Note 2 — An Essay on the Basque Language,

Thus, in order to study this singular idiom, it is necessary to understand thoroughly the history of the intervention of Latin in the Pyrenean region. No assistance is to be obtained from written documents, for there is not (and there cannot have been) any primitive Basque literature. The oldest book was published in 1545.2 The second is the Protestant version of the New Testament, printed at La Rochelle by order of Jeanne d’Albret, in 1571.3