16th-century Catholic translation of the Bible into Polish by Jakub Wujek
Jakub Wujek Bible
Cover page of edition from 1599
Full name
Biblia to iest Księgi Starego y Nowego Przymierza według Łacińskiego przekładu starego, w kościele powszechnym przyiętego, na Polski ięzyk z nowu z pilnością przełożone, z dokładaniem textu Żydowskiego y Greckiego, y z wykładem Katholickim, trudnieyszych miejsc, do obrony wiary swiętej powszechnej przeciw kacerstwóm tych czasów należących: przez D. Iakuba Wuyka z Wągrowca, Theologa Societatis Iesu.
Na początku stworzył Bóg niebo y źiemię. A źiemiá byłá pusta i próżna: y ciemności były nád głębokośćią: á Duch Boży unaszał się nád wodámi. Y rzékł Bóg: „Niech się zstanie świátłość.”
The translation was done by a Polish Jesuit, Jakub Wujek (after whom it is commonly named), with the permission of Pope Gregory XIII and the Jesuit Order. It was based on the sixto-clementine revision of the Vulgate. The first edition was completed in 1593, but the full authorized edition was ready only two years after Wujek's death, in 1599.
History
The full title of the Bible is: Biblia to iest Księgi Starego y Nowego Przymierza według Łacińskiego przekładu starego, w kościele powszechnym przyiętego, na Polski ięzyk z nowu z pilnością przełożone, z dokładaniem textu Żydowskiego y Greckiego, y z wykładem Katholickim, trudnieyszych miejsc, do obrony wiary swiętej powszechnej przeciw kacerstwóm tych czasów należących: przez D. Iakuba Wuyka z Wągrowca, Theologa Societatis Iesu. (Bible, that is, the Books of the Old and New Testament according to old Latin translation, in universal church accepted, translated anew to the Polish language with attention, with additions of Jewish and Greek texts, with Catholic exposition of difficult passages, for the defence of the universal holy faith against the heretics of these times, by D. Iakub Wuyek of Wągrowiec, Theologa Societatis Iesu.)
In 1584, Polish Jesuits and the primate of Poland, Stanisław Karnkowski, decided that a new Polish translation of the Bible was needed, as the previous Leopolita's Bible from 1561 was not seen as adequate, and contemporary Protestant translations were seen as better.[2][3] Jakub Wujek, already known for excellent translations of parts of the Bible in his homilies, was chosen to head the task. The first edition of the New Testament was ready in 1593. The translation was accompanied by footnotes, explanations and polemics.[2]
The Clementine Vulgate, issued in 1592, caused a delay in the translation, as it had to be checked for consistency with the new Latin version.[2][3] Wujek finished the work on the New Testament, revised with the Clementine Vulgate in 1594, and on the Old Testament in 1596; the works were immediately published.[3] The final version of Wujek's Bible was ready in 1599, after corrections from a Jesuit commission, two years after Wujek's death in 1597.[2][3]
Some modern scholars tend to rank the first edition, from 1593/1594, over that from 1599.[2]
Importance
Wujek's Bible is widely recognized as an excellent translation, one of the most important works of the Renaissance in Poland, and a major work advancing the written Polish language.[2][3] Various parts of it were quoted by Polish poets, including Adam Mickiewicz and Juliusz Słowacki.[3] It would also serve as a major Polish-language Catholic Bible till the Millennium Bible of the 20th century (1965) and was also an important source for the first Polish-language Protestant Bible, the Gdańsk Bible of 1632.[2]
Pope Clement VIII, born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1592 to his death, in March 1605.
The Vulgate, sometimes referred to as the Latin Vulgate, is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible.
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The Renaissance in Poland lasted from the late 15th to the late 16th century and is widely considered to have been the Golden Age of Polish culture. Ruled by the Jagiellonian dynasty, the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland actively participated in the broad European Renaissance. The multinational Polish state experienced a period of cultural growth thanks in part to a century without major wars, aside from conflicts in the sparsely-populated eastern and southern borderlands. The Reformation spread peacefully throughout the country, and living conditions improved, cities grew, and exports of agricultural products enriched the population, especially the nobility (szlachta), who gained dominance in the new political system of Golden Liberty.
Jakub Wujek was a Polish Jesuit, religious writer, Doctor of Theology, Vice-Chancellor of the Vilnius Academy and translator of the Bible into Polish.
Mikalojus Daukša was a Lithuanian and Latin religious writer, translator and a Catholic church official. He is best known as the first among Lithuania's humanists to underline the need to codify and promote the Lithuanian language over Chancery Ruthenian and Polish, which were in use in the Grand Duchy at the time. Daukša's Lithuanian translation of Jacob Ledesma's catechism became the first book in Lithuanian to be published in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
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The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate or Clementine Vulgate is the edition promulgated in 1592 by Pope Clement VIII of the Vulgate—a 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible that was written largely by Jerome. It was the second edition of the Vulgate to be authorised by the Catholic Church, the first being the Sixtine Vulgate. The Sixto-Clementine Vulgate was used officially in the Catholic Church until 1979, when the Nova Vulgata was promulgated by Pope John Paul II.
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The Czech literature of the Middle Ages is very rich in translations of Biblical books, made from the Vulgate. During the 14th century all parts of the Bible seem to have been translated at different times and by different hands. The oldest translations are those of the Psalter. The New Testament must also have existed at that time, for according to a statement of Wyclif, Anne, daughter of Charles IV, received in 1381 upon her marrying Richard II of England a Bohemian New Testament.
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Nowy Testamynt po ślonsku [The New Testament in Silesian] was published in 2017 in Radzionków, Upper Silesia, Poland by Szymon Tobor's publishing house, Wydawnictwo Tobor. de:Gabriel Tobor translated the New Testament into the Silesian language from the 16th-century Polish language Jakub Wujek Bible. For the sake of this translation the translator developed a specific spelling fully based on Polish orthography, rather than follow the standard Silesian spelling system.
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The Vulgate is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible, largely edited by Jerome, which functioned as the Catholic Church's de facto standard version during the Middle Ages. The original Vulgate produced by Jerome around 382 has been lost, but texts of the Vulgate have been preserved in numerous manuscripts, albeit with many textual variants.
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