Funded by the European Union (NextGenerationEU)
The project De imitatione Christi arises from the core activities of the Department of Language History at the Institute, specifically in the area focused on philological research and the publication of manuscript and rarely accessible printed sources of older Croatian literature.
This project includes the oldest currently dated Croatian translations of the Imitation: the Chakavian version (Marulić’s manuscript translation Od naslidovan’ja Isukarstova from 1500), the Shtokavian version (the manuscript Od nasl’jedovan’ja Isukrstova by an anonymous author from 1639), and the Kajkavian version (Od nasleduvanja Kristuševoga, published in 1710 without indication of authorship), as well as the Shtokavian version by Bartol Kašić (Od nasledovan’ja Gospodina našega Jesusa, printed in 1641).
The need to publish reliable transcriptions of Croatian translations of the Latin work De imitatione Christi, De imitatione Christi along with the accompanying scholarly studies, is based on two facts. First, some of the mentioned texts have remained outside the focus of scholarly interest and in-depth philological research. Second, since tridialectalism has largely been a constant in the history of the Croatian literary language, the equal and comparative study of texts in all three literary stylizations is one of the key prerequisites for a better understanding of linguistic development. In this sense, Croatian translations of the medieval Latin writing De imitatione Christi represent a valuable corpus, as they constitute a rare example of a tridialectal interpretation of the same source text.
Ki nasliduje mene, ne hodi u tamnosti, da imati će svitlost života, di Gospodin. Ovoj jesu riči Isukarstove po kih jesmo naučeni kako imamo naslidovati život njegov… (Marulić’s Chakavian translation)
Tko slijedi mene, ne hodi u tminah, ma će imati svjetlos od života, govori Gospodin. Ovoj su riječi Jezusove kojijemi smo svjetovani da budemo život njegov i djela nasl′jedovati… (anonymous Shtokavian translation)
Koteri mene nasleduje, on po temnosti ne hodi, veli Gospodin Bog. Ove su reči Krištuševe, z kemi nas opomina da življenje i šege njegove nasledujemo… (anonymous Kajkavian translation)
Tko mene slidi, ne hodi u tminah, nego će imati svjetlos od života, veli Gospodin. Ove su riječi Isukrstove kojimi smo vječbani kakono život njegov i nauke imamo nasledovati...(Kašić’s Shtokavian translation)
