Hussite Bible
The Hussite Bible (Hungarian: Huszita Biblia; sometimes also "The Bible of the Franciscans") is the oldest known Hungarian, as well as a general Uralic Bible translation, dated to the 1420s–1430s.[1][2]
History
The Hussite Bible is the only written vestige of
The original manuscript is not known, most likely it perished. Most texts of the Hussite Bible were revealed from partial copies. The most important extant copies of this translation are the Codex of Munich, the Codex of Wien, and the Apor Codex. Some other, shorter parts had been transcribed to other Hungarian dialects as well; these can be found in other 15th century Hungarian codices.
Features
Vocabulary
The translation's language is archaic, with many terms unknown in Modern Hungarian. Also, it contains several rare Old Hungarian words, thus providing an interesting insight into the Hungarian language at the time. These include (with Modern Hungarian equivalent and English translation in parentheses): monnál (mintegy, or so), midenem (nemde, is it right?), csajva (cserebogár, cockchafer), gördőlet (mennydörgés, thunder), etc.
In some respects, the Hussite Bible's translators were the first reformers of Hungarian: they coined several new terms, which today sound constrained. Some examples: császárlat (
Orthography
The Bible's orthography was influenced by early 15th century Czech spelling. Pécsi and Újlaki adopted the
] with è, etc.)This orthography later spread among the Hungarian Franciscan friars as well, and had a great influence on spelling in 16th-century Hungarian printed books. However, the modern Hungarian alphabet has different origins.
Copies
Codex of Wien
The oldest of the copies is the Codex of Wien. It contains parts of the
Codex of Munich
The Codex of Munich consists of 124 pages, and contains the four Gospels. Its size is 135 by 200 millimetres. The whole manuscript had been written by György Németi, who finished the work in Târgu Trotuș, in the year 1466 AD.
It is unknown where the codex was after its completion. The first page shows a reference to Johann Albrecht Widmannstetter(1506–1557) as an early owner, who was a philologist and book collector. After his death, the manuscript was transferred to the Bavarian State Library, where it is kept still today, in excellent condition.
A complete facsimile was published in 1958, as part of the Ural-Altaische Bibliothek (Ural-Altaic Library).
Apor Codex
The Apor codex got its name after its former owner, the Apor family. It is colligatum. Once it contained 208 pages, but 92 perished, and only 116 remained, the first 21 of which are badly damaged. Because of humid storage circumstances, other pages were harmed as well. Its size is 208 by 140 millimetres.
See also
- Codex of Bécs
- Protestant Bible
- Hungarian language
- History of Hungarian
References
- ISBN 978-0-19-870985-5.
- ISBN 978-1-85359-811-1.
Bibliography
- József Molnár - Györgyi Simon: Magyar nyelvemlékek. 3rd edition, Budapest, 1980. ISBN 963-17-4738-7
External links
- The Hussite Bible in its original orthographic form is available and searchable in the Old Hungarian Corpus. The Vienna Codex and the Munich Codex are also available in a normalized Modern Hungarian version, the latter one along with full morphological analysis.