Forgotten translation of a semi-forgotten Czech national revivalist : Czech set of four Gospels by František Novotný of Luže
Abstract
The paper presents a detailed account of the Czech translation of four Gospels dating from the beginning of the 19th century, whose author was the Catholic priest František Novotný from Luže (1768-1826), a less known member of a group of intellectuals belonging to the first generation of the Czech National Revival. His book as a whole has not yet been mentioned in key library catalogues, bibliographies and articles dealing with the history of the Czech Biblical translation; only its first part was taken into account and recorded, the Gospel by Matthew.
The paper based on a detailed analysis presents specific features of this text (the translation itself diverges in many aspects from the "main line" of Czech Bibles); some of them are surprisingly inspired by the (Old) Church Slavonic text including a peculiar morphological innovation (which appeared in Czech for the first time at the beginning of the 19th century, i.e. during Novotný's life): adjectives derived from past transgressives (of the type přišedší "having come").