Douay Old Testament, Tome 2, Part 2: The Prophets (1635 ed.)

Available here is the Douay Old Testament, Tome 2 Part 2: The Prophets - a facsimile edition of the Prophets from the pre-Challoner 1635 printing of the Douay Old Testament. This is a complete and exact facsimile (scanned images) of the biblical text. The fonts and art were typeset and gathered by John Cousturier to match his 1633 printing of the Rheims New Testament. This edition comes complete with the frontispiece image of Moses to the left and King David to the right. This frontispiece was designed to go before the title page, but is missing from many of today's extant copies of the Douay Old Testament. Before Challoner, the original Douay Old Testament was printed in 2 tomes (books). Tome 1 contained the Pentateuch and Historical books, while Tome 2 contained both the Wisdom books and the Prophets. Translated primarily from the Latin Vulgate and cross-referenced with the original Hebrew and Greek of the Septuagint, this is an example of a Catholic translation of the Holy Bible into Early Modern English. Much of the text is comprised of commentary which has both desirable and undesirable aspects. On the one hand, it contains wonderful insights, contemplations and meditations on the biblical text from some of Christianity’s biggest thinkers and mystics; e.g. SS. Ambrose, Athanasius, Augustine, Aquinas, Basil, Cyril & Methodius, Gregory the Great, and so on to name only a few. On the other hand, the commentary is also a product of its time – a product of the turmoil of the Reformation. To this end the commentary also contains apologetics; i.e. responses and answers to objections to the Catholic Faith commonly raised by protestants of the day. Unfortunately, while the Catholic apologetics are based on Scripture, Tradition, the Magisterium and human reason (sound and valid arguments), they are often polemic, and less than charitable to their protestant brothers and sisters in Christ. Much of the polemic is in response to commentary in earlier preceding protestant bibles (e.g. the 1560 Geneva Bible, and subsequent editions thereof) which also contain a similar acerbic tone against Catholic dogma and doctrine. As when taking up any given translation of Scripture for contemplation, study or prayer, we do well to set aside any polemic tone (cf. 2 Tim 2:24), to engender a spirit of ecumenism with our protestant brothers and sisters in Christ, and, as St. Paul might say, to focus on the best any given translation has to offer (cf. Php 4:8).