Genealogie české středověké prózy o Jozefovi a Aseneth
The Genealogy of the Medieval Bohemian Prose Joseph and Aseneth

Summary/Abstract: The late Hellenistic pseudepigraph Joseph and Aseneth narrates the story of the noble-born Egyptian Aseneth who became the wife of Jacob’s son Joseph after conversion. The text was originally written in Greek and was later translated into a number of languages. A second Latin translation of the work appeared at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries (today labelled as L1). An abridged version of L1 is contained in the Chronicon of Helinand of Froidmont. His version of L1 was used (word-for-word) by Vincent of Beauvais in the Speculum historiale. Vincent added a summary of chapters 41–47 from the book of Genesis, as well as excerpts from the Historia scholastica, placing everything within Joseph’s story. This attractive narrative dubbed the Historia Ioseph et Aseneth was also copied outside the Speculum and was translated into Czech at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries. This translation was based on the Bohemian version of Historia Ioseph et Aseneth.The Old Czech translation has survived in six manuscripts from the second half of the 15th century, and also in prints from the 16th and 17th centuries. Joseph and Aseneth is recorded as an individual work in two manuscripts, while in the remaining four it is an organic component of an extensive narrative about Joseph, his father, and his brothers. As can be seen by the comparison of all relevant texts, the Old Czech manuscripts of Joseph and Aseneth offer dual translations: they are based on the differences in the original Latin texts and reflect distinct translation strategies. A looser (sense-for-sense) translation is apparently found in the language change “z úst růží” (de ore rosarum) and is seemingly older, while the second, younger translation is word-for-word and interprets the proper reading of the Latin text “z rosy růží” (de rore rosarum). The tendency for word-for-word translations of the Latin text associates the newer translation with some Old Czech Biblical translations that appeared before the mid-15th century.

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