O tekście i źrόdłach Punktόw Kazań Konstantego Szyrwida
On the text structure and sources of K. Sirvydas’ book of sermons Punktai Sakymų (Points of Gospel)

Summary/Abstract: The Jesuit priest Konstantinas Sirvydas (~1580–1631) was one of the most multi­talented and creative intellectuals in Lithuania in the 17th century. Using his vast experience as a professor of Vilnius University and a preacher, he compiled two diffe­rent versions of a trilingual Latin-Polish-Lithuanian dictionary (~1620 and 1631), and wrote the book of sermons Punktai sakymų (‘Points of Gospel’). The importance of this book of sermons for the Lithuanian culture is immeasurable and it is considered the first book of original sermons written in Lithuanian and the first translation from Lithuanian into another language, i.e. into Polish. This book is often deemed the first original book written in Lithuanian. Unfortunately, its textual structure and its sources have not been properly evaluated and described yet. When preparing this scientific edition of his book, it appeared that its text is mostly comprised of: (1) citations from the Holy Scriptures, and paraphrases and allusions to them; (2) citations and paraphrases or allusions to works by the Church Fathers, Saints, Roman authors, etc.; and, finally, (3) Sirvydas’ original text – his commentaries and interpretations on citations, etc. There are citations from most of the books of the Old and New Testament. In his book Sirvydas uses 150 different biblical names. He also quotes from the Church Fathers, French theologians and thinkers, and from the Saints. We mostly find exact word-by-word citations from Vulgate in his sermons – not paraphrases or allusions. These citations are the first published fragments from the Holy Scriptures in Lithuanian in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. With this background information we may to hypothesize that during the first quarter of the 17th century, there might have existed an unknown translation (probably some manuscript) of the Holy Scriptures in Lithuanian.

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