The Studium Biblicum Franciscanum Hong Kong is the Hong Kong branch of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, founded by the Blessed Gabriele Allegra in 1945 in Beijing, to support the work of a team of Franciscan friars engaged in the first complete translation of the Catholic Bible in Chinese. Started by the Blessed Gabriele Allegra soon after his arrival in China in 1931, the Studium Biblicum version was eventually published in 1968, and is considered the prominent Chinese-language version of the Bible among Chinese Catholics.
The digitized collection consists of materials documenting the OFM translation work and its results, namely:
- Thirty-two volumes of manuscripts, including the Blessed Gabriele Allegra’s translation notes, and thirty-one books of the Bible in Chinese.
- Twenty-nine Chinese-language books of the Bible, published between 1946 and 1964.
- Three directories dated 1948 (Catalogus Fratrum Minorum in Sinis), 1960 and 1990 (Necrologium Fratrum Minorum in Sinis).
The project is part of the Documentation of Chinese Christianity program, established by the Yale Divinity Library in collaboration with Hong Kong Baptist University Library, and funded by the Latourette Initiative for the Documentation of World Christianity.
To request digital copies of these materials, please contact the Divinity Library Special Collections.