Neo-Latin Verse-Translations of the Bible

Abstract

Johannes Gaertner recently published an article on Latin verse-translations of Psalms in which he described at length the history of a “buried and forgotten literary genre” that reached the height of its popularity during the sixteenth century. Psalms, however, was not the only book of the Bible to find itself arrayed in this curious dress, and one may accordingly add a bibliographical footnote to Professor Gaertner's article by noting some of the most important Latin verse-translations of individual books and also of large portions of the Bible, almost invariably written by Germans or Dutchmen: the practice seems to have been largely a phenomenon of the northern Protestant reformation.

Latin paraphrases of Old Testament books in verse in 16th century Hungary

“…The examples from Germany can be taken as a point of reference because the late humanist intellectuals in Hungary constantly sought to transpose the cultural patterns and methodological solutions they had experienced and studied during their peregrinations, largely in Germany (Wittenberg), into their own work, adapting them to domestic and individual needs. 6 Grant (1959). Gaertner's list of early modern European psalm paraphrases: Gaertner (1956).…”