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Case 4: The European Bible (2)
Exhibition curators: Hugh Cahill and Jennifer Alder
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| Portrait of Christian II of Denmark, from:
Thette ere thz Nøye testamenth paa danske ret effter latinen vdsatthe.
[Leipzig] : Aff Melchoir Lotther: Lybs i land til Myssen, 1524. [Marsden
Collection R9/1] |
Thette ere thz Nøye testamenth paa danske ret effter latinen vdsatthe.
[Leipzig] : Aff Melchoir Lotther: Lybs i land til Myssen, 1524.
[Marsden Collection R9/1]
This New Testament is the first to have been printed in Danish and the first
to have been printed in any Scandinavian language. It was translated at the
command of King Christian II of Denmark (1481-1559), then in exile and a recent
convert to Lutheranism. Christian hoped that by having this translation made
he could win the support of Danish Protestants in trying to regain his throne.
The translation was the work of Hans Mikkelsen (d.1532), Christiern Vinter and
Henrik Smith. The woodcuts are by Georg Lemberger (ca.1495-ca.1540) but the
woodcut portrait of Christian II (shown here) and his coat of arms are by Lucas
Cranach the Elder (1472-1553). This rare New Testament (only 41 copies are known
toexist) is made even more unusual as it retains both the portrait of Christian
II and a letter by Hans Mikkelsen to the Danish people urging them to support
Christian in his attempt to regain his throne. These features caused the book
to be banned and in many of the surviving copies of this book they have been
removed.
The first complete Danish Bible did not appear until 1550, when a translation
by Christiern Pedersen (ca. 1480-1554) was decreed by King Christian III as
the official Bible of all Danish subjects.
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| Adam and Eve from: Biblia, se on coco Pyhä Ramattu suomexi : pääramattuín, hebrean ja grecan jälken: Esipuhetten, marginaliain, concordantiain, selitösten ja regi sterein cansa. Stockholmis: Präntätty Henrich Keisarilda, 1642. [Marsden Collection R1/3] |
Biblia, se on coco Pyhä Ramattu suomexi : pääramattuín, hebrean ja grecan jälken: Esipuhetten, marginaliain, concordantiain, selitösten ja regi sterein cansa. Stockholmis: Präntätty Henrich Keisarilda, 1642.
[Marsden Collection R1/3]
Although Michael Agricola (ca. 1510-1557) had published a Finnish translation of the New Testament in 1548 under the title Se Wsi Testamenti and later published a translation of part of the Old Testament in three volumes between 1551 and 1552, no complete Finnish Bible was published until this edition was printed in 1642. This translation was produced by a committee headed by Bishop Eskil Petraeus (1593-1657). Its publication had a huge influence on the standardisation of Finnish and its development as a literary language. Because no printing press that could print the entire Bible in folio size was available in Finland, the Bible was printed in Stockholm in an edition of 1,200 copies. Petraeus had a further influence on the development of Finnish as he published the first grammar of Finnish, Linguae Finnicae brevis institutio, in 1649.
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| Page from the first Latvian Bible: Ta Swehta Grahmata jeb Deewa Swehtais Wahrds : kas Preeksch un pehz ta Kunga Jesus Kristus swehtas Peedsimschanas no teem swehteem Deewa-Zilwekeem, Praweescheem, Ewangelisteem jeb Preezas-Mahzitajeem un Apustuleem usrakstihts, Tahm latweeschahm Deewa Draudsibahm par labbu istaisita. Riga : J. G. Wilcken , 1689. [Marsden Collection R3/1] |
Ta Swehta Grahmata jeb Deewa Swehtais Wahrds : kas Preeksch un pehz ta Kunga Jesus Kristus swehtas Peedsimschanas no teem swehteem Deewa-Zilwekeem, Praweescheem, Ewangelisteem jeb Preezas-Mahzitajeem un Apustuleem usrakstihts, Tahm latweeschahm Deewa Draudsibahm par labbu istaisita. Riga : J. G. Wilcken , 1689.
[Marsden Collection R3/1]
This is the first edition of the Bible in Latvian. Previously the only portions of the Bible that had appeared in print in this language had been Proverbs (1637) and some portions of the Gospels and Epistles contained in a Lutheran manual known as Enchiridion, which was first published in 1586. This Bible translation was commissioned on the orders of King Charles XI of Sweden by Johann Fischer (1636-1705), General Superintendent of Livonia, and was published at royal expense. The translation was done by the German Lutheran, Ernst Glücks (1652-1705), and was revised by a committee of churchmen at Riga. The edition ran to 1,500 copies and the King ordered that a copy should be presented to every church in those areas of his lands were Latvian was spoken.
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Title page from: Biblia : to je, zyle Szwjate Pissmo Stareho a Noweho Sakona predy do njemskeje, wot D. Mertena Luthera, njetko pak do horneje Luziskeje sserskeje recze ... wot njekotrych evangeliskich prjedarjow pschelozena. [Bautzen] : Wot Davita Richtarja, knihow kupza salozena, czischczana w Budeschini, 1728 [i.e. 1727-1728]. [Marsden Collection R2/18] |
Biblia : to je, zyle Szwjate Pissmo Stareho a Noweho Sakona predy do njemskeje, wot D. Mertena Luthera, njetko pak do horneje Luziskeje sserskeje recze ... wot njekotrych evangeliskich prjedarjow pschelozena. [Bautzen] : Wot Davita Richtarja, knihow kupza salozena, czischczana w Budeschini, 1728 [i.e. 1727-1728].
[Marsden Collection R2/18]
This is the editio princips of the Bible in Upper Wendish or Sorbian, a western Slavic language related to Czech and Polish, which currently has an estimated 70,000 speakers located in the areas of south-eastern Brandenburg and eastern Saxony in Germany. Before this Bible was published the New Testament had been translated into Wendish by Michal Frenzel (1628-1706), as had several books of the Old Testament. In 1716, Jan Langa (1669-1737) and three other Lutheran pastors set about translating the remainder of the Bible from Luther's version. In making their translation they consulted Hebrew and Polish versions of the Bible, amongst others. They also revised the books of the Bible that had already been published in Sorbian. The task took them eleven years. As with many other versions of the Bible from this period, this translation had a profound effect on the development of Sorbian, both as a written and as a spoken language
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