Kralitz Bible

Title page

The print of the Kralitz Bible (picture from 1914 from the Slav Epic by Alfons Mucha )

The Kralitz Bible (Czech Bible kralická ) is the best known Bible translation of the Old and New Testaments into Czech. It was printed in Kralitz in South Moravia in the second half of the 16th century .

history

The Kralitz Bible, which was translated from the original languages Hebrew and Greek into Czech during the Reformation and provided with a commentary, formed the basis for studying the Czech language until the beginning of the 19th century.

It was named after its place of origin Kralitz, which with the fortress and the castle built after 1540 by the Moravian chief judge Johann d. Ä. was acquired by Žerotín († 1583), who linked it with his Namiest reign . Johann d. Ä. Žerotín was a sponsor of the Bohemian Brethren and made the Kralitz festivities available to them. It was there in 1578 that they relocated their secret printing house , which had been in operation in Eibenschütz since 1562 and had been founded by Bishop Jan Blahoslav . Its main concern was to publish the Bible and other texts in the vernacular. Bishop Jan Blahoslav himself translated the New Testament , which first appeared in Eibenschütz in 1564 under the title "Nový zákon ( z jazyku řeckého ) vnově do češtiny přeložený Léta Páně 1564 v Ivančicích". The second edition followed four years later ( secunda editio diligenter recognita anno 1568 ).

The Kralitz Bible, which is characterized by special care, was created between 1579 and 1593. It consists of six volumes, with volumes I to V comprising the books of the Old Testament . Several collaborators were involved in the translation of the Old Testament, which was coordinated by Bishop Ondřej / Andreas Štefan, Jan Blahoslav's successor. Bishop Jan Blahoslav, who died in 1571, also left extensive translation material of the Old Testament.

Volume VI of the Kralitz Bible was printed in 1593. It contains the New Testament, which is based on the translation of the Bishop Brothers Jan Blahoslav, which appeared in 1564 and the second edition in 1568 and was edited by the Brothers Jan Němčanský ( Johannes Niemczanius ) and Zacharias / Zachariáš Ariston.

The printing of the Kralitz Bible was done by Zachariáš Solín.

Next to the former fortress in Kralice there is a museum about the history of the Brothers 'Union and the Kralice Brothers' printing house, which existed until 1622.

A facsimile of the Kralice Bible was published in 1995 under the auspices of former Czech President Vaclav Havel in publishing Ferdinand Schöningh in Paderborn. It was edited by Hans Rothe and Friedrich Scholz with the assistance of Christian Hannick and Ludger Udolph. It is part of a 1983 project that includes a number of important historical Bible texts with scholarly commentaries on the Slavic-speaking area. In 2009, Bible 21 ( Nová Bible kralická ) was published by the New Kralitz Bible Foundation on the basis of the Kralitz Bible .

literature

• Joachim Bahlcke , Winfried Eberhard, Miloslav Polívka (eds.): Handbook of historical places . Volume: Bohemia and Moravia (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 329). Kröner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-520-32901-8 , p. 293 f.
• Rudolf Bohren: The Kralitz Bible as Protestant Heritage . In: Faith in the 2nd World , Volume 31, Issue 12, 2003, pp. 18-20.
• Vlasta Fialová: Zachariáš Solín, tiskař Kralické bible . Brno 1968.
• Bodhan Hrobon: The Kralice Bible. Czech-mate to the KJV. In: Word & Word, Vol. 31, No. 3, Summer 2011, pp. 279–286.

Web links

Wikisource: cs: Bible Kralická  - sources and full texts

• Memorial for the Kralice Bible in Kralice nad Oslavou
• Martin Prudký: The Paderborn reprint of the Kralitz Bible , website etf.cuni.cz, 23 January 2005
• Markéta Kachlíková: Most important Czech translation of the Holy Scriptures: 400 years of the Kralitz Bible , Radio Prague December 25, 2013

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Footnote 20 from Theologische Realenzyklopädie, Volume 7
2. ↑ Museum in Kralice ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ^ Facsimile
4. ↑ Bible 21  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Martin Prudký: The Paderborn reprint of the Kralitz Bible , website etf.cuni.cz, January 23, 2005