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What the Douay-Rheims Bible is, and why we set that text

ARLing s. r. o. · 18 September 2026

If you have looked for a Catholic Bible text you can print, put in a journal or set on a tablet without asking anyone's permission, you have met the Douay-Rheims, usually without an explanation of what it is. Here is the short version. It is an English Catholic translation made from the Latin Vulgate rather than from Greek and Hebrew, and the version almost everyone means by the name is the Challoner revision of 1749 to 1752, in its American edition of 1899. That edition is old enough to be in the public domain, which is the practical reason it turns up everywhere, and it numbers the Psalms the way the Vulgate does, which is the reason a Catholic reader finds it familiar. This note sets out what it is, what its licence rests on, and what we did and did not do to the text we set.

What it is

A translation from the Latin Vulgate into English, Catholic, and revised by Bishop Richard Challoner between 1749 and 1752; the text we use is the American edition of 1899. Two details tell you what kind of translation you are holding: it renders the divine name as "the Lord", never "Yahweh" or "Jehovah", and the title of a Psalm is counted as its first verse, which is why Psalm verse numbers in it run one ahead of what a modern Bible shows.

The numbering follows the Vulgate as well: Vulgate 9 is Hebrew 9 and 10, most of the psalter differs by one, and the two systems meet again at Psalm 148. A book can print both numbers and remove the confusion, which is what ours does.

What the public domain status rests on

The record of the translation at eBible.org says verbatim "The Holy Bible in English, Douay-Rheims American Edition of 1899, translated from the Latin Vulgate", gives its status as "public domain" and marks it as redistributable. That is one source, and one source is not enough for a claim about rights.

Two independent ones agree. Project Gutenberg carries the same work as ebook 1581, described as "Bishop Richard Challoner A.D. 1749-1752", and the CrossWire project distributes the same revision as its DRC module under a Public Domain licence. Richard Challoner himself died in 1781.

What we did to the text, and what we did not

The book follows the digital edition of eBible.org, identifier engDRA, with the source files dated 3 November 2022; only the markup is removed, and the annotations of the printed edition are not included. Removing markup is not a change to the text.

There is one exception, and it is worth describing exactly, because it is the kind of thing a publisher is usually silent about. Digital transcriptions contain typing errors. The first book corrects twelve obvious ones, for example Manesses for Manasses in Matthew 1:10, and only where two other transcriptions of the same printed edition, one on drbo.org and Project Gutenberg ebook 1581, agree on a different reading; the list of corrections is printed on the last page of the book. Comparing all 828 verses of the first book with the Gutenberg transcription after those corrections gives 652 verses identical, 99 differing only in punctuation and 76 differing in wording with no obvious error, and those 76 are left exactly as they are.

Why we chose it, and what we do not claim

Three reasons, in order of weight. The text is in the public domain, so it can be sold as part of a book. It is Catholic and numbers the Psalms after the Vulgate, so it matches the tradition the book is written for. And it exists in a machine readable edition, so a program can set it without a human retyping anything.

Now the limits. No ecclesiastical approval is claimed for our book. The approbation of the 1899 edition is mentioned only in the description of the CrossWire module, eBible.org does not mention it, and it is a historical detail about the source rather than an approval of anything we made. The book itself is a private aid to prayer, not a liturgical book, and it does not replace the Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours or spiritual direction.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Douay-Rheims the same as the King James Version?

No. The Douay-Rheims is a Catholic translation made from the Latin Vulgate, in the Challoner revision of 1749 to 1752 and its American edition of 1899, and it numbers the Psalms after the Vulgate.

Can I print or republish the text myself?

The record at eBible.org gives the status "public domain" and marks it redistributable, and both Project Gutenberg and the CrossWire DRC module carry the same work as public domain. What you do with that is your decision to check, not ours to promise.

Did you modernise the spelling?

No. Only the markup is removed and the annotations of the printed edition are left out. Twelve obvious transcription errors are corrected, with the list printed in the book, and 76 further differences in wording were left untouched.

Where to look next

If you want to read a few pages of the text as we set it, days 1 to 7 are a free sample on the Morning Quiet page at https://arling.sk/morning-quiet/, with no account and no e-mail address. The first book, 31 days of Psalms and Matthew with the text printed on the page, is a digital download of three PDF files at 4.90 €. It has not been opened on a physical reMarkable, Kindle Scribe, Boox or Supernote, so the sample is the place to start, and our other titles, including the ten printable puzzle books, are set on the same page.

Sources. The facts in this note are numbered after our internal fact list and were checked on the publication date. If a source has changed since, write to support@arling.sk and we will correct this page.