Accessibility and the power of images in nineteenth century bibles with La Bible Populaire

Title	La Bible populaire, Histoire illustrée de l’Ancien et du Nouveau Testament – Deuxième partie, Nouveau Testament, par l’abbé Drioux
Date	1865
Editor	Louis Hachette
Contributors	Typography and print by Charles Lahure
Language	French

La Bible Populaire Illustrée, a manifestation of the nineteenth century printing revolution

The nineteenth century ushered in the industrial age and with it a new cultural sphere reigned by the printing industry. Innovations piled up continuously, from the press itself to paper production or image reproduction, nearly all aspects of the field went through a mechanization allowing the pace to pick up, the cost to decrease and the expansion of publishing to all. As printed paper became the new norm and increasingly accessible, forms and genres expanded beyond their previous limits, daily illustrated newspapers, low-priced book collections, all sorts of ephemera. The era is marked by a rise in literacy rates, to cater to this new public publishers adapted and diversified their work to aim at children and schools, women, and the working-class. As a result, a booming genre at the time was popularization in books, journals or magazines with a general approach to different topics in order to introduce knowledge and culture to these new readers. 

Bibles were also swept up in this industrial boom of print. Beyond the rise of readership, the nineteenth century is renowned for the proliferation of images, illustrated bibles greatly appealed to the public. Until then illustrated bibles had mainly been a luxury, finely printed and adorned while newly illustrated bibles in the nineteenth century varied in quality.

The Bible Populaire was published by the editor Hachette, at first specialized in school books for children, following the lead of British editor W. H. Smith, Hachette proceeded to extend its repertory to publish affordable books collections sold in train stations (bibliothèques de gare). Hachette soared to be part of the leaders of the publishing industry, with this expertise the Bible Populaire was carefully crafted to ensure cost-efficiency and appeal to its intended public. Features that allowed it to be a low-priced illustrated bible include printing the text on two columns as was common for cheap publications, moreover the ability of inserting the images within the text and not on a separate page both resulted in a visual harmony between text and image as well as in saving space and paper.

Abbé Drioux was not only a priest but a theologian, and a renowned educator with a prolific writing career in children’s education. Following the overall fashion of the popularization genre combined with his experience in producing educational textbooks, abbé Drioux applied this logic of simplification and explanation in his edition of the bible. Beyond its price, La Bible Populaire is also accessible in terms of reading comprehension, a welcomed feature for children or people new to literary culture. Each chapter was enriched with a summary and further explanations, in a way abbé Drioux explicits the biblical text just as a priest would provide teachings and guidance to the scripture during mass.

The Apocalypse

As an apocalyptic prophecy, the book of Revelation delivers a significant ending to the bible. An apocalypse is structured around the threat of an imminent disaster, their cause being mankind’s sins thus the pending world-ending event manifests as a punishment, its narrative allegorical. Many apocalypses were communicated to prophets yet, the lasting impression that saint John has left behind in his narrative is hardly attainable. The  announced crescendo of injustices and violence leading up to the last judgment has had people believing that its completion was near more than once. The threat of the apocalypse remains lingering on as inherently imminent. With no parables, no epistles or historical account it is solely governed by the prophetic visions bestowed onto John, supposedly an individual from Patmos around 95CE. This vision of his and therefore the entire book belongs to the apocalyptic literature tradition, the message he relays is of the second coming of Christ and with him a heavenly vengeance and justice.

For this bible, abbé Drioux both translated and wrote the notes and commentaries to be as didactic and efficient as possible. The woven scripture in-between the extensive commentary modifies the reading experience that is so specific to prophecies, especially apocalyptic ones. The Revelation’s esoteric language, nested symbols and non-linear account which cast doubt and interpretative labor on the reader is dismantled by abbé Drioux’s guidance. At first glance, there is hardly a visual distinction between the biblical text and the commentaries.

A choir of apocalyptic angels
Angels are especially central to Christian art, their presence in prophecies as envoys or enacting God’s commands have made them essential characters to portray in prophecies. Angels of the Revelation fulfill both roles, they guide saint John through his visions but also are the subject of the visions as they lead this ultimate judgment and war. The cue of humanity’s demise is given by the seven trumpets blown by seven angels starting in chapter 8 of the Revelation, with each trumpet more wrath unleashed and more suffering. Far from the virtues and soft images that we often bestow on them, these angels are executioners, soldiers and should evoke awe and terror. After all, angels are renowned for the sentence “Do not be afraid”, they are meant to be unsettling and intimidating for humans. Because the vocabulary of doom and the precise narration are so vivid, scenes of the Revelation are challenging to illustrate and live up to. Furthermore, the benevolent archetype that has been associated with angels such as the guardian or the muse, makes it harder to bring out the essence of angels of the revelation. Although, the majority of representations of the angels and their seven trumpets tend to regroup all the angels in one frame, here in La Bible Populaire the choice of isolating each angel, and depicting the specific events that their trumpets provoke leaves a lasting impression. Positioning these engravings in-between the two columns of texts also help to bring more vigorousness to the reading. But overall, the quality of the engravings, their interpretation from the original drawings and the means deployed for this bible do not make them stand out very much.

An example of Drioux’s commentary on the scripture:

“Ici la vengeance de Dieu précédemment annoncée commence à s’exécuter. Les élus qui étaient encore parmi les Juifs en Judée en ayant été tirés, il n’y avait plus rien qui empêchât la dernière dispersion que Dieu préparait à cette criminelle nation. Avant que Dieu révèle sa sentence, il se fait dans le ciel un instant de silence , comme lorsqu’on attend avec anxiété la décision que vont porter les juges dans une affaire importante. Les anges sont debout devant Dieu pour montrer qu’ils sont prêts à exécuter ses volontés aussitôt qu’elles leur seront connues. On leur donna des trompettes pour signifier le son éclatant de la justice divine et le bruit que vont faire ses vengeances par tout l’univers.”

Drioux,  Claude-Joseph. La Bible populaire, Histoire illustrée de l’Ancien et du Nouveau Testament, Deuxième partie, Nouveau Testament, p.480.

“Le septième ange sonna de la trompette; et il se fit entendre dans le ciel de grandes voix qui disaient: “Le royaume de ce monde est devenu le royaume de Notre-Seigneur et de son Christ et il régnera aux siècles des siècles. Amen.” […] “Aussitôt on délia les quatres anges qui étaient près pour l’heure, le jour, le mois et l’année où ils devaient tuer la troisième partie des hommes. [..]Aussitôt on délia les quatres anges qui étaient près pour l’heure, le jour, le mois et l’année où ils devaient tuer la troisième partie des hommes. [..] Les nations de sont irritées et le temps de votre colère est arrivé et le temps où vous avez résolu de juger les morts et donner la récompense aux prophètes, vos erviteurs, et aux saints et à ceux qui craignent votre nom, aux petits et auc grands, et d’exterminer ceux qui ont corrompu la terre par leurs crimes.”

Revelation 11

While the engravings are rather ordinary, the interest lies precisely in this mundanity as these images in La Bible Populaire are not commissioned to an artist but the result of a compilation and refurbishing of previously produced images from diverse artists. A feat easily achieved in the nineteenth century, using image reproducing techniques like stereotyping or electrotyping. Despite the gathering of various images and the melting pot of different styles, the end-result does not necessarily feel too disharmonious. For example the angels all share the same Eurocentric features, a gender fluidity, their attire and wings white and a serious attitude. Perhaps, another criteria creating this conformity is the adopted historicization in these representations. Unlike the previous tradition of representing biblical scenes as in one’s own era, nineteenth century biblical images have embraced the romanticized attempt at an aesthetic of historical accuracy. An interest linked to research concerning archeology at the time, but also the rise of historical criticism as well as the development of science sometimes challenging the bible’s accuracy and legitimacy.

Meaning-making also happens through images, it is another way of making the bible intelligible. To produce images from a text is to commit to influencing the reading. There is always a chosen point-of-view depicted, which channels a voluntary or not a perspective that may highlight or hide some aspects. Images have power over narratives, they may fill-in narrative gaps or flatten the story but most importantly they stay engraved with more ease in our minds than words. 

This type of bible may fall under the ‘quasi-bible’ umbrella since the actual biblical text present is abbreviated into snippets and excerpts, it may be looked as if the biblical text is accompanying the illustrations and the commentary rather than the opposite. The Bible Populaire by abbé Drioux is a bible whose commentaries, notes and mismatched illustrations give the impression of an anthology or encyclopedic bible. This bible was also declined in an edition meant to be an album compiling solely the illustrations with legends but no other words from scripture. Thus exhibiting how the images can speak for themselves.

Bibliography:

Bauer, Jerry. “Book of Revelation : ‘Visions, Prophecy and Politics.’” Npr.org, 7 Mar. 2012, www.npr.org/2012/03/07/148125942/the-book-of-revelation-visions-prophecy-politics.

Beer, John. “Romantic Apocalypses.” The Wordsworth Circle, vol. 32, no. 2, Marilyn Gaull, 2001, pp. 109–16, https://doi.org/10.2307/24044795. JSTOR.

Homrighausen, Jonathan. “Decorated, Illuminated, and Illustrated Bibles.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, Oct. 2022, https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.782.

Lerner, Robert. “Apocalyptic Literature | Literary Genre.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 2024, www.britannica.com/art/apocalyptic-literature.

Simon, Ed. Elysium: A Visual History of Angeology. Abrams, 2023.

Teukolsky, Rachel. Picture World : Image, Aesthetics, and Victorian New Media. Oxford University Press, 2020.

Images sources: 

Private library in Besançon.

“Bibliothèque Catholique | Abbé Claude-Joseph Drioux – La Bible Populaire – Tome 2.” Bibliotheque-Catholique, 2025, www.bibliotheque-catholique.com/bible/abbe-claude-joseph-drioux/la-bible-populaire-tome-2. Accessed 3 Dec. 2025.