Epiktétos magyarul - a XVII. század elején

Absztrakt

The influence of the Stoa on secular and religious literature in Hungary as well as on philosophy and political science was very strong, ön the basis of recent essays it is the custom nowadays to speak of the „Hungarian neostoicism" at the end of the 16th and at the beginning of the 17th centuries as of a peculiar trend. The Hungarian research has dealt with Epictetus' further living in Hungary only by the way, his appearance in the Hungarian language has been almost completely neglected. The Hungarian and foreign literature takes note of the „Encheiridion" having been translated first into Hungarian by Benjamin Mokry in 1825. (The description of this edition is to be found in English too, in W. A. Oldfather's solid work: Contributions toward a bibliography of Epictetus. [Urbana], University of Illinois, 1927. no. 567.) The truth is, however, that Epictetus had a rather earlier appearance in Hungary; his influence can be discovered as early as the time of the late Renaissance. In the poems and in a maditation in prose of the outstanding, poet and cultural organizer of the time, János Rimay whole passages appear in Hungáriáin, which are taken from Epictetus. At about 1620—1630, — that is two hundred years before Mokry's edition — the whole Encheiridion was translated into Hungarian. There are no data concerning a printed edition of this „Handbook". It is a fact however, that several versions of it in manuscript were in common use at the 17th century. Unfortunately they were destroyed or mutilated in the meantime, consequently the whole text of tha translation can not be reconstructed. Only the text of the first 43 chapters is safe. An Epicletus-edition in Latin, which was used by the translator or copier, gives in its marginal notes all the chapter numbers of the Hungarian version. In this way we have all the samei an idea of the whole translation and we know too that its source is not the Greek original, it is not the Wolfius edition (which also ^ appeared in Hungary), but some independent publication of Angelus Politianus's ~ Latin translation. It is very similar to the earliest translation of Epictetus into the vernicular: Jacob Schenk's German edition (1534. — published by Oldfather op. cit.). "" """*— The translator's name is: János Thordai. There wer© several intellectuals of this name in those days in Hungary. Among them there was one, the learned reader of the Kolozsvár Unitarian College, who carried on a very active literary work: among others he translated the whole psalter and edited the Hungarian Unitarians' hymnal. He [made his studies in Frankfurt am Oder. It is likely that the translation is his work. The unitarian provenience of the manuscripts is. without any .doubt. In Hungary belles-lettres, particularly poetry in the native language was flourishing as early as the. end of the 16th century. Philosophical literature began to develop later". RimayV meditation reminding of "an Epictetus paraphrase is the first writing on philosophy in the Hungarian language. And. in Thordai's Handbook an antique world of thought finds its first expression in Hungarian. The „slave philosopher" seems to have a particular place in the history of the Hungarian thinking, or at least in the formation of the Hungarian philosophical terminology.