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János Sylvester sometimes known as János ErdÅ‘si (1504–1552) was a 16th-century Hungarian figure of the Reformation, and also a poet and grammarian, who was the first to translate the
He was born into a middle-class family at Szinérváralja in
János Sylvester sometimes known as János ErdÅ‘si (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 (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
into Hungarian, in 1541.
Life
He was born into a middle-class family at Szinérváralja in Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, 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 and ...
.
He was a disciple of Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus ( ; ; 28 October c. 1466 – 12 July 1536), commonly known in English as Erasmus of Rotterdam or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch Christian humanist, Catholic priest and Catholic theology, theologian, educationalist ...
, studying at the University of Krakow
The Jagiellonian University (, 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 one of the oldest universities in continuous operation in the wor ...
in 1526/27.
He went to study at the university of Wittenberg
Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is the fourth-largest town in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, in the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. It is situated on the River Elbe, north of Leipzig and south-west of the reunified German ...
in central Germany in 1529 and returned in 1534 to 1536, studying theology under Martin Luther
Martin Luther ( ; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, Theology, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Reformation, Pr ...
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, an intellectual leader of the L ...
. 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 Újsziget.
In 1543 he moved to the University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...
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 Academic staff of the University of Vienna Translators of the Bible into Hungarian 16th-century Hungarian poets {{Hungary-writer-stub