Jan Blahoslav
Jan Blahoslav (20 February 1523 – 24 November 1571) was a
etymologist, hymnographer, grammarian, music theorist and composer. He was a Unity of the Brethren bishop, and translated the New Testament into Czech in 1564. This was incorporated into the Bible of Kralice
.
Life
Blahoslav was born in
Philipp Melanchthon. After a short period at Mladá Boleslav (1548–9) he continued his education at Königsberg and Basle. He was a linguist who strove to preserve the purity of his native tongue and succeeded in bridging the gulf between Christianity and humanism.[citation needed] He was ordained at Mladá Boleslav in 1553, and became a bishop of the Fraternity of Czech (or Moravian) Brethren in 1557. In the following year he established himself at Ivančice, where before long he installed a printing press. Towards the end of his life he moved to Moravský Krumlov
, where he died, aged 48.
Blahoslav was the editor of the 1561 Czech-language hymnal of the Unity, a hymnal which was reprinted and revised at least 10 times over the next 50 years.[1] His Muzika (1558) -- a "theoretical instruction book for the singing of hymns" -- has been called "the first book in Czech presenting the theory of music and singing."[2]
Blahoslav's work influenced
Jan Amos Komenský
.
Works
- O původu Jednoty – Rules of Unity
- Filipika proti misomusům
- Gramatika česká – Czech Grammar
- Bratrský archiv
- Naučení mládencům
- Akta Jednoty bratrské – Rules of the Unity of the Brethren
- Rejstřík skladatelů bratrských písní
Works on music
- Muzika (Olomouc, 1558) – On Music
- Šamotulský kancionál (1561) – Cantionale
- Věčný králi, pane náš – Song published in Staročeské hymny a písně (Old Czech Hymns and Songs) (1940)
Bibliography
- Brown, Marshall T., Jan Blahoslav: Sixteenth-Century Moravian Reformer, Edinburgh, The Banner of Truth Magazine, Issue 544, January 2009, pp. 1–9.
- Brown, M. T. (2013). John Blahoslav – Sixteenth-Century Moravian Reformer : Transforming the Czech Nation by the Word of God. Bonn: Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft. ISBN 9783862690633.
See also
- List of Czech writers
- Slavic translations of the Bible
References
- ^ Knouse, Nola Reed, editor, The Music of the Moravian Church in America, Appendix One, Biographical Sketches, Rochester, University of Rochester Press, 2008, p.269
- ^ Ríčán,Rudolf, The History of the Unity of the Brethren, translated by C. Daniel Crews, Bethlehem, PA and Winston-Salem, NC, Moravian Church in America, 1992, P.220.
External links
- Biography (in Czech)
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