Między Koniecznością a Poezją. Parafrazy psalmów w XVI wieku
Between Necessity and Poetry. Polish Paraphrases of Psalms in the 16th Century

Author(s): Agata Starownik
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Psalm paraphrases; Jan Kochanowski; Polish Renaissance literaturę; Biblical translation; Religious poetry
Summary/Abstract: The paper explores the phenomenon of psalm paraphrases in the 16th century, discussed on the example of Jan Kochanowski’s 'Psałterz Dawidów' and other Polish paraphrases: Mikołaj Rej’s 'Psałterz Dawidów' and Jakub Lubelczyk’s 'Psałterz Dawida'. First, the biblical paraphrase is defined and its relation to the translation is identified and its characteristics are indicated. Reference is made to the views of scholars, confronted with the metatexts accompanying the paraphrases: title pages, engravings, dedications, prefaces and Kochanowski’s letter to Stanisław Fogelweder. The paraphrases of Psalm 19 (18) as rendered by Kochanowski, Rej and Lubelczyk are then compared. They are juxtaposed with their contexts – including Buchanan's paraphrase, the Brest Bible and the Vulgate, and John Calvin’s commentary on the Book of Psalms. The juxtaposition makes it possible to discern the characteristic elements of Kochanowski’s text, in this case the beauty of the cosmos as the work of God – the Supreme Artist. At the same time, a method of extracting meaning from the Renaissance psalmic paraphrase is presented.

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