Christoll Terrien
Christoll (Christopher) Terrien, was born about 1808 in An Oriant (Lorient), Moriban, Brittany, France. Christoll and his wife Adelaide Marie. He had worked as Censeur des Studes in the Imperial Lyceess of Rennes, Rheims and Clermont-Ferrand, University of France. They were Breton French refugees, who came to England in 1844. They were language teachers, and he spoke English, Breton, French, German and Italian. They lived for many years at Shrewsbury, where they taught French at Shrewsbury School. Christoll also worked as an assistant to Prince Louis-Lucien Bonaparte, who was interested in European languages. In 1862 he spoke to the Welsh National Eisteddfod in Breton and French. He died in the 1870s and his wife Adelaide died in 1895.
Sponsor
Louis Lucien Bonaparte (1813‑1891), a nephew of Napoléon Bonaparte. Louis Lucien Bonaparte moved to London in the early 1850s setting up home at 6‑8 Norfolk Terrace, Bayswater, London. He spoke Italian, French, Spanish, English and Basque and became an active member of the Philological Society. Bonaparte was particularly interested in minority languages. He would pay for the printing of many translations of portions of the Bible that he commissioned, in minority languages of Europe. He commissioned the Celtic Hexapla which had the Song of Solomon in six Celtic languages: Wels, Irish, Scots Gaelic, Manx, Breton and the Vannes dialect of Breton.
Translations
Christoll Terrien translated the Gospel of Matthew into his Vanned dialect of Breton in 1857; Breton liturgical selections for Liherieu hag Avieleu: or the Catholic Epistles and Gospels for the day up to Ascension, published in 1858; and the Song of Solomon into Breton, and the Vannes dialect of Breton for the Celtic Hexapla in 1858.
Publication
250 copies were printed by George Barclay of 28 Castle Street, Leicester Square in London in 1858.
Digital Edition
This Breton Song of Solomon was digitised from the Celtic Hexapla with the help of MissionAssist in 2025.
