The Protestant Latin Bible of the Sixteenth Century 1516-1600

人们普遍认为，将《圣经》翻译成白话文是16世纪欧洲宗教改革的核心部分。拉丁语一直是中世纪教会的语言，也是学者和神职人员的专属语言，而被称为伏尔盖特的拉丁圣经被视为标准。鹿特丹的伊拉斯谟揭露了伏尔盖特的错误，引起了一场争论的风暴。天主教学者在伊拉斯谟之后，根据人文主义语言和文本批评的原则对《伏尔盖特》进行了修订。然而，新教徒做了一件相当不同寻常的事情。他们没有修改《圣经》，甚至放弃了它，而是将旧约和新约从希伯来语和希腊语翻译成了拉丁文。在十六世纪，五个完整的翻译圣经，以及个别书籍和遗嘱，到拉丁文是由路德和宗教改革学者承担。为什么？这是本课题的主要研究课题。这些由新教学者编写的大量拉丁文圣经几乎没有受到学者的关注。这个项目将提醒我们，拉丁语仍然是新教改革者的语言，我们需要更充分地了解拉丁语在宗教改革中的地位。对拉丁语圣经的需求反映了新的改革运动的各个方面：准确的拉丁语圣经被认为是翻译成白话语言的必要基础，因为只有少数神职人员(他们的主要读者)能使用希伯来语或希腊语；拉丁语圣经也被视为在外国促进和传播特定宗教思想的手段，因为拉丁语仍然是新教的互动语言；还有一定程度的忏悔竞争，因为新教教会试图证明他们的学识和学习不仅高于天主教徒，而且还高于其他新教徒。拉丁文圣经被认为是智力成熟的象征，也是那些有能力生产拉丁文圣经的城市相当自豪的来源。因此，它们既是学习的工具，又是文化的装饰品，也是宗教宣传的一部分。该项目将把这些圣经置于它们的历史、宗教和语言背景中，通过对文本的比较研究、对相关学者网络的研究以及对这些圣经的目的的调查。

It is widely recognised that the translation of the Bible into vernacular languages was a central part of the European Reformation of the sixteenth century. Latin had been the language of the Medieval Church and the preserve of scholars and the clergy, and the Latin Bible, known as the Vulgate, was regarded as the standard. Erasmus of Rotterdam created a storm of controversy with his unmasking of the inaccuracies of the Vulgate. Catholic scholars, following Erasmus, undertook revisions of the Vulgate according to the principles of humanist linguistic and text criticism. Protestants, however, did something rather extraordinary. Instead of revising the Vulgate, or even abandoning it, they undertook new translations of the Old and New Testaments from Hebrew and Greek into Latin. During the sixteenth century five complete translations of the Bible, as well as individual books and Testaments, into Latin were undertaken by Lutheran and Reformed scholars. Why? This is the principal research question of this project. These massive Latin Bibles produced by Protestant scholars have received virtually no attention from scholars. This project will remind us that Latin remained the language of the Protestant reformers and that we need to understand more fully the place of Latin in the Reformation. The need for Latin Bibles reflected various dimensions of the new Reformation movement: an accurate Latin Bible was thought to be the necessary basis for translations into the vernacular languages as few among the clergy (their primary readership) were capable of using either Hebrew or Greek; the Latin Bible was also viewed as a means of promoting and propagating particular religious ideas in foreign lands as Latin remained the interactional language of Protestantism; there was also a degree of confessional rivalry as the Protestant churches sought to demonstrate that their scholarship and learning was superior not only to the Catholics, but also to that of other Protestants. Latin Bibles were regarded as symbols of intellectual sophistication and the source of considerable pride to those cities capable of producing them. Thus, they were simultaneously tools of learning, cultural ornaments, and pieces of religious propaganda. This project will set these Bibles in their historical, religious, and linguistic contexts through comparative examinations of the texts, a study of the networks of scholars involved, and an investigation of the purposes for which these Bibles were intended.