Latin Translating Helps: English & Latin Works Side-by-Side

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Subsection

Latin Dictionaries

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Order of Contents

The Purpose of this Page
Confessions  6
Post-Reformation Translations  4
Modern Translations  3


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The Purpose of This Page

The purpose of putting the same Latin and English works side-by-side is to two-fold: (1) to be able to easily check the Latin behind English translations, and (2) to assist in translating Post-Reformation Latin works into English, in order to seek to find ideal English translations of Latin words, phrases and ideas.

Through the works on this page one can view how Latin terms of the Post-Reformation era were being translated into English in their own day.  Sometimes authors translated their own Latin works into English themselves, showing what they intended by their own words.  One can also see through modern translations of old Latin works how scholars of our own day are translating latin terms, phrases and ideas.  This can help, hopefully, in seeking to establish more standard, contemporary translations of Latin terms into English across publications.

Works are listed below by the dates of the author, and then by dates of the works.

English editions done by EEBO-TCP, hosted at Oxford, have been linked where available as they are easier to search.  Often other editions of both the English and Latin are available at PRDL (we have tried to pair English and Latin editions below based on a bit of common sense for the purpose, when possible).  Note that one can search within a book easily at Google Books on the left-hand side.  Internet Archive provides an HTML text edition of almost every one of their works, which can be easily searched, though the OCR created text from the original 1600’s old English font is often not very accurate, unless a post-1800’s edition exists.


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Reformed Confessions

1500’s

2nd Helvetic Confession  1566  at CCEL, unknown source.  This edition is very similar to, but not exactly the same as in ed. Peter Hall, The Harmony of Protestant Confessions…  (London, 1842)  ToC  The difficulty with Hall is that the chapters of this confession are interspersed with other confessions on the same topic, giving a harmony of the confessions.  The Hall edition is collated into one segment and reproduced in ed. Dennison, Jr., Reformed Confessions (RHB), vol. 2, p. 809 ff.

Confessio Helvetica Posterior  in Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom…  (NY, 1877), vol. 3, p. 233 ff.  Schaff does not provide an English translation.

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1600’s

Dort

The Canons of Dort  at PRTS, unknown translation date.  Schaff only offers an abridgment from the Reformed Dutch Church in America.  It is hard to find the Canons on the net in English with a source.

Canones Synodi Dordrechtanae  (1619)  in Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom…  (NY, 1877), vol. 3, p. 550 ff.

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Westminster

Confession of Faith  English (1647) & Latin (1656) Side-bySide  in Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom…  (NY, 1877), vol. 3, pp. 600-674  American revisions to the Confession are noted.

Shorter Catechism  English (1647) & Latin (1656?) Side-by-Side  in Philip Schaff, Creeds of Christendom…  (NY, 1877), vol. 3, p. 676 ff.  The English has been conformed to the American version?

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Collections of Confessions

1800’s

ed. Hall, Peter – The Harmony of Protestant Confessions…  trans. Peter Hall  (London, 1842)  700 pp.  ToC  Hall was an Anglican clergyman.

Harmonia Confessionum Fidei, Orthodoxarum & Reformatarum Ecclesiarum…  (Geneva, 1581)  No ToC

In 1581, the first Harmony of Protestant Reformed Confessions of Faith was published in Geneva.  It was the result of a collaboration between the Huguenot ministers such as Jean-Francois Salvard, Theodore Beza, Lambert Daneau, Antoine de la Roche Chandieu & Simon Goulart.

They published it in response to the publication of the Lutheran Book of Concord in 1580.  The Harmony included a comparison of eleven Reformed confessions and the Lutheran Augsburg Confession.  In 1842, it was translated into English, reorganized and enlarged by Peter Hall.

Schaff, Philip – Creeds of Christendom…  vol. 3  (NY, 1877)  ToC  Includes the major Protestant creeds up through the 1800’s


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Reformed Books:  Post-Reformation Translations

1600’s

Ames, William  d. 1633

Conscience with the Power & Cases Thereof…  bks. 1-2, 3, all 5 bks  ([London & Leiden], 1639)

De Conscientia, & Ejus Jure vel Casibus Libri Quinque  (Amsterdam, 1635)  No ToC

An Analytical Exposition of Both the Epistles of the Apostle Peter Illustrated by Doctrines…  (London, 1641)

Utriusque Epistolae Divi Petri Apostoli Explicatio Analytica…  (Amsterdam, 1635)  No ToC

The Marrow of Sacred Divinity Drawn out of the Holy Scriptures…  (London, 1642)

Medulla Theologica, Editio Novissima ab Authore Ante Obitum Recognita & Variis in Locis Aucta  (Amsterdam, 1634)  No Toc

The Substance of Christian Religion, or a Plain & Easy Draught of the Christian [Heidelberg] Catechism in 52 Lectures on Chosen Texts of Scripture…  (London, 1659)

Christianæ Catecheseoos Sciagraphia, ubi sub S. Scripturae Textu Apposito, Singulae Dominicae Catech. Reformatae Breviter…  (Amsterdam, 1650)  No ToC


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Reformed Books:  Modern Translations

1500’s

Calvin, John  d. 1564

The Institutes

Institutes of the Christian Religion, vols. 1, 2  trans. John Allen  (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1841)  ToC

Institutes of the Christian Religion, vols. 123  trans. Henry Beveridge  (1559; Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1845)  ToC

Institutio Christianae Religionis, in Libros Quatuor…  (Geneva: Stephani, 1559)  No ToC

ed. Tholuck, A. – Institutio Christianae Religionis, vol. 1, 2  (Berolini, 1846)

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1600’s

Polyander, Rivet, Walaeus, Thysius

ed. van den Belt, Henk – Synopsis of a Purer Theology: Latin Text & English Translation, 3 vols.  trans. Riemer A. Faber  Buy  (1625; Brill, 2016)  It is not clear which Latin edition is contained in this volume.

Synopsis Purioris Theologiae, Disputationibus Quinquaginta Duabus…  3rd ed.  (1625; Leiden, 1642)  ToC  See also ed. Herman Bavinck, Synopsis Purioris Theologiae  (Leiden, 1881)  In English: Buy

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Turretin, Francis  d. 1687

Institutes of Elenctic Theology, 3 vols.  trans. George Musgrave Giger  Buy  (1679–1685; P&R, 1992)

Giger (1822-1865) was trained at Princeton Theological Seminary and was a professor of Latin at New Jersey College.  Giger translated off of the 1847 Latin edition below.

Institutio Theologiae Elencticae, vols. 123  in Francisci Turrettini Opera  (Geneva, 1679-1685; NY: Robert Carter, 1847)

This 1847 edition was a reprint of the 1688-90 edition with corrections in a few Scripture citations.  The text does not differ with the 1696 printing, which was a reprint of the original edition in three volumes of 1679-1685, except for a few Scripture citations.  This same version was reprinted in 1680-1686; all of this per Dennison 1.xxvii.

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