Jonas Bretkūnas
John Bretke (also Bretkus, Johann Bretke, Lithuanian: Jonas Bretkūnas, * 1536 in jitters at Friedland ( Duchy of Prussia), † 1602 in Königsberg ) was a Protestant pastor. He translated the Bible into Lithuanian, was the author of twelve books Lithuanian and worked also works as a historian. He is one of the most famous early authors who wrote in Lithuanian.
Life
Johann (es) Bretke was born in 1536 in the Duchy of Prussia. His father was German, according to other sources germanisierter PRUSSE, his mother came from an Old Prussian family.
1555, at the age of nineteen, Bretke began a theology degree at the University of Konigsberg. 1556 he moved to the University of Wittenberg. During his studies he was of Albert I of Brandenburg -Ansbach as pastor of the city church in Labiau (now Russian: Polessk ) 1562 appointed.
Bretke was the first pastor in Labiau who preached at Old Prussian or Lithuanian. Previously, pastors had usually called Tolken busy, who translated the sermons for the church. 1563 married Bretke a von Werther. His parish was rural and poor, the pastor was expected to pay his way secured by agriculture itself. Then Bretke the sense, however, was not, he would rather spend his time exclusively for language studies and translations. 1578-1579 Bretke wrote his Chronicon of the country Prussia, after which he began with the translation of the German Bible Martin Luther into Lithuanian; this task took him more than ten years.
After he had lived twenty-five years of famine in Labiau to Bretke applied to the pastorate of another Prussian city and became in 1587 the stone church Dammer or St. Elizabeth's Church ( = "Lithuanian Church " ) called in Königsberg. There he continued his work on the translation of the Bible and other scientific works. In 1589 he published several books, including those based on preliminary work by Martynas Mažvydas " Giesmės duchaunas " (Spiritual Songs ), a small collection of songs " Kancionalas nekurių giesmių " and " Kollectas ", a translation of a prayer book from the German. All books were printed by George Osterberg in Königsberg.
On November 29, 1590 Bretke finally completed the first still known translation of the Bible into Lithuanian. The permission to publish this Bible was, refused to admit him. Later Duke Georg Friedrich acquired the manuscript. 1591 ended Bretke the two-part Postilla ( Postilė ), one of his most famous works. In his last years he tried in vain to enforce the publication of his translation of the Bible, 1602, he died of the plague.
Works
- Giesmės duchaunas, 1589
- Kollectas, alba Paspalitas Maldas, 1589
- Kancionalas nekurių giesmių, 1589
- Biblia, 1590 3 -volume facsimile edition ed. by Friedemann Kluge et. al. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1996-2002. ISBN 3-506-71672-7 ( Vol.1 ), ISBN 3-506-71674-3 ( Vol.2 / 3)
Surviving manuscripts and copies of books are located in Germany, Lithuania and Sweden. His Postilla is kept at the University of Vilnius, the only surviving copy of the " Kancionalas nekurių giesmių " at Uppsala University in Sweden. The original manuscripts of John Bretkes Bible are located in the Prussian Secret State Archives in Berlin. 2002, four hundred years after Bretkes death they were insured for more than 2.3 million euros, issued in Lithuania.