Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy

Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy (29 March 1613 – 4 January 1684), a priest of Port-Royal, was a theologian and French humanist. He is best known for his translation of the Bible the most widespread French Bible in the 18th century, also known as the Bible de Port-Royal.

Louis-Isaac Lemaistre de Sacy was born in Paris, one of five sons of Huguenot Isaac Le Maistre, and of Catherine Arnauld, who was one of the sisters of Marie Angélique Arnauld. In 1638, when his older brothers Antoine and Simon gave up their careers to retire to Port-Royal, Louis-Isaac joined them to take care of his education.

In 1650, he published a collection of prayers, the Heures de Port-Royal, in which he translated the highly successful liturgical hymns.

De Sacy was imprisoned in the Bastille on 13 May 1666, remaining there until 14 November 1668. He took advantage of this time to complete the translation of the Old Testament into French from the Vulgate begun by his brother Antoine, and thus became the driving force behind a French language translation of the Bible, called the Bible du Port-Royal or Bible de Sacy. After his release, Louis-Isaac devoted much of his time to revising his translation, and drafting the Commentaires that he wanted to accompany each of the books of the Bible.

From 1672 to 1684, the date of his death, de Sacy published 10 additional books of the Bible. Using the manuscripts left by de Sacy, his friend, Pierre Thomas (1634–1698) pursued this task, and undertook the publication, from 1685 to 1693.

In 1696, La Sainte Bible contenant l'Ancien et le Nouveau Testament (The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testament) was published in 32 volumes.

In the 12th century, the first French version of the Bible was created by Pierre de Vaux, chief of Vaudois: it would still a single copy. There followed the translation of Guyart des Moulins, composed in the late 13th century and printed in 1488, and then that of René Benoît, published in Paris in 1566, with marginal notes but which was censured as containing certain Calvinist "heresies".

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