The Douay–Rheims Bible (/ˌduːeɪ ˈriːmz, ˌdaʊeɪ -/, US also /duːˌeɪ -/), also known as the Douay–Rheims Version, Rheims–Douai Bible or Douai Bible, and abbreviated as D–R, DRB, and DRV, is a translation of the Bible from the Latin Vulgate into Early Modern English by members of the English College, Douai as a Counter-Reformation effort. The New Testament portion was published in Rheims, France, in 1582, in one volume with extensive commentary and notes. The Old Testament portion was published in two volumes in 1609 and 1610 by the University of Douai. The first volume, covering Genesis to Job, was published in 1609; the second, covering the Book of Psalms to 2 Maccabees (spelled "Maccabees") and the three apocryphal books of the Vulgate appendix following the Old Testament (Prayer of Manasseh, 3 Esdras, and 4 Esdras), was published in 1610. Marginal notes on translation and the Hebrew and Greek source texts of the Vulgate compose majority portions of the edition. In 1589, William Fulke collated the complete Rheims text and notes in parallel columns with those of the Bishops' Bible. This work sold widely in England, prompting re-issue in three further editions by 1633. Fulke's editions of the Rheims New Testament were of crucial significance to 17th-century English exegesis.
Much of the first edition employed Latin vocabulary, rendering it particularly difficult to read. Consequently, a revision of the translation was undertaken by Bishop Richard Challoner: the New Testament in three editions of 1749, 1750, and 1752; and the Old Testament (minus the Vulgate apocrypha) in 1750.
