Thanks to a donation from Tony Comper, the former Bank of Montreal CEO and longtime board chair of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies at the University of St. Michael’s College, a complete first-edition Douay-Rheims Bible now belongs to the institute’s Toronto library. 

The gift, presented Feb. 12, makes the pontificate the only library in the University of Toronto system, and likely one of only a handful of institutes worldwide, to house what is historically the foundational Catholic English translation of Scripture, published under the auspices of the Catholic Church. 

Close to 450 years old, the New Testament of this first-edition of the Douay-Rheims was published by exiled English Catholic scholars at Rheims, France, in 1582, with the Old Testament similarly published at Douay in 1609-1610. Now, all three volumes belong to the post-doctoral research institute dedicated to advanced studies in the culture and history of the Middle Ages. 

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Comper, a longtime collector of rare books and alumnus of  the University of St. Michael's College majoring in English literature, first came in contact with the historic Bible around a decade ago. While eclectic in his collection approach, he understood the significance of such an elusive translation. 

“I started my collection maybe 40 years ago or so, and as my collecting interest expanded and I started to accumulate older books and some first editions of contemporary authors and medieval texts, one of the rare book dealers with whom I frequently had discussions offered me this first edition of the Douay-Rhimes Bible,” he told The Catholic Register. 

“Of course, that was something that I could not pass up. I acquired it at that point in time, and it was part of my collection until (mid-February).” 

Notable for being the first complete Catholic Bible translated into Early Modern English by members of the English College in Douai, the Douay-Rheims holds major significance in the history of English Scripture. Today, while translations such as the English Standard Version Catholic Edition remain commonly used Bibles in English-speaking Catholic churches, the 1749-1752 Challoner revision of the Douay-Rheims remains a prominent English choice. 

However, the Bible donated by Comper is not the more common Challoner revision that remained the standard Catholic English version of the Bible well into the 1950s. In fact, it is much, much rarer than that. 

“ Fr. Augustine Thompson, our current president at the Pontifical Institute, advised me that to his knowledge, no other university library has one of these first editions of the Douay-Rheims Bible from 1582 and 1609 to 1610,” Comper said. 

 Indeed, notes from the organization where Comper acquired the Bible characterize the collection as a “very scarce first edition” of both the New and Old Testament for the first Roman Catholic version in English, translated from the original Latin Vulgate. 

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“Asssembled scholars took the Latin Vulgate, which had been an early translation of the Bible into Latin for common use, to produce this. They published the New Testament in 1582, but didn’t have the resources to continue to produce the Old Testament until 1609 and 1610 — the first edition that I have gifted to the Pontifical Institute contains all three volumes.” 

The donation was made in honour of the many years of service of Dr. Richard Alway, a former president of  both St. Michael's College (for more than 20 years) as well as the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. 

A longtime friend of Comper, the two helped stabilize PIMS financially during difficult times. Comper shared his thoughts behind his desire for a meaningful, notable recognition of his friend and his work upon his recent retirement as the institute’s president.

“ I decided that it was time for (Alway) to be appropriately recognized, not just for his support of the Pontifical Institute and the University of St. Michael's College, but indeed the broader aspect of his support for the University of Toronto, having been among other things, warden of Hart House, holding a close association with Trinity College, and even the Government of Canada in many nonprofit roles,” Comper said.

As explained by Greti Dinkova-Bruun, fellow and chief librarian at the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, it’s not the first donation Comper has made to the library. 

“A couple of years ago, (Comper) donated to the library his facsimiles of medieval manuscripts, a wonderful collection which enriches our holdings greatly and serves as teaching material. Now, the first edition of this Bible is a very rare addition, in that no other copy of it exists in Canada, making his recent donation even more extraordinary,” she said. 

His latest donation was presented at a small reception in the institute's library, with  Thompson, Dinkova-Bruun and Fr. James Farge, C.S.B., the PIMS rare books curator, also present alongside Comper, Alway and other senior fellows. 

In the library where the book now sits, Comper presented each of the three volumes in custom-constructed and annotated leather containers as fellows chatted and shared their knowledge of the edition and the related later versions. 

While no concrete research projects have been announced yet for Comper’s gift, the donation is poised to draw significant scholarly attention as the Douay-Rheims fills a critical gap in PIMS’ already world-class collection. 

“The PIMS readers can now study the wealth of paratexts surrounding the text: prefaces, marginal notes, maps, tables and other annotations that offer insights on issues of sources, content, doctrine and much more,” Dinkova-Bruu said. 

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“We are deeply grateful to Tony for his exceptional generosity and continuous support.”