Historia S. Joannis Nepomuceni of 1729 and its Contemporary Translation in the Context of Baroque Translations
Abstract
The paper focuses on the work of the Jesuit historian Maximilianus Wietrowsky Historia Sancti Joannis Nepomuceni (1729) and its Czech translation of 1730. The topic of this work reflects a significant phenomenon of the Nepomucene cult which formed an indispensable part of Czech religious life in the Baroque era.
The origin of the text corresponds with the canonization of the Saint in 1729, after which John of Nepomuk became the most worshipped of the Czech saints, revered both within and beyond the geographical boundaries of Bohemia. The study is based on the recent research of early modern Latin and Czech literature which remained part of the European cultural sphere throughout the 17thand 18thcentury.
This gave rise to multilingual (mainly Latin, Czech and German) editions of literary works. Apart from the literary-historical, linguistic-stylistic and translation analysis of both works the paper outlines a wider cultural and historical context and examines both texts with regard to elements that were characteristic for the period of their creation.
The paper concludes with an outline of the forthcoming annotated edition of both works, which will maintain the trend of recent Latin textual editions while preserving all of the period and genre specifics of the texts.