Original scientific paper

The apologia of Bartol Kašić

Vladimir Horvat

Abstract

Bartol Kašić (Pag 1575 — Rome 1650) attended Latin primary school in Pag, graduated from secondary school in Zadar and continued his studies at the Illyrian College in Loreto. As a Jesuit, he studied philosophy and theology at the Roman College (Pontificial Gregorian University). He composed a Croatian-Italian Dictionary in 1599. The same year he was appointed Lecturer of the Illyrian language at the newly founded Illyrian Academy of the Roman College. In 1604, hee wrote his first grammar, Institutiones lingue illyrice, for his students and published about twenty books during his lifetime. In 1625, through the Archbishop of Dubrovnik, Kašić was given a mandate by the Secretary of Propaganda Fide, Msgr. Francesco Ingoli, to translate the Bible into the common Croatian language, a task which he completed by 1636. He also translated the Roman Rite, which was published in Rome in 1640. Ivan Tomko Mrnavić and Rafael Levaković opposed the printing of Kašić’s translation of the Bible. They first banned the printing of his translation of the New Testament in 1631, and later on, the printing of the Bible as a whole. However, as the printing of the translations was supported by the Archbishops of Dubrovnik and Bar, Mrnavić and Levaković falsified letters of the Bishops of Zagreb and Senj in reaction. The false letters claimed that Kašić had translated the Bible into the Dubrovnik vernacular at the request of the Archbishop of Dubrovnik, and therefore, that the Propaganda Fide should not print that translation. They falsely made claims that the mandate for the translation into the vernacular had been given by the Archbishop of Dubrovnik. Once Kašić learned about the malversations of the “national evildoers” against the printing of the Bible, he wrote an apology of his translation to Msgr. Ingoli, which was presented before the cardinals at a meeting of the Propaganda Fide. He also sent a letter to the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, and eventually to the Pope himself. As the “national evildoers” had already managed to get the printing to be banned by the Holy Office, Kašić made the whole case public by writing his Apology, which consists of three studies. The full title of the first study is Apology against those who have claimed that St Jerome the Dalmatian, a great doctor, had invented the Slavic or Glagolitic alphabet, and that he had translated the whole Sacred Scripture for Dalmatians in the Slavic language. Kašić, quoting St Jerome himself, proves that St Jerome translated the Bible into Latin, and due to its becoming the most widespread translation, it came to be called the Vulgata. The Slavic translation of the Bible was done by Constantine, who became the monk St. Cyril in Rome some time before the end of his life. His brother Methodius got the approval for the Slavic liturgy from Pope John VIII in 880. In the second study, which is titled On various translations of the Sacred Scripture into the Slavic, Dalmatian, or Croatian language, and into the Serbian or Ruthenian language, Kašić presents all the Slavic translations chronologically. In defence of his own translation, he cites the correspondence between Msgr. Ingoli, Secretary of the Propaganda Fide, and Toma Cellesi, the Archbishop of Dubrovnik, as well as the three approvals for printing given by the Archbishop Cellesi, the Committee for the Translation of the Bible in Dubrovnik and Petar Masarrechi (Mazarekić), the Archbishop of Bar. The third study consists of Corollaria, obiectiones et responsa. Here, Kašić cites additional considerations and conclusions about the need for a Croatian translation of the Bible, which are followed by objections and responses through which Kašić disclaims the writings against his translation of the Bible. In all these early Slavistic academic texts Kašić shows extraordinary lucidity and a highly rigorous scientific methodology. The studies were done successively, and they clearly show the dynamics of Kašić’s fight for the Croatian Bible. Formally, Kašić lost the battle because his translation of the Bible was not published at that time. However, he won the war for the living national language in the liturgy and literature because his translation of the Roman Rite into Croatian was printed by the Propaganda in 1640 in Rome, and it served as the official version of the liturgy until 1929. In that year, a new Roman Rite was published in Zagreb, based on Kašić’s translation. His translation of the Bible was not printed until 1999. in Germany, and the Dictionary was published together with his follow-up studies in another volume in 2000.

Keywords

Bartol Kašić; standardisation; Dubrovnik vernacular; Croatian Bible; printing ban; St Jerome; Glagolitic – early Croatian language and alphabet; The Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda Fide); Msgr. Francesco Ingoli; Rafael Levaković; Ivan Tomko Mrnavić

Hrčak ID:

78605

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/78605

Publication date:

13.3.2012.

Article data in other languages: english

Visits: 4.253 *