Editing Richard Simon (section)

===Other works===
As a [[controversialist]], Simon tended to use pseudonyms, and to display bitterness.

Simon was early at odds with the [[Port-Royal-des-Champs|Port-Royalists]]. [[Antoine Arnauld]] had compiled with others a work ''Perpétuité de la foi'' (On the Perpetuity of the Faith), the first volume of which dealt with the [[Eucharist]]. After [[François Diroys]], who knew both of them, had involved Simon in commenting on the work, Simon's criticisms from 1669 aroused indignation in Arnauld's camp.<ref>[http://www.1902encyclopedia.com/S/SIM/richard-simon.html 1902 Britannica article on Simon.]</ref><ref>Fabrice Preyat, ''Le Petit Concile de Bossuet et la christianisation des moeurs et des pratiques littéraires sous Louis XIV'' (2007), p. 119; [https://books.google.com/books?id=p4GQtS8mVegC&pg=PA119 Google Books].</ref>

Simon's first major publication followed, his ''Fides Ecclesiae orientalis, seu Gabrielis Metropolitae Philadelphiensis opuscula, cum interpretatione Latina, cum notis'' (Paris, 1671), on a work of {{Interlanguage link multi|Gabriel Severus|fr|3=Gabriel Sévèros}} (1541–1616), the object of which was to demonstrate that the belief of the Greek Church regarding the [[Eucharist]] was the same as that of the Church of Rome. In 1670 he had written a pamphlet in defence of the Jews of [[Metz]], who had been accused of having murdered a Christian child.

[[image:Leon de modene.jpg|right|thumb|220px|''Cérémonies et coutumes parmi les Juifs'' by [[Leon of Modena]], translated by Simon.]]

Simon published in 1675 a translation of the travels of [[Girolamo Dandini (1554–1634)|Girolamo Dandini]] in [[Lebanon]], as ''Voyage au Mont Liban'' (1675).<ref>Guy G. Stroumsa, ''A New Science: the discovery of religion in the Age of Reason'' (2010), p. 183 note 9; [https://books.google.com/books?id=I6K7RE8WxiEC&pg=PA183 Google Books].</ref> Dandini was a perceptive observer, and Simon in his preface argued for the utility of travel to theologians.<ref>Stroumsa, p. 64; [https://books.google.com/books?id=I6K7RE8WxiEC&pg=PA64 Google Books].</ref>

In 1676 contacts with [[Huguenot]]s at [[Charenton-le-Pont|Charenton]] led Simon to circulate a manuscript project for a new version of the Bible.<ref>Rens Bod, Jaap Maat, Thijs Weststeijn, ''The Making of the Humanities: Volume I: Early Modern Europe'', Volume 1 (2011), p. 345 note 18; [https://books.google.com/books?id=5Mgr4pkoCCQC&pg=PA345 Google Books].</ref> This was a sample for a proposed improved edition of the [[Giovanni Diodati]] translation; but after Simon had translated the [[Pentateuch]] the funding ran out.<ref>Magne Saebo, ''Hebrew Bible, Old Testament: From the Renaissance to the Enlightenment [1300-1800]'' (2008), p. 555; [https://books.google.com/books?id=OMlT-FViF40C&pg=PA555 Google Books].</ref>