Most medieval vernacular texts were intended either to be performed or to be ‘read aloud to a participative audience’.Footnote 1 They shared similar themes, such as the ‘emulation of ideas of Christianity’ and they were also intended to support the spread of literacy.Footnote 2 Their purpose was to persuade lay people to change their behaviour by accepting Christian teaching, and they sought to do this by quoting the auctoritates, mostly Scripture, and by encouraging readers or listeners to develop compassio. Sermons and dialogues with this performative character can be found among Croatian translations of Latin works which were copied during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Glagolitic script, a Slavic script created by St Cyril of Thessaloniki.Footnote 3 The texts considered in this article consist of a Croatian translation of the Sermones Discipuli by the German Dominican Johannes Herolt (d. 1468), a translation of the Sermones de sanctis by Peregrinus of Oppeln (1260–1333) and Pseudo-Anselm's Dialogus beatae Mariae et Anselmo de passione Domini.Footnote 4
These texts are an integral part of late medieval Croatian literature, and particularly that which was copied or printed in Glagolitic script. Given the complexities of the development of Croatian literature during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and the fact that texts differed not only in language but also in script (the Latin, Glagolitic and Cyrillic scripts were used), it is important to begin with an overview of this literature.
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Croatian literature was being developed in two directions: the first was the continued production of medieval works and the second was the production in significant quantity of humanist and Renaissance texts. Medieval Croatian literature was largely influenced by Latin religious texts such as manuals, confessionals, hagiographic and passion texts, sermons and accounts of Marian miracles.Footnote 5 Translations from Latin had a particular purpose: they were needed to help priests to teach Christianity to a lay audience. Some of the medieval literature from this period was written in Latin, and some in a mixture of Croatian Church Slavonic and Croatian.Footnote 6
The language in which these texts were written varied according to their intended purpose. Although Latin, Croatian and Croatian Church Slavonic were all used in the medieval and early modern periods, their roles changed. From the eleventh until the end of the fourteenth centuries, literature copied in Glagolitic script was written in Croatian Church Slavonic; literature transcribed in Latin script mainly appeared in Latin and, after the mid-fourteenth century, Croatian. Until the mid-fourteenth century, Croatian had been used mostly in legal and administrative documents. From the late fourteenth until the sixteenth century, liturgical texts were still written in Croatian Church Slavonic; practical texts were written in Croatian, while literary texts were written in both Croatian and a mixture of Croatian and Croatian Church Slavonic (the balance depended on the nature of the text). Croatian Church Slavonic texts were almost always written in Glagolitic script, whereas Croatian texts could be written in any of the three scripts. Throughout the whole period, Latin was also used for liturgy, literature and administration and was written only in Latin script. So during the Middle Ages in the Croatian lands two liturgical languages were used: Latin and Croatian Church Slavonic.
The status of these languages was rather different in the case of Croatian Renaissance and humanist texts, which were copied and printed only in Latin script, and were almost always written in Latin, Croatian (with some rare examples of Croatian Church Slavonic words which appear in religious texts) and Italian. Several factors influenced the relatively early appearance of the Renaissance and of humanism in Croatian coastal cities. These include the political and administrative connections between Croatian cities on the Adriatic coast and Venice, which led young Croatian men to study at Italian universities, and the arrival of Italian intellectuals in Croatia.Footnote 7 From the second half of the fifteenth century Croatian Renaissance and humanist writers composed many works, some of which became popular across Europe. Thus Croatian Petrarchism is the oldest form to be found outside his homeland, Italy.Footnote 8 Marko Marulić’s Institutione bene vivendi per exempla sanctorum and the Evangelistarium were both popular in various European countries, and the latter was even read by Henry VIII.Footnote 9
Translators were part of the Glagolitic reading community,Footnote 10 which also included scribes, priests and those who ordered books or commissioned translations. All these individuals played a part in communicating the translated text to the lay audience, and many of them were members of the clergy or closely connected to the Church's hierarchy. As manuscript records show, many books were created on the orders of a priest or other high-ranking individual.Footnote 11 Those who commissioned books or translations were therefore important members of the Glagolitic community.Footnote 12 The production of books was very expensive; consequently, those which were ordered were generally practical texts required for the proper conduct of everyday pastoral and priestly ministry in a particular context, or didactic texts.Footnote 13 The focus on a text's usefulness, together with the cost of book production, resulted in many partial translations of foreign-language works. For example, the translator of Herolt's Sermones Discipuli omitted the Lenten sermons because on the northern Croatian coast other quadragesimales were commonly used, such as the translation of Carraciolo's Quaresimale in volgare (Senj, 1508), printed in Glagolitic script.
In addition, it is important to describe the attitude of members of the Glagolitic ‘reading community’ towards Scripture. For a long time, the biblical parts of religious texts remained in Croatian Church Slavonic, mostly because knowledge of the Bible was inseparable from knowledge of liturgical texts, and, as discussed above, these were mostly written in Croatian Church Slavonic. For decades, translators and scribes showed a special attitude towards Croatian Church Slavonic, mostly by using certain archaic phrases in biblical quotations in order to render particular aspects of the text more effectively.Footnote 14 The greater prestige of Croatian Church Slavonic was a consequence of its long connection with the liturgy,Footnote 15 and the use of anachronistic Croatian Church Slavonic terms in translating biblical quotations represented a stylistic way of marking certain points or ideas in the text. At the same time, it was also an indicator of the translators' connection to the older liturgical tradition.
This article will apply the approach of Biggs, who examined the rhetorical effect of translation.Footnote 16 It will compare the performativity of Latin and Croatian texts, focusing on the rendering of biblical texts. Since these Croatian performative texts contain a large number of biblical quotations, two questions are examined.Footnote 17 First, did the intensification of the oral aspect through translation include biblical texts, and if so how? Second, how did the translators treat scriptural quotations which, as discussed above, were customarily written, at least to some extent, in Croatian Church Slavonic?
The Translators’ Strategies and Goals
When translating a performative text it is important not to lose its effectiveness, and this is also – or perhaps especially – true of religious texts. A translator's efforts to preserve a text's rhetorical effect can be described with Nida's term ‘dynamic equivalence’.Footnote 18 The main goal of a sermon, the most important connection between priest and congregation,Footnote 19 was to transmit a moral message which went beyond the simple communication relationship between the preacher (sender) and the congregation (receivers). Preaching is a performative genre: a sermon is intended to move its hearers to realize its moral lessons for their lives.Footnote 20 It does this by presenting reasons, offering quotations from authoritative texts and giving examples.Footnote 21
As Kienzle observes, a sermon is ‘primarily a one-sided conversation in the sense that the listener is urged to take a message [from the preacher] to heart’.Footnote 22 The communication is more complex when it comes to dialogues, in which there is either interaction between the participants, or a one-sided communication between the participants and the audience. A dialogue represents an interaction: one participant retells the event and in doing so emotionally influences the other participant, who, however, by asking the original targeted question, had managed to penetrate into the soul of the first participant. The interaction between the participants’ voices, which could be read by different readers, gives a dialogue text its particular performative characteristics.
Glagolitic texts had an audience amongst the lower clergy, especially preachers who were responsible for communicating the message of the set readings to uneducated listeners. Translations from Latin were therefore generally adjusted not only for lay people, as the final recipients, but also for priests or readers with relatively low levels of education.Footnote 23 These texts were intended to support clergy as the most important medium of the communication of meaning to their lay audience. Translators sought to produce a written text that would be as close as possible to an oral version, so that the translator, as Ellis has said, had ‘an active role not just as a compiler but also as a preacher’.Footnote 24
The fact that most of these texts were read or performed in front of an uneducated audience influenced the translation of all quotations, not just those taken from Scripture. Many of the sermons that were translated from Latin to Croatian during the medieval period were written by Dominican and Franciscan authors who used frequent citations to strengthen their argument. However, in oral communication an excess of quotations can negatively affect the audience's reception of the message, since they can make it difficult for a lay audience to follow the content. The translators recognized this, and information from authorities was often abbreviated or cut. Sometimes a scriptural quotation was signified only by phrases such as ‘it is written’, ‘it can be read’ or ‘it is said’. It was clearly important to attribute these ideas to some authority, but highlighting the fact that an idea was ‘written’ somewhere strengthened the argument.Footnote 25 In texts with less obvious references to authorities, such as dialogues, the significance of a selected quotation was sometimes highlighted only by using archaic forms drawn from Croatian Church Slavonic, which were closely connected to the translation of biblical readings from older liturgical books.
There are also examples in which information about the authority which in the Latin version had been given in an abbreviated form was lost. Such citation indicators were mostly highlighted by adding word such as ‘here’ or ‘so’, or verba dicendi, mostly in the form ‘he said’, ‘it is to be known’. The function of this translation strategy was to facilitate a fluent oral performance by avoiding possible breaks in the preaching discourse. Frequent reference to the different authorities meant repeated transitions between citation and the ‘narrative’ of the text. For a lay audience that could not see the text, the inclusion of too many quotations could make it difficult to listen to and memorize the content. Moreover, reading abbreviations could pose an insurmountable problem to a poorly educated cleric.
A similarly pragmatic emphasis influenced the cutting and omission of some parts of the Latin text. For instance, the adjusting of texts for the benefit of the lay audience also affected the translation of biblical passages in sermons, especially if a particular point was buttressed by several quotations. Here the translation strategy included not only omitting the abbreviations, but also shortening quotations or converting citations into rhetorical flourishes. Sometimes translators merged two quotations into one, usually treating the second quotation as an explanation of the first and attributing it to the first authority. For example:
[Ps. 101: 18, Ecclus. 35: 21] Ps. Respexit in orationem humilium etc. Eccle. XXXV. Oratio humiliantis se nubes penetrat.Footnote 26
Ps[a]lm gov[o]ri prizre na mol[i]tvu smerenih ere mol[i]tva umilenoga prohaê oblake.Footnote 27
The Psalm says that he [God] regards the prayer of the destitute because the prayer of the humble pierces the clouds.
Unde etiam Cypr. Serico et purpura induti Christum induere non possunt. Unde etiam Greg. in Homil. Quid est homo pretiose ornatus, nisi sepulchrum foris dealbatum, intus autem plenum spurcitiae.Footnote 28
Na to Cipriên’ gov[o]ri svil'na svita i purpira ne more H[rst]a obliĉi ere ča e[st] č[lovê]k lipo oblečen nego k[a]ko grob’ ki e[st] zvana lipo urešen a vnutri e[st] pln’ smrada.Footnote 29
Here Cyprian said, a purple silk robe cannot be put on Christ because a well-dressed man is nothing but a tomb that is nicely decorated outside but inside is full of stench.
Some quotations were simply excluded from the translation, as can be seen from the following passage from Daniel.
[Dan. 11: 37] Item Deus et sanctos blasphemabit. Unde Dan. XI. Adversus Deum deorum loquetur blasphemia, et omnes blasphemi sunt praecursores antichristi . . .Footnote 30
Oĉe bude B[og]a i s[ve]te pogreval i v'si ki pogrûû B[og]a ili s[ve]te esu pos'li antih[rs]tovi . . .Footnote 31
Also he will mock God and all the saints and all who mock God or saints are precursors of the Antichrist.
Verba dicendi
Quotations in sermons, and changes between character in dialogues were almost always announced by verba dicendi, often with further words added, such as ‘here’ or ‘so’.Footnote 32 The main purpose was to facilitate oral performance. The verba dicendi were sometimes extended by chronological adverbs. Berardini has observed that ‘another important performance indicator is represented by deictics, that is, those linguistic elements strictly connected to spatial or temporal circumstances’.Footnote 33
[John 19: 22] Pilatus respondit: quod scripsi scripsi.Footnote 34
Tada odgovori Pilat ko pisah' pisah'.Footnote 35
Then Pilate answered what I have written I have written.
Verba dicendi were sometimes added even if the Latin text already contained an expressive verb. In the translation the first verb then represents the scriptural expression (‘write’), while the second begins the statement (‘say’):
[Luke 23: 26] Unde et Lucas scribit. Apprehenderunt Simonem quendam Cyrenensem.Footnote 36
Kako Luka piše govoreĉi êše Simuna Kurineiskago.Footnote 37
And how Luke writes saying: they laid hold of one Simon of Cyrene.
[Luke 22: 67] Jesus respondit si dicero vobis.Footnote 38
A I(su)s mu od'govori i reče Ako bih’ vam’ rekal’.Footnote 39
And Jesus answers him and says: if I would tell you.
In short narratives containing few quotations, translators transformed the Gospel reading by using verba dicendi in order to produce continuous sentences:
[Luke 23: 43, Matt. 3: 2] . . . Lu. XXIII. Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso, et omnibus peccatoribus dicitur a Christo, ut habetur Math. III. Paenitentiam agite, appropinquavit enim regnum caelorum . . .Footnote 40
. . . gov[o]reći amen gov[o]rim tebi d[a]n[a]s budeši sa mnoû v rai i zato gov[o]ri se vsim grišnikom od Hrsta pokoru činite ere približit se va vas c[êsa]rstvo b[o]žie . . .Footnote 41
. . . saying: Amen I say to you, today you shall be with me in Paradise, and that is because it is said by Christ to all sinners, repent for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.
In dialogues, which have very few citation indicators, translators seem to have found it important to highlight at least some important quotations. Here they used phrases such as ‘which goes’ (ko de) or ‘which is being said’ (ko govori).
[John 18: 9] Ut Scriptura impleretur quia quos dedisti mihi, non perdidi ex eis quemquam.Footnote 42
Da se Pismo vzbude ko govori o mne ne pogublû nih niednago.Footnote 43
The word might be fulfilled that says I have not lost any of them.
[Pss 21: 17–18, 44: 11] Ita ut impleretur illud. Psalmi dinumeraverunt omnia ossa mea et tunc impleta fuit prophetia ipsius David, id est ipsius Christi, dicentis in Psalmo Audi fila et vide . . .Footnote 44
i tu se isplni rič’ ka se govori v ps[a]lme: prigvozdiše rucê i nozê moi i sačtoše vse kosti moe I tada se takoe isplni pr[o]r[o]častvo Davidovo ko o H[rst]e govori v psalme: sliši d'či i vii . . .Footnote 45
And here was fulfilled the word that is said in the Psalms: they have pierced my hands and feet, they have numbered all my bones . . . and then was fulfilled the prophecy of David, who as Christ said in the Psalms: listen, daughter, and see.
[Ps. 44: 11] . . . tunc matri potui dicere audi filia et vide.Footnote 46
. . . tada se zbist mane matere on’ veras ki de Sliši hći i vii i prikloni uho tvoe.Footnote 47
. . . then my mother fulfilled that verse which goes: listen, daughter, and see, and incline your ear.
Verba dicendi changed according to the type of narration. Longer narrative sections contain announcement phrases such as ‘as it is written’ or ‘it could be read’, contrasting with ‘it is said’ or ‘says’, which are the most common elsewhere.
Ut habetur Ioh. XX . . .Footnote 48
K[a]ko se piše po Iv[a]nu na i[= 20] . . .Footnote 49
As it is written by John in the 20th chapter . . .
Gen. XLIX . . .Footnote 50
Na to se piše v [E]n[e]z[e]s na 49 k[a]p[itul] . . .Footnote 51
As it is written in Genesis . . .
[Wisd. 5: 9] Unde dicunt damnati in inferno illud Sap. V. transierunt omnia illa tamquam umbra . . .Footnote 52
Zato govore osueni v pakli k[a]ko v Mudrosti nahodi se na 5 k[a]p[itu]l proš'la su vsa ta k[a]ko sen . . .Footnote 53
Therefore those sentenced to Hell say, as can be found in Wisdom in the 5th chapter, all those things have passed away like a shadow.
Grammatical Changes
Quotations from Scripture were also adjusted to the narrator's or preacher's voice by altering the grammar of the Latin text. For instance, an intensification of the narrative was produced by changing participles to the present tense, while by adding the conditional form the narrator hinted at events to come, holding his audience in suspense. In dialogues it was necessary to adjust scriptural parts to the narrator's voice, for instance when recounting events from Jesus's Passion. Participles were often paraphrased into simple sentences, generally by adding a few explanatory words.
Transforming participle:
[Luke 23: 14] Obtulistis mihi hunc hominem quasi avertentem populum . . .Footnote 54
Pripelaste mi toga č[lovê]ka govoreĉe da e[st] razvratnik v lûdeh . . .Footnote 55
You brought me this man telling me that he is a subverter of the people . . .
Addition of the conditional form:
[John 19: 31] . . . rogabant Pilatum ut frangerentur eorum crura, et tollerentur . . .Footnote 56
. . . prosiše Pilata da bi im' prostil da bi prebil nih’ goleni . . .Footnote 57
. . . they asked Pilate that [the men's] legs might be broken and that [the bodies] might be taken down.
[Luke 22: 67] Si vobis dixero non creditis mihi.Footnote 58
. . . ako bih' vam' rekal' ne veruete mi.Footnote 59
If I were to tell you, you would not believe me.
[Matt. 26: 53] Exhibebit mihi . . .Footnote 60
bih’ hotel da bi mi priklonil . . .Footnote 61
If I should want him to give me . . .
Transformation of pronouns (here from third to second person):
[Matt. 27: 42] si rex israel est descendat nunc de cruce et credemus ei . . .Footnote 62
ako si c[êsa]rb iz[drai]l[e]vb slezi nine s križa i veruemo ti . . .Footnote 63
If you are the King of Israel, descend from the cross and we will believe you.
Lexigraphical Changes
In some quotations the spoken words were written in Croatian Church Slavonic and the narrative part was written in Croatian. This was one of the strategies used by translators to highlight an important passage.
[Luke 22: 61–2] Et recordatus est Petrus verbi Domini quod dixerat ei: quia priusquam gallus cantet, ter me negabis.Footnote 64
I vspomenu se Petar na onu rič' ku mu bêše rekal moi sin Isus: prvo nere peteh' zapoe trikrat otvr'žeši se mene.Footnote 65
And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, that before the rooster crows you will deny me three times.
In the narrative parts of dialogues, there are examples in which the speeches of the characters included words from Croatian Church Slavonic, such as the genitive personal pronoun (ego).
[Matt. 27: 25] et respondens universus populus dixit. Sanguis ejus super nos et super filios nostros . . .Footnote 66
I odgovoriše vsi i rekoše krv ego budi na nas i na čedeh' naših' . . .Footnote 67
And they all responded and said, may his blood be upon us and upon our children.
The translators' knowledge of the Bible might also manifest itself through the inclusion of quotations which were not part of the original Latin text. Sometimes one quotation was changed for another with a similar meaning. For example, one Latin sermon includes a quotation from Wisdom 11: 17 (Vulgate), but the Croatian text gives a similar quotation from Proverbs 24: 12 instead. This strategy was inherited from the older tradition of the Glagolitic scribes and translators.Footnote 68
[Wisd. 11: 17] . . . Per quae quis peccat per haec et punietur . . .Footnote 69
[Prov. 24: 12] . . . ere pisano e[st] primut plaĉu po deleh svoih . . .Footnote 70
. . . because it is written, he shall repay a man according to his works.
The best indication that a translation is both following the tradition of the old liturgical books and adjusting quotations to make the text more performative is the use of anachronisms in the form of Croatian Church Slavonic, particularly when rendering Latin abbreviations, mostly in quotations from the gospels:
[Matt. 10: 20] Unde Math. Non enim vos estis qui loqumini etc. [sed Spiritus Patris vestri, qui loquitur in vobis] . . .Footnote 71
To se piše po Mateju. Ne ste bo vi ki govorite na duh otca vašego vzgovorit va vas . . .Footnote 72
It is written by Matthew, For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
[Ex. 15: 17] De quo monte Exod. XV. Introduces eos et plantabis etc.Footnote 73
. . . od koga govori se v’ knigah’ od Ishoda vavedeši ih i postaviši ih v gori otočastva svoego v kripkom prebivanii . . .Footnote 74
. . . from which it is said in the Book of Exodus: you shall take them in and plant them, in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the firm dwelling place.
It is not unusual to find two vernacular versions of the same biblical quotation – Croatian Church Slavonic and Croatian – in the same sermon. The Croatian Church Slavonic version is often included as the thema (a biblical quotation at the beginning of the sermon) or at the end of the text. For example, by using the old pronoun az (‘I’ in Old Slavic), in the last sentence of the sermon for St Thomas's Day, the translator not only intensified God's message but changed the sentence into an exhortation.Footnote 75 Particular archaisms, especially those connected with the name or the words of God, give the quotation a stronger meaning.Footnote 76
[John 15: 5] Qui manet in me et ego in eo hic fert fructum multum . . .Footnote 77
Ki prêbivaet' va mnê i ê v' nem' ta prnest plod' mnog' . . .Footnote 78
Ki prêbivaet' va mnê i az v' nem' ta prnest plod' mnog' . . .Footnote 79
Whoever abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit.
A similar ‘strong’ opening (thema) is found in a few sermons which begin with the old Croatian pronoun az:
[John 10: 14] Ego sum pastor bonus . . .Footnote 80
Az esam' pastir' dobri . . .Footnote 81
I am the good Shepherd.
[John 15: 1] Ego sum vitis vera . . .Footnote 82
Az' esam' trs' . . .Footnote 83
I am the true vine.
The translators’ wish not only to improve a text's performability, but also to make it more memorable to listeners, can be seen in rhetorical figures, such as repetition, which were created by changing some words:
[Matt. 6: 23] Si autem oculus tuus fuerit nequam totum corpus tuum tenebrosum erit . . .Footnote 84
. . . ako oko tvoe tamno bude vse t[ê]lo tvoe tamno bude . . .Footnote 85
But if your eye has been darkened, your entire body will be darkened.
Shortened phrases probably demonstrate the belief that concise expression, especially when related to asking verbs, has a stronger effect than breaking up sentences by mentioning authorities, for instance, by giving information about precise Gospel references:
Omnia quaecumque orantes petitis, credite, quia accipietis [Mark 11: 24]. Item Io. sext. Petite et accipietis [John 16: 24]. Item Matt. 7. quaerite et invenietis, pulsate et aperietur vobis [Matt. 7: 7] . . .Footnote 86
M[a]rko na 11 vsa ka moleĉe se vsprosite veruite da primete [Mark 11: 24] iĉite i naidete [John 16: 24] tlcite i otvorit se v[a]m [Matt. 7: 7] . . .Footnote 87
Mark in the 11th chapter says whatever you are praying for, believe that you will receive it; ask and you shall receive, knock and it shall be opened to you.
In dialogues, Scripture quotations were adjusted to the narrator's voice so that, for instance, every moment of Christ's passion is described from Mary's point of view; all Gospel quotations are presented as her personal testimony to the events of the Passion. In order to emphasize her closeness and to intensify her motherhood, translators often replaced the name of Jesus by the phrase ‘my son Jesus’ or ‘my son’.Footnote 88 The testimony of Mary, a grieving mother, was believed to make more of an impact on readers than would fidelity to the Bible text.
[John 19: 33] Ad Jesum autem cum venissent . . .Footnote 89
I ka I(su)su sinu moemu kada pridoše . . .Footnote 90
But after they had approached Jesus my son . . .
[Luke 23: 26] . . . et imposerunt illi crucem portare post Jesum . . .Footnote 91
. . . i položiše mu križь na rame ponesti za sinom’ moim . . .Footnote 92
. . . and they imposed the cross on him to carry after my son . . .
[John 19: 2] . . . imposerunt capiti ejus . . .Footnote 93
. . . nabiêhu na glavu momu sinu . . .Footnote 94
. . . imposed it on the head of my son.
Compassio was also encouraged by the introduction of emotionally charged expressions into Mary's voice. Thus the Latin gladius and gladius Simenonis are replaced by the emotionally charged meč boleznivi (‘sword of grief’), which is frequently repeated in Mary's description of the Passion. It functions as an allegory of Mary's pain at the suffering and death of her only son, in which prophecy from the time of Christ's childhood is connected to her present suffering. From Mary's point of view, the Passion is described as a fulfilment of Simeon's prophecy; that is, as a series of events that is going to pierce her soul. By emphasizing Mary's voice as the voice of a mother, translators seek to move the audience by causing them to feel a similar pain.
[Luke 2: 35] Anselmus. Charissima domina, habuit adhuc finem dolor tuus? Maria. Non, Anselme, qui nondum plene prophetia Simeois impleta erat et tuam ipsius animam pertransibit gladius . . .Footnote 95
An'kselam reče moê draga gospoe povei mi b[ê]še li tada ûre dosvršena žalost tvoê. Bl[a]ž[e]na Mariê reče: ne oĉe An'kselme zač ne oĉe se ne bêše plno proročastvo Semionoňo isplnilo, to e[st] reče tvoû d[u]šu proidet meč’ bolez'nivi . . .Footnote 96
Anselm said, My dearest Lady, tell me, is then your sorrow complete? Blessed Mary said: Not yet Anselm, not yet, because Simeon's prophecy has not been completely fulfilled; that is, as he said, a sword of grief shall pierce your soul.
Conclusion
This article has argued that one of the main goals of the changes made by translators to Scripture quotations was to improve the performative characteristics of a translation, so that the translated text could be presented or read aloud. The translators of these religious texts sought to produce vernacular versions which would persuade lay people to change their behaviour and encourage them to develop compassio. However, because of the significant number of biblical quotations, translators could only preserve or intensify the oral aspects of the Latin text by making some changes. In a sermon, the aim was to produce a fluent text with very few pauses. In dialogues, the purpose of grammatical and lexigraphical changes was to highlight the emotional dimension of the text. For example, the grief of Mary, the mother of Christ, was emphasized by making Gospel quotations appear as her testimony. Translators adjusted the biblical text for reading aloud; they also used archaisms derived from Croatian Church Slavonic, which was one of the liturgical languages. In the Glagolitic reading community, knowledge of the Bible was inseparable from familiarity with relevant liturgical books. These efforts at improving the performative characteristics of the text served to fix the old language of biblical quotations in people's minds, and the use of anachronisms and archaisms generally represented a stylistic way of marking particular ideas or increasing the effectiveness of certain aspects of the text. It was also an indication of the translators' connection to the older liturgical tradition. Finally, the appearance of anachronisms was often a sign that a certain sentence derived from the Bible; sometimes the authority behind the quotation was marked only by the use of an archaism. Further examples show a combination of two different translating strategies: the oral effect was intensified by adding verba dicendi, while the words of a biblical character were signified by the use of a particular sentence or even of a few words in Croatian Church Slavonic. The strategies that have been described confirm that translators sought to adjust the Latin text, not only for lay people, but also – and perhaps even primarily – for those priests or readers who had received limited education, in order to help them to preach Christian doctrine and spread Christian morality.
