Stipan/Stjepan Konzul Istranin, or Stephanus Consul (1521 — after 1568) was a 16th century

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

reformator who authored and translated religious books to Čakavian dialect. Istranin was the most important Croatian language Protestant writer.

Biography

Istranin was born in Buzet in 1521. At that time Buzet belonged to the Habsburg monarchy and was under the jurisdiction of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Koper ) , cocathedral = Co-Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Nova Gorica() , area_km2 = 4,386 , parishes = 100 , population = 266,403 , population_as_of = 2013 , catholics = 181,230 , catholics_percent= 68 , pope ...

, which used the

Old Slavonic Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic () was the first Slavic literary language. Historians credit the 9th-century Byzantine missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius with standardizing the language and using it in translating the Bible and other ...

language for liturgical texts. Istranin began his career in Stari Pazin as

parish priest A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

who wrote

Glagolitic The Glagolitic script (, , ''glagolitsa'') is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. It is generally agreed to have been created in the 9th century by Saint Cyril, a monk from Thessalonica. He and his brother Saint Methodius were sent by the Byzan ...

texts until 1549 when he was banished for being Protestant. Based on the advice of

Primož Trubar Primož Trubar or Primus Truber () (1508 – 28 June 1586) was a Slovene Protestant Reformer of the Lutheran tradition, mostly known as the author of the first Slovene language printed book, the founder and the first superintendent of the Prote ...

Istranin went to

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

in 1559 where

Antun Dalmatin Antun Aleksandrović Dalmatin ( lat, Antonius Dalmata ab Alexandro) was 16th century translator and publisher of Protestant liturgical books. Name and early life Antun's surname is an exonym which means "of Dalmatia". Dalmatin was probably from ...

was already engaged to translate liturgical books. Glagolica Tübingen 1562

He signed his name ''Stipan Istrian(in)'' or ''Stephanus Consul''.

South Slavic Bible Institute

The

South Slavic Bible Institute The South Slavic Bible Institute (german: Südslawische Bibelanstalt) was established in Urach (modern-day Bad Urach) in January 1561 by Baron Hans von Ungnad, who was its owner and patron. Ungnad was supported by Christoph, Duke of Württemberg, ...

was established in Urach in January 1561 by Hans von Ungnad who was its owner and patron. Within the institute Ungnad set up the printing press which he referred to as "the Slovene, Croatian and Cyrillic printing press". The manager and supervisor of the Institute was Primož Trubar. After being invited by Trubar, Istranin went to Urach where he cooperated with Antun Dalmatin who knew well

Cyrillic , bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця , fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs , fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic , fam3 = Phoenician , fam4 = G ...

script and who was invited to Urach to be manager of the printing press. Trubar engaged Istranin and Dalmatin as translators to Croatian and

Serbian language Serbian (, ) is the standardized variety of the Serbo-Croatian language mainly used by Serbs. It is the official and national language of Serbia, one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina and co-official in Montenegro and Kos ...

to translate his

Slovenian language Slovene ( or ), or alternatively Slovenian (; or ), is a South Slavic language, a sub-branch that is part of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is spoken by about 2.5 million speakers worldwide (excluding speake ...

translation of

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 ...

and print it in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

Glagolitic script The Glagolitic script (, , ''glagolitsa'') is the oldest known Slavic alphabet. It is generally agreed to have been created in the 9th century by Saint Cyril, a monk from Thessalonica. He and his brother Saint Methodius were sent by the Byzan ...

and

Cyrillic script The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, ...

. The types for printing of the Cyrillic script texts were molded by craftsmen from

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

. The books they printed at Urach Printing House were planned to be used at entire territory populated by South Slavs between river

Soča The Soča ( in Slovene) or Isonzo ( in Italian; other names fur, Lusinç, german: Sontig, la, Aesontius or ') is a long river that flows through western Slovenia () and northeastern Italy (). An Alpine river in character, its source lies in ...

and

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

. Trubar had idea to use their books to spread Protentantism among Croats and other South Slavs. Language used by Dalmatin and Istranin was based on northern-

Chakavian dialect Chakavian or Čakavian (, , , sh-Latn, čakavski proper name: or own name: ''čokovski, čakavski, čekavski'') is a South Slavic regiolect or language spoken primarily by Croats along the Adriatic coast, in the historical regions of Dalmat ...

with elements of

Shtokavian Shtokavian or Štokavian (; sh-Latn, štokavski / sh-Cyrl, italics=no, штокавски, ) is the prestige dialect of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language and the basis of its Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin standards. It ...

and

Ikavian Shtokavian or Štokavian (; sh-Latn, štokavski / sh-Cyrl, italics=no, штокавски, ) is the prestige dialect of the pluricentric Serbo-Croatian language and the basis of its Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin standards. It ...

. People from the institute, including Trubar, were not satisfied with translations of Dalmatin and Istranin. For long time they tried to engage certain Dimitrije Serb to help them, but without success. Eventually, they managed to engage two Serbian Orthodox priests,

Jovan Maleševac Jovan Maleševac ( sr-cyr, Јован Малешевац; ) was a Serbian Orthodox monk and scribe who collaborated in 1561 with the Slovene Protestant reformer Primož Trubar to print religious books in Cyrillic.Bjelajac 2003, pp. 73–78Ruvarac ...

from Ottoman Bosnia and

Matija Popović Matija Popović (c. 1490-1563) was 16th-century Serbian Orthodox priest from Ottoman Bosnia. Popović was printer in the South Slavic Bible Institute. Scribe Popović transcribed books written in Slavonic-Serbian language. Printer at the South ...

from Ottoman Serbia. According to a list of books kept in the University Library of Tübingen, Istranin and Dalmatin printed 25,000 books in Tübingen and Urach. The most important book they published was translation of New Testament based on the Trubar's translation.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Istranin, Stjepan Konzul 1521 births 16th-century Protestant theologians 16th-century Croatian people Year of death unknown 1560s deaths

Biography

South Slavic Bible Institute

See also

References

Sources