RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Bible "Versions
and this translation appeared at Vienna, 1626 (see Kaldi, Gyorgy). In the nineteenth century Baron A. Bartakovics, archbishop of Eger, ordered a new translation, which was made by his secretary, the learned Tarkanyi (d. 1886); this " Eger Bible " was published at the cost of the archbishop in 1862, and again in 1892.
Samuel Kamori, professor in the Lutheran theological academy at Pozsony (Pressburg), attempted a new translation of the whole Bible with the Apocrypha (Budapest, 1870). Because of the translator's modern style and his 3. Modern inadequate knowledge of the Magyar
Versions, tongue, notwithstanding its fidelity to the original, this version can not be used by the people. A revision of the old Karoli text was proposed as early as 1840, and the British and Foreign Bible Society assumed the task. The first revision of the New Testament was accomplished by J. Menyhart, professor of exegesis in Debreczin College, and by W. Gyori, Lutheran pastor of Budapest. It was issued at Budapest in 1878 and, being sharply criticized, did not gain acceptance. The work of revision began more seriously in 1886, when T. Duka, a native of Hungary and a member of the committee of the Bible society in London, secured the aid of that great organization. Competent men were chosen from among the professors and pastors of both Churches. After many years' labor, the revised Old Testament left the press at Budapest in 1898. This noble work needs further revision, and the Hungarian Church awaits the moment when the second revision, soon to appear, will be ready. Work on the revision of the New Testament is progressing.
After the great revolution of 1848 and between 1851 and 1861, the constitution of Hungary was suspended by the Austrian government and the circulation of the Bible was prohibited. The Bible depot, the property of the British Society, was ordered to be removed, and was located at Berlin; since the coronation of Francis Joseph I all hindrances have been removed, and under the Hungarian state government circulation of the Bible is free. F Balogh.
Bibliography: Bible of Every Land, pp. 325-327, London, 1861; F. Verseghi, Dissertatio de versione Hungarica scriptural sacroe, Budapest, 1822; T. Duka, in Bible Society's Monthly, London, 1892; KL, ii, 770-771; Hauck-Herzog, RE, pp. 115-118 (gives the literature in Hungarian); BD, extra vol., p. 417.
XI. Italian Versions: Legend has it that Jacobus de Varagine (q.v.), bishop of Genoa, made an Italian translation of the Bible. There can be no doubt that one was prepared as early as the thirteenth century. The earliest printed Italian Bible is that of Nicold di Malherbi, an abbot- of the Camaldolites, based on the Vulgate and published Venice, 1471. In 1530 Antonio Bruccioh published at Venice his translation of the New Testament and in 1532 the entire Bible. In the same year the New Testament by the Dominican ^accana was published at Venice, and in 1551 that oi Domenico Giglio. After this time Geneva became the home of the Italian Bible. A congregation of refugees settled there about the middle
of the sixteenth century, and for their benefit Massimo Teofilo, a former Benedictine of Florence, translated the New Testament from the Greek (Lyons, 1551). For the Old Testament Bruccioli's version was revised and thus in 1562 the first Protestant Bible in the Italian language appeared (at Geneva). It was entirely superseded in 1607 by the translation of G. Diodati (q.v.) of Lucca. This version, made directly from the original texts, stands in high esteem for fidelity and has been repeatedly reprinted by different Bible societies. A version affecting great elegance, but by no means as faithful because made from the Vulgate, is that of Antonio Martini, archbishop of Florence (Turin, 1776). This version has also been repeatedly reprinted by the British and Foreign Bible Society, and in 1889 sqq. an illustrated edition was published by the Catholic publisher Sonzogno at Milan. [A version of the Gospels and Acts in modern Italian prepared under the direction of the St. Jerome Society of Rome by Giuseppe Clementi, a secular priest and professor of Italian literature, with brief notes by Giovanni Genocchi of the Mission of the Sacred Heart, and preface by Giovanni Semeria of the Order of St. Paul (Barnabites), was printed at the Vatican Press with the approbation of Pope Leo XIII in 1902. The work was well received by the public and by scholars, and was approved and circulated by many dignitaries of the Roman Church, although some feared its influence. The completion of the New Testament and translation of the Old, which was contemplated by the Society, has been postponed, as it seemed inadvisable to Pope Pius X to give the Italian people the epistles of St. Paul at the present time. The volume published is sold at a nominal price, and about 500,000 copies, it is claimed, have been distributed.