Písničky čtyři evanjelické (1534) v triádě Optátových biblik
Písničky čtyři evanjelické (1534) in Beneš Optát’s Biblica triad

Summary/Abstract: This article examines Písničky čtyři evangelické…[Four Evangelical Canticles…], published in 1534 at Náměšť nad Oslavou. The author was most probably Beneš Optát, one of the translators of the New Testament into Czech (1533) and co-author of the first Czech grammar book (1533). These three printed works are presented here as the “Náměšť Biblica”. All of them were largely inspired by Erasmus of Rotterdam, his translation of the New Testament into Latin, his Annotationes and Paraphrases. The first part of the text comprises the contents of the printed work Písniček: Czech songs paraphrasing texts of Luke 1:46–55; Luke 1:68–79; Luke 2:14; Luke 2:29–32 and Matthew 1:1–17/18. The second part of the text analyses how Erasmus inspired the work of the philologists and Biblists at Náměšť. The third part presents an edition of one of the canticles, Simeon’s Canticle Nunc dimittis. The commentary stresses that the song came into being as a paraphrase of Erasmus’s prose paraphrase of the Gospel, as is demonstrated by the prominent motif of the swan song. Hence the hymn book does not only come within the context of Czech hymnography, but also within the history of the reception of biblical text and Erasmus-style Humanism in 16th century Bohemia and Moravia.

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