![Sylvester letters](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Sylvester_letters.png)
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
![Sylvester - Biblia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Sylvester_-_Biblia.jpg)
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