Niccolò Malermi

Niccolò Malermi (also called Nicholas Malerba , Malherbi or Manerba ) (* after 1422 in Venice or in Veneto; † 1481 ) was an Italian Camaldolese . Malermi is the author of the so-called Malermi Bible, the first translation of the Vulgate into Italian.

Life

Malermi's Bible, 1487 edition

There are almost no historical sources about Malermi's origins, his childhood and youth and his education. Malermi entered the Camaldolese order in 1470, and in 1480 he was abbot of the monastery of San Michele di Lerma near Classe near Ravenna . In 1481 he stayed in Murano - possibly in the monastery of San Mattia or in the monastery of San Michele di Murano - where he is said to have written a historia , a history of the monastery, of which no copy has survived.

He has his place in the literary history of Italy as the first translator of the Bible into Italian and the Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine from Latin into Italian.

The Malermi Bible

In 1471, Wendelin von Speyer (Wendelin de Spira) published Malermi's first translation of the Bible into Italian in Venice. The basis was the Vulgate and possibly an early translation into Provençal. According to Malermi, the translation was completed within eight months. The Franciscan Fra Lorenzo da Venezia and the Alexandrian humanist Gerolamo Squarzafico are named as advisors in technical, typographical and theological questions .

The first edition of 1471 contains a letter from Malermi to Fra Lorenzo, in which he explains the reasons for and the method of his translation. He transmitted the Bible word for word (da parola a parola) . With his translation of the Bible into the vernacular, he is addressing all people who could now read the Bible without knowing Latin. The Psalms are accompanied by a short theological commentary based on the commentaria in Psalmos Davidicos by the Carmelite Michele Aiguani da Bologna.

Eight months later, Jenson in Venice published a second Italian translation of the Bible, without specifying the translator, which, however, largely follows Malermi's version. While it stayed with the one Jenson edition, Malermi's translation was a great public success. From the same year until 1567 over 30 issues appeared. Even Michelangelo had a Malermi Bible he the coloring of the Sistine Chapel went for help.

Expenses (selection)

• 1471 first edition, Venice: Wendelin de Spira
• 1487 Venice: Johannes Rubeus Vercellensis for Tommaso Trevisano
• 1490 edition with 360 woodcuts; Venice: Giovanni Ragazzo for Lucantonio Giunta
• 1494 Venice: Johannes Rubeus Vercellensis for Lucantonio Giunta
• 1887–1892 Critical edition in 10 volumes. Edited by Carlo Negroni. Bologna: Romagnoli

Legenda Aurea

Measured by the number of reprints, Malerbi's translation of the Legenda Aurea was an equally great success with the public. The first edition was followed at short intervals in Venice by several reprints from various Venetian officials, including a. with Matteo Capcasa, Bartholomaeus de Zanis, and in Milan with Uldericus Scinzenzeler.

Expenses (selection)

• First edition 1475. Legend di tutti li sancti et le sante dalla Romana sedia accetato et honorati. Tradotto dal latino di Jacopo di Vorangine Per N. Manerbi. Venice: Jenson [1475].
• 1477 Legenda aurea Italian. Venice: Gabriele di Pietro.
• 1492 Legenda aurea sanctorum, sive Lombardica historia. Legendario di Sancti. Venice: Matteo Capcasa.
• 1499 Legenda aurea , Italian. Venice: Bartholomaeus de Zanis.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ so nuovabibliotecamanoscritta.it
2. ↑ [1]
3. ^ Giuseppe Veltri, Annette Winkelmann: On the threshold to modernity: Jews in the Renaissance.
4. ↑ Wind 1960. pp. 326–327.

literature

• Edgar Wind : Maccabean Histories in the Sistine Ceiling, a note on Michelangelo's use of the Malermi Bible: in: Italian Renaissance Studies. 1960.

Web links

• Malerbi
• Biblia Italica. Transl. Niccolò Malermi. Venice: Giovanni Ragazzo for Lucantonio Giunta. 1490. Illustrations