János Sylvester sometimes known as János Erdősi (1504–1552) was a 16th-century Hungarian figure of the Reformation, and also a poet and grammarian, who was the first to translate the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

into Hungarian in 1541.

Life

He was born into a middle-class family at Szinervaralja in

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

. He was a disciple of

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' wa ...

studying at the

University of Krakow The Jagiellonian University ( Polish: ''Uniwersytet Jagielloński'', UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and the 13th oldest university in ...

1526/27. He went to study at the university of

Wittenberg Wittenberg ( , ; Low Saxon language, Low Saxon: ''Wittenbarg''; meaning ''White Mountain''; officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg (''Luther City Wittenberg'')), is the fourth largest town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Wittenberg is situated on the Ri ...

in central Germany in 1529 and returned 1534 to 1536, studying theology under

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...

and

Philip Melanchthon Philip Melanchthon. (born Philipp Schwartzerdt; 16 February 1497 – 19 April 1560) was a German Lutheran reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the Lu ...

. In Wittenberg he lived in accommodation on Schlossplatz east of the Schlosskirche. On return to Hungary he set up one of the first printing presses in Ujsziget. In 1543 he moved to the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

to teach Latin and Greek. He died on 6 May 1552.

Publications

*''Rosarium'' (1527) the first poem in Hungarian *''Grammatica Hungarolatina'' (1539) the first document to establish "standardised spelling" in Hungarian *The New Testament (first Hungarian translation) (1541) He is also credited with creating the idea of an "essay". Géza Hegedüs: The Portrait Gallery of Hungarian Literature. Budapest: Trezor. 1995.

References

1504 births 1552 deaths People from Seini Academics of the University of Vienna Translators of the Bible into Hungarian 16th-century Hungarian people {{Hungary-bio-stub