The Venetian Bible – „Bibliya ruska” by Francysk Skaryna: Mechanical Reflection or Creative Reworking? Cover Image

Венецыянская Біблія – „Бивлия руска” Францыска Скарыны: механічнае прытрымліванне ці творчая перапрацоўка?
The Venetian Bible – „Bibliya ruska” by Francysk Skaryna: Mechanical Reflection or Creative Reworking?

Author(s): Alla Kozhinowa
Subject(s): Western Slavic Languages, Translation Studies, Sociology of Religion
Published by: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Sklodowskiej
Keywords: Francysk Skaryna; Czech translation of the Bible; Church Slavonic translation of the Bible;

Summary/Abstract: The article is devoted to some features of the translation technique used by the famous forerunner of Belarusian printing Francysk Skaryna when translating the Holy Scriptures. Francysk Skaryna is one of the greatest figures of Belarusian Renaissance. Numerous scientific investigations have been devoted to his work, but his legacy still remains terra incognita. One of the questions concerns the original he used when translating the Holy Scriptures – the ancient Hebrew Masoretic text, the Septuagint, the Vulgate, the Czech translation of the Bible, or the Bible in the Church Slavonic language? The article presents the results of the textual analysis of the Book of Job, the Book of the prophet Daniel, and the Book of Ecclesiastes, as well as numerous examples of Skaryna’s use of the Czech translation of the Bible. It should be noted that in some cases when translating well known passages, he used the Church Slavonic translation of the Holy Scriptures. Frequent lexical elements and collocations from the Old Church Slavonic canon entered Skaryna’s translation of the Bible. The article concludes that it was the archaic of Church Slavonic text of the Bible that prompted Skaryna to reach for another, more modern version – the Czech translation. As a result, a hybrid text was created, in which both Church Slavonic and Czech elements were presented at the lexical level.

  • Issue Year: 1/2023
  • Issue No: 17
  • Page Range: 293-304
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: Belarusian
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