'Says the translator' Paratexts of translated literature in Yiddish published in Prague between the years 1595 and 1600
Abstract
'Says the translator' Paratexts of translated literature in Yiddish published in Prague between the years 1595 and 1600. The text presents selected paratexts from the earliest books printed in Yiddish in Prague, which offered the reader Yiddish translations of some of the fundamental liturgical texts, biblical books, moral and entertaining reading.
By means of such editions, the wide Jewish audience had the opportunity to be acquainted with the Hebrew sources, otherwise inaccessible to them, of their own lived Jewish culture. Usually, the translators enlarge the fundamental text with commentaries and explanations drawn from Jewish exegetical literature, which further deepened the reader's notion of these sources and their teachings and concepts, and thus further bolstered his Jewish identity.
The paratexts teach us about the objectives of the translators, the role ascribed to the translation literature and education (in this context solely religious) as well as the role of Yiddish language as a medium of Jewish education.