Chronological History of the Bible - 16th Century
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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.
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.
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 in Venice by Aldus, being the Greek text of the Septuagint.
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.
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
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.
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).
1544-5 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 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 First Spanish Old Testament, printed at Ferrara in gothic characters, and dedicated to Hercules D'Este, duke of Ferrara.
1553 First Polish New Testament
1553 First Crespin Greek Testament
1555 First Latin Bible in Verses
1557 Geneva New Testament, published by William Whittingham in Geneva, Switzerland. First English language version to use verses, and italics for supplied words.
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 meticulous rendering from Greek and Hebrew original translations, set in Roman type; well received - 140 editions between 1560-1644.
1561 First Polish Bible (Leopolita)
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 Croatian New Testament published by Faber Creim.
1562 Durone's Italian Bible
1562 Harrison Great Bible
1562 Sternhold & Hopkin's First Psalter
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 at Rheims. The O.T. was printed in 1609 at Douai.
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
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 First Czech Bible of United Brethren
1596 Hamburg Polyglot
1598 Miniature Geneva Testament
1599 Standard Catholic Polish Bible
continuously revised, corrected and
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