Merkelis Petkevičius

Title page of the catechism (1598)

Merkelis Petkevičius (Polish: Melchior Pietkiewicz; c. 1550–1608) was Reformation (Calvinist) activist in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1598, he published the first Lithuanian-language protestant book in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This book, a bilingual catechism in Polish and Lithuanian, was published in response to the publication of the Roman Catholic catechism of Mikalojus Daukša.[1] However, book's heavy, artificial language with numerous loanwords make it linguistically inferior to Daukša's work.

Biography

Petkevičius was born to a family of Lithuanian nobles around 1550. Orphaned as a teen, he was raised by his uncle Motiejus, cup-bearer of Lithuania, who had a manor in Panevėžiukas.[2] Based on analysis of Petkevičius language, linguist Zigmas Zinkevičius determined that he grew up in that area.[3] Petkevičius knew several languages (Lithuanian, Latin, Polish, Chancery Slavonic) and held various offices: tax collector, scribe of Vilnius Court, secretary of the Lithuanian Tribunal when it met in Vilnius.[1] He owned a house in Vilnius as well as several manors around Maišiagala, Giedraičiai, Salakas.[1] He was married twice. Three sons from the first marriage became students of the protestant University of Königsberg in 1596. His second wife was widowed Darata Jokūbaitė Giedraitytė, cousin of Bishop Merkelis Giedraitis.[2]

In 1598, Petkevičius established his own press in Vilnius specifically for the purpose of printing protestant books.[1] First he published a Polish book by Gregory of Żarnowiec on teachings of Paul the Apostle (a copy is kept by the National Library of Poland),[4] and then he published bilingual catechism in Polish and Lithuanian. The press was very expensive to maintain and it is believed that Petkevičius sold it to brothers Sultzeriai.[2] Petkevičius died in in early 1608.[1]

Catechism

The catechism is titled in Polish (Polski z litewskim katechism) and is a truncated version the Polish catechism, most likely prepared by Stanisław Sudrowski and printed in Vilnius in 1595 (its title page is missing which makes it hard to determine its author or date of publication).[5] In turn, Sudrowski's work drew from the Polish catechism sponsored by Mikołaj "the Black" Radziwiłł and printed in Nesvizh in 1563.[6]

The catechism of Petkevičius is printed in Polish on the left and in Lithuanian on the right. Such format was likely intended to assist clergy, who were often Polish and knew little Lithuanian,[1] in learning the Lithuanian language. The text also includes 8-line poem urging children to learn. As such, the book was likely intended for both audiences – the clergy and the students.[1] The Lithuanian translation is consistent and reflects the same Aukštaitian dialect as Daukša's work.[2] However, the word-by-word translation from Polish led to stilled and artificial language full of loanwords (almost a quarter of all words is a loanword). As such, it is of much lower quality and importance than works by Daukša.[1]

Each language contains 252 pages.[1] The book starts with a Polish foreword which emphasizes the need of catechisms in local languages to reach the faithful but, unlike Mikalojus Daukša, does not advocate switching back from Polish to Lithuanian. In addition to basic catechism, the book includes prayers, 93 hymns, 40 psalms (one psalm translated twice),[5] and Agenda.[1] 27 of the psalms were taken from the Nesvizh catechism of 1563; two of them were translated to Polish by Mikołaj Rej.[5] Six other psalms were translated by Jan Kochanowski. Lithuanian translation of the psalms attempted to keep the same number of syllables so that they could be sung to the same music.[5]

The catechism was found and published by Aleksander Brückner in Archiv für slavische Philologie in 1891.[1] A photocopied edition was prepared and published by Juozas Balčikonis in 1939. The copy was kept at a city library in Gdańsk, but it disappeared during World War II. After the war, a new copy was found in Gotha and is currently kept at the Gotha Research Library (German: Forschungsbibliothek Gotha).[1] In 1970, linguist Jonas Kruopas published a dictionary of all words used in the catechism.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Žemaitaitis, Algirdas (22 November 2008). "Merkelis Petkevičius – lietuviškos reformatų raštijos pradininkas". Voruta (in Lithuanian) 22 (664): 3. ISSN 2029-3534.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Radvilienė, Violeta (2010-04-12). "Merkeliui Petkevičiui – 460" (in Lithuanian). Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 2016-01-02.
  3. ↑ Zinkevičius, Zigmas (1999). "Dėl Mikalojaus Daukšos rašomosios kalbos kilmės". Baltistica (in Lithuanian) 2 (34): 245. ISSN 0132-6503.
  4. ↑ "Catalogues". National Library of Poland. Retrieved 2016-01-02.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Pociūtė-Abukevičienė, Dainora (2005). "Psalmės Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės giesmynuose. XVI a.: nuo Nesvyžiaus katekizmo iki lietuviškųjų Merkelio Petkevičiaus vertimų" (PDF). Literatūra (in Lithuanian) 1 (47): 39–41. ISSN 0258-0802.
  6. ↑ Trilupaitienė, Jūratė (November 1999). "Lithuanian church music of the 16th and 17th century: The influence of religious movements on its development" (PDF). Musikgeschichte in Mittel- und Osteuropa 5: 191.
  7. ↑ Kruopas, Jonas (1970). "1598 m. Merkelio Petkevičiaus katekizmo leksika". Lietuvių kalbotyros klausimai (in Lithuanian) (XII): 83–154. ISSN 0130-0172.

External links

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