Spill de la vida religiosa in Slavic Literature

ABSTRACT

The paper investigates a Slavic fragment from a chain of “relay” translations of one of the most popular religious books of early modern Europe, i.e., the anonymous Catalan allegory Spill de la vida religiosa (1515), which was translated into Polish by Kasper Wilkowski (1589) and gained significant popularity leading to further renditions – into Ruthenian prosta mova (‘simple speech’) and then into Church Slavonic. I argue that the Polish translation was based not only on a Latin 1583 edition of the book (as the existing scholarship suggests), but also on the manuscript version of an Italian translation, close to the Catalan original. Kasjan Sakowicz, who republished Wilkowski’s work in 1625, in his preface informs about its existing translations into prosta mova and about the book’s popularity in Kyiv. The archdeacon Theophan, who translated Wilkowski’s work into Church Slavonic in 1688, in the Chudov Monastery in Moscow, had been educated in Kyiv. His translation was eventually printed in St. Petersburg in 1785. The paper analyzes different culture identities that Spill de la vida religiosa gains in its subsequent Slavic translations, and emphasizes the fact that they restore its contemplative and mystical dimension as well as its primary designation for the monastic readers.

KEYWORDS:

• relay translation
• Catalan literature
• Spill de la vida religiosa
• Polish translation
• Church Slavonic translation
• allegory
• mystical literature
• Kasper Wilkowski
• Kasjan Sakowicz
• Theophan

Notes

1 The name of the main protagonist is the central element of the title in various translations and editions, starting with the third Castilian edition (Toledo, 1536): Tratado llamado Desseoso y por otro nombre Espejo de Religiosos (Bover i Font 2007b, 454).

2 For the purposes of this study, I consulted the following edition: Il Desideroso, nel quale si contiene il modo di cercare, et rotrovare la perfettione della vita religiosa, composto per uno osservantissimo et divotissimo religioso, et di Nuovo con diligenza riformato, Venetia 1573.

3 Cf., for example, the passage about the lamp of Good Conscience fed by the oil of God’s mercy (Wilkowski 1599, fol. 13_r.; Il Desideroso, fol. 13_v). The passage does not appear in the parallel chapter of the Latin adaptation (cap. I,9). Another example in the same chapter might be the passage referring to the “iron spur,” which allegorically signifies “considering God’s blessings” (Wilkowski 1599, 19_v.–20_r.). It appears in the same form in Il Desideroso (fol. 17_r.–_v.) and is absent in the Latin text.

4 See, e.g., Tratado llamado el Desseoso, y por otro nombre, Espejo de religiosos, Alfonso de Terranova y Neyla: Salamanca 1580, fol. 5_v.–6_v

5 See Spill de la vida religiosa, Joan Rosenbach: Barcelona 1515, fol. a iiij_r. – [a iiij]_v.

6 See Wilkowski 1584.

7 For example, the Lviv edition of Desiderosus from 1747 was mentioned in the book inventory of Princess Franciszka Urszula Radziwiłł, née Wiśniowiecka. I wish to thank Professor Barbara Judkowiak for this information.