Guyart des Moulins’s 1295 Bible historiale, a translation of parts of the Latin Bible with commentary from the Historia Scholastica, quickly became the predominant Bible in French and remained so for over 200 years. Despite its promise to tell “nothing but pure truth” and to translate scriptures and commentary “word for word,” Guyart’s translation refashions the text for a particular kind of reader formed and informed by contemporary art, theatre, and romances. His narrative choices reflect norms of vernacular storytelling, engaging with the prior knowledge and perceived expectations of imagined readers. In this paper, I would like to consider some instances in which the translator self-consciously addresses an anticipated clash with reader expectations and employs a variety of strategies to mitigate that discord, whether by filling in missing details, rearranging elements of the text, or referencing familiar places, objects and scenes to help readers better situate and inhabit the stories and to participate in truth-making through the activation of memory, will, and imagination.
