The Psalter in Exile: Translation, Correction, and Revision of the Psalms at the Stuart Court in Saint-Germain-en-Laye

The paper concerns a little-known rendition of the Psalms, translated into English at the exiled court of King James II at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and printed anonymously first in 1700, and then in a revised and corrected edition in 1704. The translators were John Caryll and David Nairne. Thanks to the preservation of Nairne’s Diary, we can meticulously examine the translation process and reconstruct the division of labour between these men. My discovery of the copy of the translation that Nairne made for Queen Mary of Modena immediately upon the completion of the original translation in 1697 (i.e., before the text was significantly altered by reviewers) offers a unique glimpse into the revision process. In-depth analysis of the variant readings introduced in the subsequent redactions reveals that the applied review procedures, though comprising a conglomerate of reviewers, represented a guided and systematic process aimed at both securing the approbations necessary to print the translation and providing readers with the best possible text.