LivERATURE.—Herzog, RH iii, 146 ff. ; Bagster, The Bible of Every Land, 186 ff.
gg SsssSsSSSSSSSSSSssSSSssSSSSSSSSsSssSSSSSSSss
CONTINENTAL VERSIONS
ix. HUNGARIAN VERSIONS.—1. The introduction of Christianity into Hungary towards the end of the 10th cent. was soon followed by sermons in the vernacular, but Latin still remained the language of the Court. The earliest specimens of Hungarian which have survived are a funeral oration in a 13th cent. MS, and another fragment of the 14th cent. on the virginity of Mary. The Hussite movement had. some effect on Hungary, and some parts of the Bible were translated into Hungarian; but the inroads of the Turks checked any development in this direction. The earliest translation of which we have any remains dates from the beginning of the 15th cent., and was the work of two Franciscan monks, Thomas and Valentine, who, under stress of persecution, fled from Bohemia into Hungary. Fragments of their work survive in a Vienna MS (No. 47), which contains part of the OT; ina Munich MS, dated 1466, which contains the Gospels ; and in a MS, belonging to the bishop of Stuhlweissenburg, containing the Psalms, Canticles, and Gospels. The Vienna and Munich MSS were published by Dobrentei in 1838-1842. The translation, which is based on the Vulgate, is described as terse and exact.
2. To the beginning of the 15th cent. is to be assigned a translation by Ladislaus Batori (d. circa 1456). Many fragments of this version, including Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, and NT, are said by Schwicker to survive in the library at Gran. A MS of the year 1519 contains a Hungarian version, perhaps the one by Ladislaus, complete. An al- most complete translation of the Psalms is also to be found in a MS of 1522.
3. The beginning of the 16th cent. was a time of great literary activity in Hungary. The earliest printing-press in Hungary was established at Ofen in 1473, and many others followed in the 16th century. The earliest Hungarian book to be printed was Komjati’s translation of St. Paul’s Epistles. This was followed by a translation of the Acts, the work of the same scholar, which was based on the Vulgate. This was printed at Cracow in 1533. The next translation to appear was one of the Gospels by G. Pesti, also based on the Vulgate, but a successful rendering, more free and independent than that of Komjati. More important was the translation of the NT by John Sylvester (Erdési), who had been a pupil of Melanchthon at Witten- berg, and was commended by him as a man rich in knowledge and wisdom. This scholarly but rather high-flown translation was printed at Uj-Sziget, the first Hungarian Protestant printing-press, in 1541, and afterwards at Vienna in 1574. A few years later (1551-1562) appeared a careful transla- tion of the OT and NT, based on the Hebrew, by Kaspar Heltai, also, like Sylvester, a pupil of Melanchthon. Other translations followed ; but none is of any importance till we come to that of Kaspar Karolyi, the most important Protestant translation. This was based on the Hebrew and Greek, the Vulgate and other translations being also used. It was first printed in 1589-1590 at Visoly near to Gonz, and is known as the Visoly Bible. It was revised in 1608 by Albert Molnar of Szencz, and has passed through many editions, and is still in use.
4, In the beginning of the 17th cent. we have a Roman Catholic translation, based on the Vulgate. This was the work of a Jesuit, George Kaldi, and is a vigorous and faithful version. It was pub- lished at Vienna in 1625 ; a second edition followed in 1732, and it is still in use among the Roman Catholics. About the middle of the century a revision was undertaken by Count Stephen Bethlen D’Iktar, who established a printing-press for the
urpose at Waradin. The work of printing was bat half finished when the town was taken and burnt by the Turks in 1660, and nearly half of the whole edition was destroyed. EXTRA VOL.—27
CONTINENTAL VERSIONS
417 Mets TSS ee.
5. During this century the use of the Hungarian language spread, though Latin was also used, and there was a great increase in the number of printed books. At the same time, even as late as 1682, we meet with complaints as to the scarcity of books, for the supply had apparently not kept pace with the demand. Towards the end of the century a complete Protestant translation of the Bible was undertaken by Georg Csipkes of Komorn, who had been a student of Hebrew under Leusden at Utrecht. This was based on the original lan- guages, and finished in 1675. Owing to various political and religious obstacles the publication was delayed, and it was not till 1715 that arrange- ments were made with Vitringa at Leyden for the production of an edition of 4000 copies. A large number of these were burnt before delivery, by the intervention of the Jesuits.
6. The 18th cent. saw a great decline in the interest taken in the Hungarian language and literature ; but copies of the Bible were difficult to procure, and costly. Steps were therefore taken - to collect funds for reprinting Karolyi’s trans- lation, and this was done five times at Utrecht. Three editions also appeared at Basle.
7. At the beginning of the 19th cent. the British and Foreign Bible Society interested itself in the cir- culation of Bibles in Hungary as elsewhere, and for atime printed them in Hungary itself, because their introduction from outside was forbidden. From 1852 till 1867 no agents of the Society were allowed in the country ; but with the accession of the em- peror Francis Joseph, in 1867, permission to circulate copies of the Bible was again given. In 1886, on the initiative of a Hungarian scholar, and with the help of the British and Foreign Bible Society, a revision of the old text was undertaken, and the archaisms of Karolyi were removed without inter- fering with the general vigour of his translation. After many delays the first part, the Hexateuch, appeared in 1896. A revision of Karolyi’s NT had previously been published in 1878 at Budapest. In the interests of Roman Catholics, a revision of Kaldi’s translation was entrusted by the archbishop of Erlau to his secretary Béla Tarkanyi, who, after nine years’ work, completed a translation with notes, the first edition of which was published at Erlau in 1862-1865, and a second edition appeared in 1892. Balogh in his account of the version in Herzoe’s LE® (iii. p. 118) sums up by saying that, between 1541 and 1871, 78 editions of the Hun- garian Protestant Bible, and only 8 of the Roman Catholic Bible, appeared.