Giannozzo Manetti's New Testament

Haan, Annet den

doi:10.1163/9789004324374

Cited by 7 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 53 publications

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“…The law of the handicap of a head start meant that the need for a new translation was not felt until relatively late. To be sure, in 1453–1455, sixty years before Erasmus started working on his new version of the New Testament, Giannozzo Manetti, who was active at the papal court in Rome, had produced a new translation of the New Testament in humanistic Latin, but it was barely disseminated and remained unpublished (Botley 2004, 82–98; den Haan 2014, 2015). Erasmus was not aware of it.…”

Section: Historical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Erasmus’s Translation of the New Testament: Aim and Method

Jonge

2016

The Bible Translator

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Erasmus's main aim in making his new translation of the New Testament was to present the writings of the apostles and evangelists in better, more classical Latin than that of the Vulgate. He believed that the new age of renaissance and humanism demanded a new translation of the Bible in Latin and that its language must be adapted to the criteria of classical Latin. His translation was neither meant to replace the Vulgate, nor to be used by everybody; its target readership was primarily theologians, who could use it as a study Bible. In his translation, Erasmus wanted to correct textual corruption and translation errors that had crept into the Vulgate. He also wanted to render the Greek in a clearer, purer, and more expressive language, but most of all in a grammatically and syntactically more correct Latin. He rejected the idea that each word in the original text must be matched by a word in the translation: the idiom of the target language is the first requirement of a good translation. Not words, but meanings must be rendered. More generally, Erasmus wanted his translation to serve the spreading of the "wisdom of Christ": it was to serve the reform of church and society and the spiritual and moral renewal of Europe.

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Section: Historical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%