Flora and Fauna of "The Song of Songs" in Middle and Early Modern English Translations of The Bible

Flora and fauna of “The Song
of Songs” in Middle and Early

Modern English translations
of the Bible
Daria Galkina
Prof. Dr. Olga Timofeeva Daria Galkina
M.A. Seminar Bible translation from Ælfric to King James
Research Paper 28.11.2018
Table of contents
Table of contents 1
Introduction 2
Historical overview of the Bibles 3
Methodology 5
Objectives and hypotheses 5
Primary sources 6
Method 6
Analysis 7
Flora 7
Fauna 12
Results 14
Conclusions 15
References 18
Appendix I 20
Appendix II 28
1
Introduction
The present research deals with the Old Testament translations into Middle and Early Modern
English: The Wycliffite Bible, The Douay-Rheims Bible, and The King James Version. The
Latin Vulgate served as the sole source of the first two translations and was used among the
other sources for the King James Version. The prime objective is to characterize the reasons
for the variations in the translation of plants and animals’ names against the background of
the historical purpose and target audience of these versions. Another objective is to estimate
the attitude of the translators towards the common Latin scripture. Attitudinal factors involve
the translator’s personal orientations, as well as the purpose of the translation, within a certain
historical and cultural context (Wong 1999: 91). The comparison is based on “The Song of
Songs” chapter from the Old Testament. The key feature of the research represents the
variation in the translations of the chosen words.
The research consists of three parts. The first one deals with the Bibles selected for the
analysis: the three English translations as well as with their Latin source. This chapter begins
with a historical overview of the reasons for the creation of each of these Bibles, as well as
the goals of the translations. The primary sources of information for this chapter are the
studies on the Latin and English Bible history.
The second, research part describes the objectives, hypotheses, primary sources and method
of the analysis and then presents the comparison of 21 flora and fauna terms of “The Song of
Songs” excerpted from 61 flora and fauna denominations of The Vulgate and the three
translations involved it as the source. The English biblical examples are assorted into
categories according to their accuracy to the Latin words and to the standard English of
respective periods — for The Wycliffite Bible it is the Middle English, and for The
Douay-Rheims and The King James versions it is the Early Modern English. This chapter
ends with the graphic representation of the results and the description of them.
The final part of my research presents the conclusions, based on the connections between the
provided historical information and the analysis of selected examples. References and two
appendixes, containing the complete lists of flora and fauna lexemes, are provided at the end
of this research paper.
Regarding the hypotheses, stated in the methodology chapter, it is anticipated that the word
choice of the Bible translations aiming for the broader target audience may considerably
differ from the source to be understandable for lay people.
2
Historical overview of the Bibles

For this research, I have chosen to explore flora and fauna in Solomon’s “The Song of
Songs” in The Vulgate and three English translations of it as the primary sources. In this part,
I will introduce the sources used for the research.
The Vulgate, translated from Greek in the late 4thcentury by Eusebius Hieronymus, known in
Latin as Jerome, was the most influential Bible translation for Christians. About the year 400,
the Bishop of Rome claimed the supreme authority of the whole Church as the Pope and
decreed that the Bible could exist merely in Jerome’s translation. It was an ambiguous
decision for two reasons: on one hand, it unified the variety of the versions of various quality,
which were circulating throughout the Roman Empire, but, on the other hand, it prevented the
emergence of translations into the vernaculars (Daniell 2003: 9). Even though the collection
of Septuagint and New Testament translations into Latin known as Vetus Latinawas widely
used, the new version slowly started to take over. By the 7thcentury The Vulgate “[…] had
become equal of the Old Latin texts in both esteem and usage in the Latin-rite churches and
by ninth century it had become dominant” (Burke 2007: 88). The Vulgate is the primary
translation according to the classification of the early translations by Jinbachian. It means the
text was translated directly from the original languages – in case of the Bible, it is Hebrew for
the Old Testament and Greek for the New Testament (Jinbachian et al. 2007: 30).
In his work about the biblical translation techniques, Ellingworth (Ellingworth 2007: 312)
describes the importance of the Latin language in England:
Latin, as one of the three “languages of the cross” (John 19:20), was completely
dominant in Western Europe in both church and state. It was the universal means of
communication between scholars. Literacy normally entailed literacy in Latin. In
England, ‘grammar schools’ were set up primarily for the teaching of Latin, not
English, grammar.
Literacy was the privilege of monks and nobility, that read the Bible in Latin. “The
authorized text of the time, Jerome’s Vulgate, stood above the fray, just as its Latin stood
above the understanding of most believers” (Pym et al. 2007: 209). Subsequently, this
situation established the church as the exclusive authority to explain and interpret the
scripture. The interpretational dominance of the church authorities represents the principal
reason for the creation of The Wycliffite Bible, based on The Vulgate as its primary source.
The first version of this English Bible translation was conducted in 1382 supposedly under
the direction of John Wycliffe and the second one was presumably created by John Purvey,
Wycliffe’s personal assistant, in 1388 (Ellingworth et al. 2007: 309; Hauck 2013: 8). It is the
very first complete English Bible, which has been preserved (Hauck 2013: 99). Even though
the target audience of The Wycliffite Bible was illiterate, the aim was to fight against the
interpretational dominance of the Roman Catholic Church. Therefore, the choice of words
3
was determined to undermine the superiority of the Church by the creating the text accessible
for the understanding of the lay people: “The Wycliffe version was intended for ordinary
people, and thus it uses a plain style of language” (Paul 2003: 264).Regardless of illiteracy of
the target audience as well as their inability to purchase the Bible due to its costliness, this
translation served as the declaration challenging the church authorities. Corresponding to
Hauck (2013: 99), Purvey went with the notion of necessity to translate according to the
meaning and natural-sounding English, instead of preserving the Latinisms, otherwise, the
translation becomes useless. The Wycliffite Bible represents the secondary translation: it was
translated from The Latin Vulgate and not from the vernaculars of the Bible (Jinbachian
2007: 30). This translation was quite literal, and it closely followed the word order of the
Latin source (Paul 2003: 264).
Another secondary translation from The Vulgate is The Douay-Rheims Bible. This Bible was
created in Douay College in France. Douay represented the centre of English Catholicism,
where the priests were trained to convert the English people back to Catholicism (Reid 1905:
584-585). The New Testament was published in 1582 and the Old Testament – in 1609–1610.
One of the fundamental purposes of this translation was to uphold Catholicism against the
threat of the Protestant Reformation. Another purpose was to satisfy the demand “for an
English vernacular Bible which was acceptable to Catholics, as, of what has been so far
produced, none was” (Daniell 2003: 358). In accordance to the title page of 1582 The New
Testament edition, for the purpose of accuracy, the Catholic translators compared the Vulgate
with Hebrew and Greek sources as well as with "other editions in diverse languages."
Nevertheless, Jerome’s text as the most honoured Catholic scripture was the primary source
of the translation. Furthermore, this Bible aimed to preserve the language of The Vulgate: “It
is so ancient, that it was used in the Church of God above 1300 years ago, as appareth by the
fathers of those times” (Fogny 1582: 11). Hence, The Douay-Rheims Bible has many
Latinisms, which were understandable for knowledgeable readers, familiar with the Vulgate
text. This Bible was intended for English-speaking Catholic traditionalists and remained the
standard version for this community until the twentieth century (Akin 2002: 34-35).
One of the most influential English Bible translations is The King James Version or The King
James Bible. The Old Testament’s translation of this Bible is based on The Vulgate and also
included its predecessors - The Septuagint, and The Masoretic Text in Hebrew and Aramaic.
Therefore, it belongs to the category of the secondary translations. In 1604 the newly
crowned King James I convened the Hampton Court Conference to initiate the project for a
new version of the English Bible, which was translated by 1611 (Ellingworth et al. 2007:
123). The reason for this royal decision was the dissatisfaction with the lack of unity in the
church because of “… a multiplicity of rival translations of the Scriptures, based on different
sources, and used by different groups or denominations” (Ellingworth et al. 2007: 119). With
the sanction of the Church, The King James Version became the standard Bible of the entire
English-speaking world, although never officially “authorized” (Paul 2003: 219). The
language level of this translation was intended to be both deep enough for scholars to study it
4
and accessible for lay people, who read it and/or listened to it in the church. In his study of
The King James Version and its influences, McGrath (2002: 2) states:
The influence of this [the King James Version] work has been incalculable […] Many
families could afford only one book – a Bible, in whose pages parents recorded the
births of their children and found solace at their deaths. Countless youngsters learned
to read by mouthing the words they found in the only book their family possessed –
the King James Bible.
According to this historical information, The Wycliffite Bible and The Douay-Rheims Bible
were translated from The Vulgate, and The King James Version, as has been previously
stated, included Jerome’s translation as one of the primary sources for its Old Testament
translation. The principal difference is the target audience of these Bibles, such as lay people
in the Wycliffite Bible, well-educated Catholic traditionalists in The Douay-Rheims Bible
and both scholars, literate nobility and the members of the laity in The King James Version.
In the view of these facts, I have examined the variations in the translations “The Song of
Songs” to trace the influence of the intended audience of the Bibles on the word choice for
flora and fauna denominations.
Methodology
Objectives and hypotheses
The primary objective of the present research was to characterize the differences between
“The Song of Songs” flora and fauna translations, done by John Purvey (hence the Old
Testament of the second Wycliffite version, 1388), The Douay-Rheims Bible translators
(hence the Old Testament, 1609-1610) and The King James Version translators (hence the
Old Testament, 1611). The focus is on the purpose and the target audience of the texts that
are believed to make an influence on the word choice.
Partially, my hypotheses are based on Nikole Hauck’s 2013 research called “Lexical and
word-formation differences between the New Testament translation by John Purvey (1388)
and the translators of the Douay-Rheims Bible (1582) against the background of the historical
development of the English language.” Since her work is based on two sources, common with
this research, and deals with lexical differences, it offered me the insight into both the word
origin of two chosen Bibles and the state of English language in the respective periods. This
information was used as the basis for building up hypotheses.
According to the previous chapter, it was anticipated that the authors of the second The
Wycliffite Bible and The King James Version would attempt to simplify Latin flora and
fauna names or replace the original species with the others, more known in Europe, in order
to reach out to the broad audience of English people, lay and/or educated. Since both of them
intended making the scriptures accessible for everyone’s understanding, I expected to find the
5
denominations, which were broadly used in the respective language period. It was anticipated
that The Douay-Rheims Bible authors would use the “inkhorn terms” — the borrowings from
Latin, which replace the concepts which have heretofore existed in English. This assumption
was made because the translators aimed to maximally preserve the source language.
Primary sources
The present research was based on one chapter of the Old Testament, namely “The Song of
Songs.” This chapter was chosen because of the variety of the mentioned plants and animals.
It was expected that three translations, each created for the diverse purpose and target
audience, would suffice as a representative sample of different denominations.
The primary source of The Vulgate chosen for this research was the 1946 edition by E.
Colunga and L. Turrado. The present version derived chiefly from Clementine text, known as
Edito Typica. The source edition was published by the Typographus Vaticanus in 1598 under
the title
Biblia Sacra Vulgatæ editionis, Sixti V Pontificis Maximi jussu recognita et edita.
The primary source of The Wycliffite Bible selected for the current research was the second
version of this translation, which was revisioned by John Purvey in about 1388 after
Wycliffe’s death. According to Long, this revision was a notable refinement in comparison to
the primary text: Purvey’s interpretation made comfortable use of English idioms and
resulted in much easier reading (Long 1998: 70). The text of The Wycliffite Bible was taken
from the edition called The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, with the
Apocryphal Books, in the Earliest English Version Made from the Latin Vulgate by John
Wycliffe and His Followers. T his version was the first printed copy of the complete
Wycliffite Bible, produced in 1850 in Oxford by Reverend Josiah Forshall and Sir Frederic
Madden. The editors claimed to collate over 150 manuscripts (Hauck 2013: 43).
The text of The Douay-Rheims “The Song of Songs” was taken directly from the 1635
reprint of the original 1610 version, called Holy Bible Faithfully Translated into English out
of the authentical Latin, diligently conferred with the Hebrew Greek, & other Editions in
Divers Languages.
The text of The King James Version was taken from the facsimile of the original 1611 edition
called
THE HOLY BIBLE, Conteyning the Old Testament, AND THE NEW: Newly
Translated out of the Originall tongues: & with the former Translations diligently compared
and reuised, by his Maiesties speciall Comandement.
Method
My research is based on the qualitative method. Foremost, I have constructed two tables for
all the denominations of plants and animals found in “The Song of Songs” in The Vulgate
and in its translations — The Wycliffite Bible, The Douay-Rheims Bible, and The King
James Version. The data was collected manually. The original spelling of the primary sources
6
was kept. The tables containing all the denominations can be found in Appendix I and II.
Furthermore, I have compiled list of the denominations, which differed either from the Latin
Vulgate because of the meaning of the chosen English word or the standard English of the
respective time — for The Wycliffite Bible it is the Middle English, and for The
Douay-Rheims and The King James versions it is the Early Modern English. I have utilized
OED and MED to determine if the word has been known and applied before the translation
came out, or it was recently introduced by the translator. If the term was used prior to the
considered text, as stated in the word history and etymology in OED, I have checked its
context in accordance to the provided written sources of the respective and prior periods. This
step was required to determine if the selected denomination was used in Middle English or
Early Modern English in relation to flora and fauna or it has received an alternative meaning
which was unfamiliar to the readers. The names which varied from the usual context or were
first introduced by the translators were put into the parallel columns with the denominations
from the other Bible translations to highlight the differences. Thirdly, I have assorted the
detected translational variations into the categories according to their accuracy to the original
Latin terms or the relations towards the English language of the examined period and made
the data analysis. Afterwards, according to the historical information about the target
audience of the selected English translations, the precision of the translated words in
comparison to the Latin source and the data analysis, I have produced the conclusions.
The advantage of my method is tracing the word choice change in connection to the target
audience of “The Song of Songs” translations, by operating on historical information and the
relatively small corpus of 61 denominations. However, the disadvantage of the method is the
limited corpus of the chosen words: this research includes only the translations of “The Song
of Songs”, but not the full Bible texts. As a result, there is a significant probability of finding
more variety in flora and fauna denominations in the other chapters of the Old Testament, and
the differences in the translation of the same species in the Old and New Testament.
Analysis
Flora
The complete list of the plants’ denominations found in “The Song of Songs” in The Vulgate,
The Wycliffite Bible, The Douay-Rheims Bible and in The King James Version is presented
in Appendix I. This and the following table refers to translational variations: by this I mean
the examples of the denominations which varied from the usual context or were first
introduced by the translators. The following table provides the examples of the translational
variations between plants’ names in the three chosen translations, compared to The Vulgate.
7
Table 1: Translational variations between the plants’ names of “The Song of Songs”, found

in The Vulgate, The Wycliffite Bible, The Douay-Rheims Bible and The King James Version
The Vulgate The Wycliffite The Douay-Rheims The King James

Bible Bible Version
1 botrus cypri cluster of cipre cluster of cypress cluster of camphire
tre
2 cypressina cipresse cypress trees firres
3 flos campi flour of the feeld flower of the field rose of Sharon
4 arbore malo apple tre; apple tree apple tree
pumgranate tre
5 grossus buddis green figs green figs
6 vineae florent vyneris vines in flower vines with the tender
flourynge grape
7 turis encence frankincense frankincense
8 mali punici appil of Punyk pomegranate pomegranate
9 collem turis litil hil of hill of frankincense hill of frankincense
encense
10 emissiones sendingis out plants plants
11 paradisus paradis orchard orchard
12 cypri cum nardo cipre trees, with cypress with camphire, with
narde spikenard spikenard
13 fistula erbe clepid sweet cane calamus
fistula
14 universis lignis alle trees of the all the trees of all trees of
Libani Liban Libanus Frankincense
15 hortum nucum myn orcherd garden of nuts garden of nuts
16 poma convallis applis of grete fruits of the valleys fruits of the valley
valeis
17 mustum must of my new wine of my juice of my
malorum pumgranatis pomegranates pomegranate
granatorum
According to the italicised examples, all the 17 translational differences belong either to the
Wycliffite Bible or The King James Version.
The Wycliffite translation of floral denominations provides four patterns of names’

transformation, which take place in the observed variations. These patterns comprise
generalization, simplification, optional explicitation and inclusion of Latinisms. The
translational transformations can be considered as generalizations when a denomination with
a narrower meaning is replaced with an equivalent of wider meaning (Pozdílková 2012: 1).
Simplification is defined as the tendency to simplify the language used in translation; the
possible reason to use the simplifications is to reflect what the reader already knows to have
the capacity to comprehend the text and extend the knowledge (Davies and Widdowson
8
1974: 155-201 in Crossley et al., 2007: 92;Toury 1995: 181). Another transformation, found
in the Wycliffite translation, is optional explicitation. Explicitation is defined as “[a] stylistic
translation technique which consists of making explicit in the target language what remains
implicit in the source language because it is apparent from either the context or the situation”
(Vinay and Darbelnet 1995: 342). Accordingly, optional explicitation is motivated by
differences in the stylistic preferences between the Latin and the English languages (Becher
2011: 22). The last examined pattern of the translational variations is the use of Latinisms.
The linguistic term Latinism is defined as
an idiom or form of expression characteristic of the Latin language, esp. one used by a
writer in another language (OED, s.v. Latinism, n.).
The examples from “The Song of Songs” of the Wycliffite Bible, representing the
transformations in the flora names, were collected in Table 2.
Table 2
. Transformation of the plants’ names, found in the Wycliffite translation of “The

Song of Songs”
The Vulgate The Wycliffite

Bible
grossus buddis
turis encence
collem turis litil hil of encense
emissiones sendingis out
hortum nucum myn orcherd
These selected denominations can be considered as generalizations since they were translated
with the words of more general meaning: grossus - green, unripened figs, translated as
buddis. T
he translation of turisis generalized to encence, referring to
[a]n aromatic gum or other vegetable product, or a mixture of fragrant gums and
spices, used for producing a sweet smell when burned (OED, s.v. Incense, n.).
This rather broad term is used as a substitute for the particular frankincense species. T
his
name can be attributed as the generalization: the precise botanical term olibanum for
Boswellia Sacra species, known in modern English asfrankincense, was known since
Anglo-Norman period and found in the source from the 1240 year (OED). Therefore, if the
9
more accurate term was known yet not used, the translational transformation of turis into
encence is the generalization.
Another transformation which is found in the Wycliffite translation was described earlier as
the simplification. It is used in the case of hortum nucum — nut garden, which was translated
as
myn orcherd. Hence, ‘the nut garden’ was simplified and translated as ‘orchard, garden’.
In contrast, there is an example of optional explicitation, when the translator added extra
information absent in The Vulgate for the lexical enrichment purpose. It can be illustrated
with the description of the landscape feature litil hil of encense. The Latin collis means ‘hill’,
whereas in the Wycliffite translation there is the mention of size — litil hil — not given in
The Vulgate.
Furthermore, I have examined the Latinisms in the Wycliffite text: they were chosen due to
their replacement of the existing words of English origin or as the substitutes to those
Latinisms, which were either used since Old English or known before 1388. The examples of
this transformation found in the Wycliffite translation of “The Song of Songs” are given in
Table 3.
Table. 3
The Latinisms found in the Wycliffite translation of the plants’ denominations of
“The Song of Songs”
The Vulgate The Wycliffite Bible
mali punici appil of Punyk
paradisus paradis
fistula erbe clepid fistula
mustum malorum must of my

granatorum pumgranatis
These borrowings from the Latin could have served for the lexical enrichment of the text and
for the filling the lexicon gap due to the absence of the suitable word. In some cases, the use
of the Latinisms could be defined by the fact that the used English word has the Latin root,
for instance, must, m eaning the juice of freshly pressed grapes or new wine, was used since
the late 9th century (OED). Paradisand appil of Punykare relatively new denominations for
the late 14th century because appil of Punykwas first used only in the late Middle English
and paradis, meaning ‘pomegranate’, was first used in 1374. In the case of paradisand
orcherd,as well as appil of Punyk andpumgranatis, the recent Latinism and the Old English
borrowing from French (pumgranatis) and Latin (orcherd) are both present in the text. In the
case of the Latinism erbe clepid fistula the translator used flagging - “dependant marking by
10
morphological case or adposition” (Arkadiev 2013: 1). This marking highlights the dependent
position of this word in the text and, in this case, exposes its borrowed etymology (Nichols
1986: 65). The use of the Latinism in The Wycliffite Bible may be explained with the lack of
a botanical name for sweet canein the Middle English — it will appear only by the 15th
century, as it can be seen in The Douay-Rheims Version.
In The King James Version’ translation of the plants’ names of “The Song of Songs”, there
are also two patterns of the translational differences: transformations, which include
explicitation and optional explicitation, and replacement of the plant species to the others.
The definitions of these transformations can be found above Table 2. Table 4 represents the
examples of transformations.
Table 4. Transformations of the Latin names in The King James Version

The Vulgate The King James Version
flos campi rose of Sharon
vineae florent vines with the tender grape
Rose of Sharon as the translation of flos campi represents explicitation and is interesting
because of its colloquial usage: rose in the 2:1 “The Song of Songs” line was applied first in
the Geneva Bible (1560), although the reason for this translational decision is unclear. As a
matter of fact, both the Hebrew source of the Geneva Bible and The Vulgate don’t mention
rose in this line (OED). The transformation in the case of vines with the tender grape is the
optional explicitation used for the textual enrichment. Furthermore, as I said earlier, some
plant species from “The Song of Songs” were replaced with the others in The King James
Version, even though The Vulgate gives their precise denomination. The examples are
demonstrated in Table 5.
Table 5.
Change of the plants’ species with the others in The King James Version
The Vulgate The King James

Version
botrus cypri cluster of camphire
cypressina firres
cypri cum nardo camphire, with spikenard
fistula calamus
11
universis lignis Libani all trees of frankincense

The species, recognizable for the entire target audience, like firres,replaced cypressina.
However, further in the text cyprisis called camphire.Univesis ligni Libani,referring to all
the trees of Lebanon, were translated as all trees of frankincense,even though frankincense
was unmentioned in line 4:14.
After the comparative analysis of the plant names from Appendix I between The Vulgate and
The Douay-Rheims Bible, I came to the conclusion that all the denominations are translated
in strict accordance to the Latin source. As I mentioned earlier in the description of the
Bibles, the purpose of this translation was to preserve The Vulgate original language for the
educated target audience. Subsequently, fistula w
as translated into the relatively modern term
sweet canefirst used in the 15th century. In contrast, The King James Version translates it
with the less modern Latinism calamus, which originated in the 14th century.
Fauna
The comprehensive list of the animals’ names found in “The Song of Songs” in The Vulgate,
The Wycliffite Bible, The Douay-Rheims Bible and in The King James Version is presented
in Appendix II. The table below represents the translational variations between fauna terms in
the 3 chosen translations, compared to The Vulgate.
Table 6
: Translational variations between the animals’ denominations of “The Song of

Songs”, found in The Vulgate, The Wycliffite Bible, The Douay-Rheims Bible and The King
James Version
The Vulgate The Wycliffite The Douay-Rheims The King

Bible Bible James Version
1 turturis turtle turtledove turtle
2 capreae capretis roe, roes roe, roes
3 cervorum hertis hart hinds, hart
4 pardorum pardis leopards leopards
Several Latinisms applied in The Wycliffite translation of the animals’ names are presented
in Table 7. Some of them represent the versions of the words, used in Middle English.
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Table 7:
The Latinisms found in The Wycliffite translation of the animals’ denominations of
“The Song of Songs”
The Vulgate The Wycliffite Bible
turturis turtle
capreae capretis
pardorum pardis
The Latinism capretis, m eaning roes, w
hich was created using transliteration, was first used
by Wycliffe in his 1382 version of the Bible. It can be considered a way of textual
enrichment: capretis synonym ‘roe(s)’ was known since the eighth century and had been
detected in the five written sources (OED).
As it was observed in the Wycliffite translation of flora denominations, some Latinisms

found in the translation were used since the Old or Middle English period. The Latinisms like
turtle (turtledove)andpardis (leopard)found in The Wycliffite Bible were first recorded in
the Old English period (OED). So, as in the case of the names of plants, these names could be
understandable for the people because of their long history as a part of the English language.
For the reason of accessibility and understandability mentioned earlier, in The King James
Version Latin turturis is translated with the Latinism turtle,w
hich was first detected in the
source from 1050. Even though the first known use of turtledoveas the bird species’ name
was in the late 14th century (OED), the translators of The King James Version employ more
widespread denomination. According to the sources of OED, from 1050 to 1611 the overall
number of records turtle is nine, whereas turtledove is mentioned only four times for two
centuries. Consequently, even though the translators of The Wycliffe and The King James
Bibles were using Latinisms, most of them were used in the written sources before and could
be familiar to the laity and scholars.
In The King James translation of the plants’ names from “The Song of Songs”, I noticed the
alteration of species, while in the interpretation of the animals’ denominations I observed the
change of gender. Cervus, according to “Pocket Oxford Latin Dictionary: Latin-English”
(2012),is a hart or stag. OED definition of ‘stag’ is a male deer, whereas hind, found in this
translation, is defined as a female deer. Out of five mentions of this species, two are in the
female gender and three are in the male gender, although only cervus, the male deer, is
referred to throughout the Latin text of “The Song of Songs.” These variations could be
attributed to the lexical enrichment as well as to the optional explicitation for the stylistic
purpose.
Comparative analysis of the fauna names from Appendix II exhibited no translational

variations from the Latin source. This version tends to employ more modern words of the
13
respective period, as I pointed out in the chapter about the translation of the plants’ names.
This is the case for turturis, w
hich was translated as turtledovefirst used in the 14th century,
as I mentioned earlier. Interestingly enough, the spelling of leopard in The Douay-Rheims
Bible was relatively unusual: it follows the Latin spelling of the word ‘leopardus’, whereas,
according to the OED sources, the spelling of this name significantly varied from 14 to 17
century. It included such forms as lubard, labbarde, leberdesand liberdes (OED). As has
been noted in the historical overview, The Douay-Rheims Bible translators aimed to preserve
both the meaning and the language of The Vulgate.
Results
I have created the proportion in relation to the overall amount of flora and fauna
denominations, found in The Vulgate translation of “The Song of Songs.” The general picture
of the 21 flora and fauna names selected for the present research from the 61 denominations
because of their difference from the standard English terms or the Latin source is as follows:
Table 8
: The variations of The Wycliffite Bible

Variations Occurrence (out of 61)
Transformations 4 (6,5%)
Latinisms 7 (11,4%)
Table 9
: The variations of The King James Version

Variations Occurrence (out of 61)
Transformations 2 (3,2%)
Latinisms 2 (3,2%)
Change of species/gender 6 (9,8%)
As it can be seen from the figures above, flora and fauna denominations in The Wycliffite
text vary from the English language of the respective period or the Latin source in 17,9% of
the cases. Most of them are Latinisms, found equally in the translation of the plants’ and the
animals’ names. Transformations are found merely in the denominations of flora. In The
14
King James Version, the variations take place in 16,2% of the translations. Furthermore, most
of them are found in the translation of the plants’ names.
A striking difference in The Douay-Rheims Bible in comparison to the other two versions is
the precision of its word choice; there are no translational variations from the Latin source in
the denominations of animals and plants. Another peculiarity of this Bible is the occasional
usage of more modern words, in comparison to the established terms found in The King
James Version, which was published a year later.
Conclusions
The key objective of the present research was to determine and characterise the reasons for
the differences in the translation of flora and fauna denominations in The Wycliffite Bible
(1382), The Douay-Rheims Bible (1609-1610) and The King James Version (1611) with the
focus of the historical purpose and the target audience of these versions. Another aim as
outlined in the Introduction was to define the attitude of the translators towards the Latin
Vulgate, on the basis of which these translations were done.
To start with the first-mentioned objective, all the selected texts modified their word choice
in accordance to the historical purposes. The purpose for the creation of The Wycliffite Bible
was to challenge the dominance of the Catholic priests by designating the language of the
scriptures accessible for understanding without the additional interpretation. The necessity to
translate flora and fauna names according to the natural-sounding English, as well as to make
it understandable for the audience, constituted the reason for the transformations, found in the
translation of the denominations. The optional explicitationw as used for the textual
enrichment as well as several Latinisms, found in both tables, which were known from the
Old English period. Generalizations and simplifications may have served the purpose of
accessibility, which was one of the features of challenging the interpretational dominance of
the Catholic clerics. Consequently, John Purvey’s possible attitude towards The Vulgate was
reflected in his translation: the sense of the source was respectfully kept, even though there
were the changes for the purpose of the lexical enrichment and accessibility of the scripture.
The aims of The Douay-Rheims translation were to preserve the language of the most
honoured Catholic Bible source, The Vulgate, to resist the Protestant Reformation movement.
The Bible’s readership represented the educated Catholic part of English society. For these
reasons, the translators aimed to preserve the source language by the absolutely precise
choice of words and incorporating various Latinisms. Some denominations were translated
with words which didn’t widely circulate in the language of the respective period due to their
recent incorporation in English in comparison to their historically established but sometimes
less precise synonyms. The translators’ aesthetic interpretation of the source is represented by
more modern expressions because of the orientation of the educated target audience. Aiming
to preserve the meaning of the translated denominations as close to the Latin as possible, the
15
interpreters used less wide-spread, but more precise names for flora and fauna species. In this
respect, the protection of the source language at the cost of understanding by the wider
represents the translators’ attitude towards The Vulgate. The King James Version was
intended to replace the multiple translations of diverse quality used by the various religious
groups to unify the entire English-speaking world with the new Bible. It was meant to be both
deep enough for scholars and accessible for lay people. In order to reach the as broad
audience as possible, the original flora and fauna species, found in The Vulgate, were
frequently replaced with the more established ones or explicated the denominations to make
them descriptive and imaginative to a greater extent. Some word choices involved less
modern names, to prevent misunderstandings among lay people, who could be unfamiliar
with the newer synonyms. Accordingly, the translators’ attitude towards the Latin source was
shaped by the broad target auditory. The interpretation of the aesthetic perspective of the
source is reflected in the choice of less modern yet more widespread words for the
denominations’ translation, as well as in the change of species and gender. The personal
aesthetic attitude is represented by the transformations of the species’ names for the sake of
the lexical enrichment of the text. As a result, the attitude towards the source comprises the
following: in some cases the translators’ sacrificed an exact meaning of the Latin
denomination for the purposes of comprehension and enrichment of the English biblical text.
The present analysis of translational variations was based on 61 examples, provided in the
Old Testament chapter “The Song of Songs” from the three English Bibles. The analysis was
preceded by the section, which described the historical reasons for the creation of the
translations as well as their aimed target audience. Based on this part, several hypotheses
were formulated. Foremost, it was anticipated that the authors of The Wycliffite Bible and
The King James Version would simplify the Latin denominations or replace them with more
well-known or general ones. The second assumption was the usage of the inkhorn terms by
The Douay-Rheims translators for the sake of preservation of the source language.
The 21 denominations out of 61 were selected because of their variations from the Latin or
the standard English of the respective period. The selected denominations were assorted into
the three categories according to their differences. The first and the most significant class
contain Latinisms, which were used for the textual enrichment as synonyms of the English
words, present in the text, or constitute the standard form of the term. Two other categories of
the comparable size represent transformations and changes of species or gender of the
denominations. Transformations were used in both The Wycliffite Bible and The King James
Version and mostly replaced precise denominations with their descriptions in more general
terms. The changes of plants’ sorts or gender of the animal kinds were used solely in The
King James Version. The possible reasons for it are the textual enrichment and the attempt to
replace the unfamiliar species with more well-known ones. I haven’t found any deviations in
the translation of flora and fauna denominations in The Douay-Rheims Bible. Admittedly, I
noted the tendency to use more modern and less widespread words for certain denominations.
16
The general picture of the 21 variations selected for the current analysis in terms of their
alteration from the Latin source or standard English of the respective period was presented in
Tables 8 and 9. In The Wycliffite Bible and The King James Version, the variations take
place in 17,9% and 16,2% accordingly.
The hypotheses about the influence of the translations’ target audience on the word choice,
stated in the methodology chapter, was proven by the findings in the analysis section.
Consequently, all the variations were observed in the scriptures translations aimed for the
broader target audience, whereas there were no deviations in The Douay-Rheims Bible,
intended for the knowledgeable Catholics familiar with The Vulgate, which stays absolutely
faithful to the Latin source.
The area of the variations of biblical flora and fauna denominations demands further study.
As I mentioned in the method description, the obtained results are achieved exclusively for
“The Song of Songs” translation, found in the three selected English Bibles. Providing that,
there is a significant probability of finding more translational variations in the other chapters
of the Old and New Testament. Another possibility for expansion of this topic could be the
comparison of Old and New Testament denominations, as well as involving the other Bibles,
translated from The Vulgate as the common source.
[6550]
17
References
Primary sources:
1) Colunga, Alberto, R.P., and Turrado, Dr. Laurentio, eds. 1946. Biblia Sacra iuxta
Vulgatam Clementinam.Madrid: La Editora Católica
2) Forshall, J. and F. Madden, eds. 1850. The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New
Testaments, with the Apocryphal Books, in the Earliest English Version Made from
the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and His Followers. Oxford: Oxford University
Press
3) Holy Bible Faithfully Translated into English out of the authentical Latin, diligently
conferred with the Hebrew Greek, & other Editions in Divers Languages.[1610]
1635. Douay Rheims: Iohn Cousturier
4) THE HOLY BIBLE, Conteyning the Old Testament, AND THE NEW: Newly
Translated out of the Originall tongues: & with the former Translations diligently
compared and reuised, by his Maiesties speciall Comandement.1611. London:
Robert Barker
Secondary sources:
1) Akin, James. 2002. “Uncomfortable Facts About The Douay-Rheims”. This Rock
February 2002: 34-35, 47
2) Arkadiev, Petr. 2013. Double-marking of Prominent Objects: A Cross-linguistic
Typology.
<https://www.academia.edu/4261113/Double-marking_of_prominent_objects_a_cros
s-linguistic_typology> (accessed November 14, 2018)
3) Becher, Viktor. 2011. Explicitation and Implicitation in Translation: A Corpus-based
Study of English-German and German-English Translations of Business Texts.
Hamburg: Universität Hamburg
4) Burke, David G. 2007. “The First Versions: The Septuagint, the Targums, and the
Latin”. In Philip A. Noss, ed.
A History of Bible Translation. Roma: Edizioni di Storia
e Letteratura, 59-91
5) Crossley, Scott A. et al. 2012. “Text simplification and comprehensible input: A case
for an intuitive approach”. Language Teaching Research 16(1): 89–108
6) Daniell, David. 2003. The Bible in English: Its History and Influence. New Haven,
Conn: Yale University Press
7) Ellingworth, Paul. 2007. “Translation Techniques in Modern Bible Translation”. In
Philip A. Noss, ed. A History of Bible Translation. Roma: Edizioni di Storia e
Letteratura, 307-337
18
8) Fogny, John. 1582. THE PREFACE TO THE READER [OF THE RHEIMS NEW
TESTAMENT] TREATING OF THESE THREE POINTS: OF THE TRANSLATION
OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE INTO THE VULGAR TONGUES, AND NAMELY INTO
ENGLISH: OF THE CAUSES WHY THIS NEW TESTAMENT IS TRANSLATED
ACCORDING TO THE ANCIENT VULGAR LATIN TEXT & OF THE MANNER OF
TRANSLATING THE SAME.Available at
<http://www.u.arizona.edu/~aversa/rheims_intro.pdf> (accessed November 12, 2018)
9) Hauck, Nikol. 2013. Lexical and word-formation differences between the New
Testament translation by John Purvey (1388) and the translators of the
Douay-Rheims Bible (1582) against the background of the historical development of
the English language.Prague: Department of the English Language and ELT
Methodology
10) Jinbachian, Manuel. 2007. “Introduction”. In Philip A. Noss, ed. A History of Bible
Translation. Roma: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 29-59
11) Long, John D. 1998. The Bible in English: John Wycliffe and William Tyndale.
Oxford: University Press of America, Inc.
12) McGrath, Alister. 2002. In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and
How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture. N ew York: Anchor Books
13) Nichols, Johanna. 1986. “Head-marking and dependent-marking grammar”.
Language62.1: 56–119
14) Noss, Philip A. et al., 2007. A History of Bible Translation.Roma: Edizioni di Storia
e Letteratura
15) Paul, William E. 2003. English Language Bible Translators. Jefferson: McFarland &
Company, Inc., Publishers
16) Reid, George J. 1905. “The Evolution of Our English Bible”. American Catholic
Quarterly Review 30: 584-585
17) Toury, Gideon. 1995. Descriptive translation studies and beyond. Amsterdam:
Benjamin
18) Vinay, Jean-Paul & Darbelnet, Jean. 1995. Comparative stylistics of French and
English: A methodology for translation.Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
19) Wong, Dongfeng and Shen, Dan. 1999. “Factors Influencing the Process of
Translating”. Meta44(1): 78–100
Online dictionaries:
1) OED Online. 2018. Oxford University Press
http://www.oed.com/
(accessed August 14, 2018)
2) Pocket Oxford Latin Dictionary: Latin-English. 2012. Oxford University Press
http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191739583.001.0001/acref-
9780191739583
19
(accessed November 23, 2018)
20
Appendix I
Table 1
: Denominations of the plants, found in The Vulgate, The Wycliffite Bible, The

Douay-Rheims Bible and The King James Version

Bible Bible Version
1 (1:4) cedar: (1:4) Cedar: I am (1:4) Cedar: I am (1:4) Kedar: I am
Nigra sum, sed blac and fair as black but beautiful, blacke, but
formosa, filiae the tabernaclis of O ye daughters of comely, (O ye
Jerusalem, Cedar; (1:16) Jerusalem, as the daughters of
sicut cedre: The trees of tents of Cedar; Ierusalem) as the
tabernacula oure housis ben of (1:16) cedar: The tents of Kedar, as
Cedar, sicut cedre beams of our houses the curtaines of
pelles are of cedar Solomon; (1:16)
Salomonis. Cedar: The beames
(1:16) cedrina: of our house are
Tigna Cedar, and our
domorum rafters of firre
nostrarum
cedrina
2 (1:5) vineis vineries; vynar: vineyards, vineyard: vineyards,
vineam: thei settiden me a they have made me vineyard:they
[...] posuerunt kepere in vyners; the keeper in the made me the
me custodem in Y kepte not my vineyards: my keeper of the
vineis vineam vyner vineyard I have not vineyards, but
meam non kept mine owne
custodivi vineyard haue I
not kept
3 (1:11) nardus: narde: Whanne the spikenard: While the spikenard: While
dum esset rex kyng was in his king was at his the king sitteth at
in accubitu suo restyng place, my repose, my his table, my
nardus mea narde was his spikenard sent forth spikenard sendeth
dedit odorem odour the odour thereof foorth the smell
suum thereof
4 (1:12) bundel of myrre: bundle of myrrh: A bundle of myrrh: A

fasciculus My derlyng is a bundle of myrrh is bundle of myrrhe
murrae: bundel of myrre to my beloved to me is my welbeloued
fasciculus me vnto me
murrae
dilectus meus
21
5 (1:13) botrus cluster of cipre tre: cluster of cypress: A cluster of

cypri: botrus My derlyng is to cluster of cypress my camphire: My
cypri dilectus me a cluster of love is to me beloued is unto
meus mihi cipre tre me, as a cluster of
Camphire
6 (1:13) vineis vyneres of vineyards of vineyards of
Engaddi: Engaddi: among Engaddi: in the Engedi: in the
in vineis the vyneres of vineyards of vineyards of
Engaddi Engaddi Engaddi Engedi
7 (1:16) cipresse: oure cypress trees: our firre: and our

cypressina: couplis ben of rafters of cypress rafters of firre
laquearia cipresse trees
nostra
cypressina
8 (2:1) flos flour of the feeld: l flower of the field: I rose of Sharon: I
campi: ego flos am a flour of the I am the flower of Am the rose of
campi feeld, and a lilye the field, and the lily Sharon, and the
of grete valeis of the valleys lillie of the valleys
9 (2:1) lilium lilye of grete lily of the valleys: I lily of the valleys:
convallium: valeis: l am a flour am the flower of the I Am the rose of
ego [...] lilium of the feeld, and a field, and the lily of Sharon, and the
convallium lilye of grete the valleys lillie of the valleys
valeis
10 (2:2) lilium: lilie:As a lilie lily: As the lily lily: As the lillie
sicut lilium among thornes among thorns among thornes
inter spinas
11 (2:2) spinas: thornes: A
s a lilie thorns: As the lily thorns: As the lillie
sicut lilium among thornes among thorns among thornes
inter spinas
12 (2:3) malum: (2:3) absent; (2:3) apple tree: As (2:3) apple tree: As
sicut malum (8:5) pumgranate the apple tree the apple tree
inter ligna tre: Y reiside thee among the trees of among the trees of
silvarum; (8:5) undur a the woods; (8:5) the wood;(8:5)
arbore malo: pumgranate tre apple tree: Under apple tree: I raised
sub arbore the apple tree I thee vp vnder the
malo suscitavi raised thee up apple tree
te ibi;
13 (2:3) ligna (1:14) the trees of (2:3) trees of the (2:3) trees of the
silvarum: sicut wodis:A s an appil woods: As the apple wood: As the
malum inter tree tree among the trees apple tree among
ligna silvarum among the trees of of the woods the trees of the
wodis wood
22
14 (2:3) fructus: (2:4) fruyt: and his (2:3) fruit: and his (2:3) fruit: and his
fructus eius fruyt was swete to fruit was sweet to fruit was sweete to
dulcis gutturi my throte my palate my taste
meo
15 (2:5) floribus: flouris: Bisette me flowers: Stay me up flowers - absent;
fulcite me with flouris with flowers instead: Stay me
floribus with flagons
16 (2:5) malis: (2:5) applis: (2:5) apples: (2:5) apples:
stipate me cumpasse me with compass me about comfort me with
malis; (4:13) applis;(4:13) with apples; (4:13) apples;
pomorum fruytis of applis: fruits of the orchard:
fructibus: with the fruyts of Thy plants are a
emissiones applis;(5:1) fruyt paradise of
tuae paradisus of hise applis: pomegranates with
malorum come in to his the fruits of the
punicorum cum gardyn, to ete the orchard; (5:1) fruit
pomorum fruyt of hise applis of his apple trees:
fructibus; (5:1) Let my beloved come
fructum into his garden, and
pomorum: eat the fruit of his
veniat dilectus apple trees
meus in hortum
suum et
comedat
fructum
pomorum
suorum
17 (2:13) ficus: fige tre:the fige fig tree:The fig tree fig tree: The fig
ficus protulit tre hath brought hath put forth her tree putteth foorth
grossos suos fourth hise buddis green figs her greene figs
18 (2:13) grossos buddis: the fige green figs: The fig green figs: The fig
suos: ficus tre hath brought tree hath put forth tree putteth foorth
protulit fourth hise buddis her green figs her greene figs
grossos suos
19 (2:13) vineae vyneris flourynge: vines in flower: the vines with the
florent: vineae vyneris flourynge vines in flower yield tender grape: and
florent han goue her their sweet smell the vines with the
dederunt odour tender grape giue
odorem a good smell
20 (2:15) vineas: vyneries: Catche vines: Catch us the vines: Take vs the
capite nobis the litle foxis to vs, little foxes that foxes, the litle
vulpes vulpes that destrien the destroy the vines foxes, that spoile
parvulas quae vyneris the vines
demoliuntur
vineas
23
21 (2:15) vinea: vyner: for oure vineyard: for our vine: for our vines
nam vinea vyner hath vineyard hath haue tender
nostra floruit flourid flourished grapes
22 (3:6) murrae: mirre: Who myrrh:Who is she myrrhe: Who is
quae est ista is this womman, that goeth up by the this that commeth
quae ascendit that stieth bi the desert, as a pillar of out of the
per desertum deseert, smoke of aromatical wildernes like
sicut virgula as a gerde of spices, of myrrh, and pillars of smoke,
fumi ex smokef of swete frankincense, and of perfumed with
aromatibus smellynge all the powders of myrrhe and
murrae et turis spices, of mirre, the perfumer? frankincense, with
et universi and of encence, all powders of the
pulveris and of merchant?
pigmentarii al poudur of an
oynement makere?
23 (3:6) turis: encence: Who frankincense: Who is frankincense: Who

sicut virgula is this womman, she that goeth up by is this that
fumi ex that stieth bi the the desert, as a commeth out of the
aromatibus deseert, pillar of smoke of wildernes like
murrae et turis as a gerde of aromatical spices, of pillars of smoke,
et universi smokef of swete myrrh, and perfumed with
pulveris smellynge frankincense, and of myrrhe and
pigmentarii spices, of mirre, all the powders of frankincense, with
and of encence, the perfumer? all powders of the
and of merchant?
al poudur of an
oynement makere?
24 (3:9) lignis trees of Liban: wood of Libanus: wood of Lebanon:
Libani: Kyng Salomon King Solomon hath King Solomon
ferculum fecit made to hym a made him a litter of made himselfe a
sibi rex seete, of the trees the wood of Libanus charet of the wood
Salomon de of Liban of Lebanon
lignis Libani
25 (4:3) mali (4:3) appil of (4:3) pomegranate: (4:3) pomegranate:
punici: tuum Punyk: as the relif Thy cheeks are as a thy temples are
dulce sicut of an appil of piece of a like a piece of a
fragmen mali Punyk; (4:13) pomegranate;(4:13) pomegranate
punici; (4:13) applis of Punyk: pomegranates: Thy within thy lockes;
malorum Thi sendingis out plants are a (4:13)
punicum: ben paradis of paradise of pomegranates:
emissiones applis of Punyk, pomegranates Thy plants are an
tuae paradisus with the fruytis of orchard of
malorum appiis pomegranates
punicorum
24
26 (4:6) montem mounteyn of mountain of myrrh:I mountaines of

murrae: donec myrre: Y schal go will go to the myrrh: I will get
adspiret dies et to the mountain of myrrh, mee to the
inclinentur mounteyn of myrre and to the hill of mountaines of
umbrae vadam frankincense myrrhe, and to the
ad montem hill of
murrae et ad frankincense
collem turis
27 (4:6) collem litil hil of encense: hill of frankincense: hill of

turis:
vadam ad Y schal go to the I will go to the frankincense: I
montem mounteyn of mountain of myrrh, will get mee to the
murrae et ad myrre:, and to the and to the hill of mountaines of
collem turis litil hil frankincense myrrhe, and to the
of encense hill of
frankincense
28 (4:12) hortus: (4:12) gardyn: Mi (4:12) garden: My (4:12) garden:A
hortus sister spousesse, a sister, my spouse, is garden inclosed is
conclusus gardyn closid a garden enclosed; my sister, my
soror mea togidere; (6:1) (6:1) garden, spouse; (6:2)
sponsa hortus orcherd; gardyn; gardens:My beloved garden, gardens:
conclusus fons orcherdis: My is gone down into My beloued is
signatus; (6:1) derlyng gede doun his garden, to the gone downe into
hortum, hortis in to his orcherd, bed of aromatical his garden, to the
dilectus meus to the gardyn of spices, to feed in the beds of spices, to
descendit in swete smellynge gardens, and to feede in the
hortum suum spices, that he be gather lilies gardens, and to
ad areolam fed there in gather lillies
aromatis ut orcherdis,
pascatur in and gadere lilyes
hortis et lilia
colligat
29 (4:13) sendingis out:
Thi plants: Thy plants plants: Thy plants
emissiones: sendingis out ben are a paradise of are an orchard of
emissiones paradis of applis pomegranates with pomegranates
tuae paradisus of Punyk the fruits of the
malorum orchard
punicorum
30 (4:13) (4:13) paradis:
Thi orchard: Thy plants orchard: Thy
paradisus: sendingis out ben are a paradise of plants are an
emissiones paradis of applis pomegranates with orchard of
tuae paradisus of Punyk the fruits of the pomegranates
malorum orchard
punicorum
25
31 (4:13) cypri cipre trees, with cypress with camphire, with

cum nardo: narde: Thi spikenard: Thy spikenard: Thy
emissiones sendingis out ben plants are a plants are an
tuae paradisus paradis of applis paradise of orchard of
malorum with the fruytis of pomegranates with pomegranates,
punicorum cum appiis, cipre the fruits of the with pleasant
pomorum trees, with narde; orchard. Cypress fruits, Camphire,
fructibus cypri narde, and saffrun with spikenard with Spikenard
cum nardo
32 (4:14) crocus: saffrun: narde, saffron: Spikenard saffron: Spikenard
nardus et and saffrun, an and saffron, sweet and Saffron,
crocus erbe clepid fistula, cane and cinnamon, Calamus and
and canel, with with all the trees of Cynamom, with all
alle pumgranatis Libanus trees of
Frankincense,
Mirrhe and Aloes,
with all the chiefe
spices
33 (4:14) fistula: erbe clepid fistula: sweet cane: calamus:
fistula et narde, and Spikenard and Spikenard and
cinnamomum saffrun, an erbe saffron, sweet cane Saffron, Calamus
clepid fistula, and and cinnamon and Cynamom,
canel, with alle with all trees of
pumgranatis Frankincense,
Mirrhe and Aloes,
with all the chiefe
spices
34 (4:14) canel:narde, and cinnamon: cynamom:
cinnamomum: saffrun, an erbe Spikenard and Spikenard and
fistula et clepid fistula, and saffron, sweet cane Saffron, Calamus
cinnamomum canel, with alle and cinnamon and Cynamom
pumgranatis
35 (4:14) alle trees of the all the trees of all trees of
universis lignis Liban: with alle Libanus: sweet cane Frankincense:
Libani: cum trees of the Liban and cinnamon, with Calamus and
universis lignis all the trees of Cynamom, with all
Libani murra Libanus trees of
et aloe Frankincense,
Mirrhe and Aloes,
with all the chiefe
spices
36 (4:14) aloe: aloes: myrre, and aloes: myrrh and Aloes: Mirrhe and
cum universis aloes, with alle the aloes with all the Aloes, with all the
lignis Libani beste oynementis chief perfumes chiefe spices
murra et aloe
26
38 (5:11) (5:11) palm trees: (5:11) palm trees: (5:11) absent;

palmarum: hise heeris ben as his locks as (7:7) palme tree:
comae eius the bowis of palm branches of palm This thy stature is
sicut elatae trees;(7:7) palm trees, black as a like to a palme
palmarum; tree: thi stature is raven; (7:7) palm tree; (7:8) I said, I
(7:7) palmae: licned to a palm tree: Thy stature is will goe up to the
statura tua tree;(7:8) palm like to a palm tree; palme tree
adsimilata est tree: Y schal stie (7:8) palm tree: I
palmae et into a palm tree will go up into the
ubera tua palm tree
botris;(7:8)
palmam: dixi
ascendam in
palmam
39 (5:14) iacynctis:Hise hyacinths:His hands absent
hyacinthis: hondis ben able to are turned and as of
manus illius turne aboute gold, full of
tornatiles goldun, and ful of hyacinths
aureae plenae iacynctis
hyacinthis
40 (6:6) cortex rynde of a bark of a (6:7) piece of a
mali punici: pumgranate: As pomegranate: Thy pomegranate: As a
sicut cortex the rynde of a cheeks are as the piece of a
mali punici pumgranate, so bark of a pomegranat are
genae tuae ben thi chekis pomegranate thy temples within
absque occultis thy lockes
tuis
41 (6:10) hortum myn orcherd: Y garden of nuts: I (6:11) garden of
nucum: cam doun in to went down into the nuts: I went downe
descendi ad myn orcherd garden of nuts into the garden of
hortum nucum nuts
42 (6:10) poma applis of grete fruits of the valleys: fruits of the valley:
convallis: ut valeis: to se the to see the fruits of to see the fruits of
viderem poma applis of grete the valleys the valley
convallis valeis
43 (7:2) acervus heep of whete: thi heap of wheat: Thy heap of wheat: thy
tritici: venter wombe is as an belly is like a heap belly is like an
tuus sicut heep of whete of wheat heape of wheate
acervus tritici
44 (7:7) botris: clustris of grapis: clusters of grapes: clusters of grapes:
statura tua thi tetis to clustris and thy breasts to and thy breasts to
adsimilata est of grapis clusters of grapes clusters of grapes
palmae et
ubera tua
botris
27
45 (7:8) botri clustris of grapis clusters of the vine: clusters of the

vineae: erunt of a vyner:And thi and thy breasts shall vine: now also thy
ubera tua sicut tetes shul ben be as the clusters of breasts shall be as
botri vineae as the clustris of the vine clusters of the vine
grapis of a vyner
46 (7:11) agrum: feeld: Come field: Come, my field: Come, my
veni dilecte mi though, my beloved, let us go beloved, let us goe
egrediamur in derlyng, go we out forth into the field forth into the field
agrum in to the feeld
47 (7:13) Mandrogoris: mandrakes: The mandrakes:The
mandragorae: Mandrogoris han mandrakes give a mandrakes give a
mandragorae goue her odour in smell smell
dederunt oure gatis
odorem
48 (8:2) mustum must of my new wine of my juice of my
malorum pumgranatis: yue pomegranates: I will pomegranate:juice
granatorum: to thee drink of give thee a cup of of my
[...]
dabo tibi wyn maad swete, spiced wine and new pomegranate
poculum ex and of the must of wine of my
vino condito et my pumgranatis pomegranates
mustum
malorum
granatorum
meorum
28
Appendix II
Table 1
: Denominations of the animals, found in The Vulgate, The Wycliffite Bible, The

Douay-Rheims Bible and The King James Version

Bible Bible Version
1 (1:6) greges: flockis: lest Y flocks: lest I begin to flocke: where thou
indica mihi bigynne to wandre, wander after the flocks makest thy flocke
quem diligit aftir the flockis of of thy companions to rest at noone
anima mea ubi thi felowis
pascas ubi cubes
in meridie ne
vagari incipiam
per greges
sodalium tuorum
2 (1:9) turturis: (1:9) turtle: Thi (1:9) turtledove: Thy (1:9) absent; (2:12)
pulchrae sunt chekis ben feire, as cheeks are beautiful as turtle: and the
genae tuae sicut of a turtle; (2:12) the turtledove's; (2:12) voice of the turtle
turturis collum turtle: the voice of the is heard in our
turtle:the vois of a
tuum sicut turtle is heard in our land
monilia; (2:12) turtle is herd in land
turturis:vox oure lond
turturis audita
est in terra
nostra
3 (1:14) culueris: thin igen doves:thy eyes are as doues:thou hast

columbarum: ben the igen of those of doves doves' eyes
oculi tui culueris
columbarum
4 (2:7) capreae: capretis: The roes: O ye daughters of roes: O ye

adiuro vos filiae dougtris of Jerusalem, by the roes, daughters of
Hierusalem per Jerusalem, Y and the harts of the, Ierusalem, by the
capreas charge thoh greetli, Roes, and by the
fields
cervosque bi the capretes, and hindes of the field
camporum the hertes of feeldis
29
5 (2:7) cervorum: hertes: The dougtris harts: O ye daughters hindes: O ye

adiuro vos filiae of Jerusalem, Y of Jerusalem, by the daughters of
Hierusalem per charge thoh greetli, roes, and the harts of Ierusalem, by the
Roes, and by the
capreas bi the capretes, and the, fields
hindes of the field
cervosque the hertes of feeldis
camporum
6 (2:15) vulpes: foxis: Catche the foxes: Catch us the foxes: Take vs the
capite nobis litle foxis to vs, that little foxes that destroy foxes, the litle
vulpes vulpes destrien the vyneris the vines foxes, that spoile
parvulas quae the vines
demoliuntur
vineas nam
7 (4:1) greges flockis of geete: flocks of goats: Thy flock of goats:thy

caprarum: capilli thin heeris ben as hair is as flocks of haire is as a flocke
tui sicut greges the flockis of geete goats of goats
caprarum
8 (4:2) greges flockis of clippid flocks of sheep, that flocke of sheepe

tonsarum: dentes sheep: Thi teeth are shorn: Thy teeth as that are even
tui sicut greges ben as the flockus flocks of sheep, that shorne: Thy teeth
tonsarum are like a flocke of
of clippid sheep are shorn
sheepe that are
even shorne
9 (6:5) grex flok of scheep: Thi flock of sheep: Thy flock of sheep
ovium: dentes teeth as a flok of teeth as a flock of
tui sicut grex sheep sheep
ovium
10 (4:8) leonum: de liouns: fro the lions: from the dens of lions: from the
cubilibus leonum dennys of liouns, the lions, from the Lions dennes, from
de montibus fro the hillis of mountains of the the mountaines of
pardorum the Leopards
pardis leopards
11 (4:8) pardorum: pardis: fro the leopards: from the dens leopards: from the
de cubilibus dennys of liouns, of the lions, from the Lions dennes, from
leonum de fro the hillis of mountains of the the mountaines of
montibus pardis leopards the Leopards
pardorum
30
12 (5:11) corvus: crowe: Hise heeris raven: his locks as raven: his locks are
caput eius ben as the bowis of branches of palm bushy, and blacke
aurum optimum palm trees and ben trees, black as a raven as a Raven
comae eius sicut
blake as a crowe
elatae palmarum
nigrae quasi
corvus
13 (7:3) hinuli twei kidis, twynnes two young roes that two yong Roes that
gemelli capreae: of a capret: Thi twei are twins: Thy two are twinnes: Thy
duo ubera tua tetis ben as twey breasts are like two two breasts are like
sicut duo hinuli kidis, twynnes of a two yong Roes that
young roes that are
gemelli capreae capret are twinnes
twins
31

Flora and Fauna of "The Song of Songs" in Middle and Early Modern English Translations of The Bible

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Flora and Fauna of "The Song of Songs" in Middle and Early Modern English Translations of The Bible

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Flora and fauna of “The Song

of Songs” in Middle and Early

Historical overview of the Bibles 3

Historical overview of the Bibles

The Vulgate The Wycliffite The Douay-Rheims The King James

The Wycliffite translation of floral denominations provides four patterns of names’

The Vulgate The Wycliffite

collem turis litil hil of encense

emissiones sendingis out

hortum nucum myn orcherd

The Vulgate The Wycliffite Bible

mali punici appil of Punyk

fistula erbe clepid fistula

mustum malorum must of my

The Vulgate The King James Version

flos campi rose of Sharon

vineae florent vines with the tender grape

The Vulgate The King James

botrus cypri cluster of camphire

cypri cum nardo camphire, with spikenard

universis lignis Libani all trees of frankincense

The Vulgate The Wycliffite The Douay-Rheims The King

1 turturis turtle turtledove turtle

2 capreae capretis roe, roes roe, roes

3 cervorum hertis hart hinds, h​art

4 pardorum pardis leopards leopards

The Vulgate The Wycliffite Bible

As it was observed in the Wycliffite translation of flora denominations, some Latinisms

Comparative analysis of the fauna names from Appendix II exhibited no translational

Variations Occurrence (out of 61)

Variations Occurrence (out of 61)

Change of species/gender 6 (9,8%)

(accessed November 23, 2018)

The Vulgate The Wycliffite The Douay-Rheims The King James

4 (1:12) bundel of myrre: bundle of myrrh: ​A bundle of myrrh: ​A

5 (1:13) botrus cluster of cipre tre: cluster of cypress: ​​A cluster of

7 (1:16) cipresse: ​oure cypress trees: ​our firre: ​and our

23 (3:6) turis: encence: ​Who frankincense: ​Who is frankincense: ​Who

26 (4:6) montem mounteyn of mountain of myrrh:​​I mountaines of

27 (4:6) collem litil hil of encense: hill of frankincense: hill of

31 (4:13) cypri cipre trees, with cypress with camphire, with

38 (5:11) (5:11) palm trees: (5:11) palm trees: (5:11) absent;

45 (7:8) botri clustris of grapis clusters of the vine: clusters of the

The Vulgate The Wycliffite The Douay-Rheims The King James

3 (1:14) culueris: ​thin igen doves:​​thy eyes are as doues:​thou hast

4 (2:7) capreae: capretis: ​The roes: ​O ye daughters of roes: ​O ye

5 (2:7) cervorum: hertes: ​The dougtris harts: ​O ye daughters hindes: ​O ye

7 (4:1) greges flockis of geete: flocks of goats: ​Thy flock of goats:​thy

8 (4:2) greges flockis of clippid flocks of sheep, that flocke of sheepe

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3 cervorum hertis hart hinds, hart

4 (1:12) bundel of myrre: bundle of myrrh: A bundle of myrrh: A

5 (1:13) botrus cluster of cipre tre: cluster of cypress: A cluster of

7 (1:16) cipresse: oure cypress trees: our firre: and our

23 (3:6) turis: encence: Who frankincense: Who is frankincense: Who

26 (4:6) montem mounteyn of mountain of myrrh:I mountaines of

3 (1:14) culueris: thin igen doves:thy eyes are as doues:thou hast

4 (2:7) capreae: capretis: The roes: O ye daughters of roes: O ye

5 (2:7) cervorum: hertes: The dougtris harts: O ye daughters hindes: O ye

7 (4:1) greges flockis of geete: flocks of goats: Thy flock of goats:thy