed at Cambridge

1592 First Clementine Vulgate (Vatican Press). Named for Pope Clement VIII (successor to Sixtus V), and became the standard edition of the Roman Catholic Church

1593 Kralitz Bible, Biblia Kralická (Bohemian, aka Czech); one of the best among the Slavic translations; made by a committee of eight theologians under the chairmanship of Bishop Blashoslav; printed in Gothic characters by Zachariaš Solin at the Castle of Kralic in Moravia, with the entire cost borne by Baron John von Zerotin.

1593 First Czech Bible of United Brethren

1596 Hamburg Polyglot

1598 Miniature Geneva Testament

1599 Standard Catholic Polish Bible; translated and edited by J. Wupek.