Hieronymus Megiser wrote a Macedonian translation already in 1603

In his work "Prob einer Verdolmetschung in 50 unterschiedlichen Sprachen" from 1603, the german Hieronymus Megiser recorded translations of psalms into different languages. Including the Macedonian language.

It should be remembered that voices still exist today that negate the existence of the Macedonian language as a separate language. As such, the claims that Macedonian is a "newly created artificial language".

But historical reality contradicts such claims ...



First of all, some information about the author:


Hieronymus Megiser


Hieronymus Megiser (born 1557 in Stuttgart, Germany; died 1618 or 1619 in Linz, Austria) was a German polyhistor, language scholar and historian.

Hieronymus Megiser studied at the University of Tübingen from 1571, was a favorite student of the late humanist and philologist Nicodemus Frischlin, became a master there in 1577 and went to Ljubljana (Slovenia) in 1581 as a private teacher ("praeceptor").

From 1582 he studied law in Padua and then worked again as a private tutor for young noblemen from Carniola and Styria Karl was appointed "Ordinarius Historiographus", landscape historian, and got to know the young Johannes Kepler, with whom he remained "in scientific and friendly communication".

In 1593 he came to Carinthia, where he held the position of rector at the Protestant "Collegium sapientiae et pietatis" of the provinces in Klagenfurt (Austria) until 1601. When this institution of university level, in whose tradition today's Europagymnasium in Klagenfurt sees itself, was transferred to the Jesuits in the course of the Counter-Reformation, he had to leave Carinthia like almost all other Protestant professors.

After further trips, Hieronymus Megiser settled in Frankfurt am Main.

With his two dictionaries (1592, 1608), both of which for the first time regarded the "windisch" (= Slovenian) language as equal to German, Latin and Italian, he made a name for the Slovenian language.


Specimen quinquaginta diversarum atque inter se differentium linguarum et dialectorum; videlicet, oratio dominica


The work mentioned at the beginning, "Prob einer Verdolmetschung in 50 unterschiedlichen Sprachen" (or in Latin: Specimen quinquaginta diversarum atque inter se differentium linguarum et dialectorum; videlicet, oratio dominica) was published in Frankfurt in 1603.

Joachim Brathering appears as publisher (or at that time called "printer").

According to the title page of the work, Megiser translates the 117th psalm into several languages, as the title of the work suggests, there are fifty of them.

Macedonian is one of the fifty languages. In the work in Latin the heading is "Macedonice", in the German translation it is called "Macedonisch".





SOURCEs: 

  • Latin: Specimen quinquaginta diversarum atque inter se differentium linguarum et dialectorum; videlicet, oratio dominica - SLUB Dresden LINK
  • German version: Prob einer Verdolmetschung in 50 unterschiedlichen Sprachen, Bavarian State Library LINK
DEUTSCHE ÜBERSETZUNG HIER - German translation

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