Ecclesiastes de Salamam: An Unknown Biblical Translation by Damião de Góis

Abstract

Ecclesiastes deSalamam:AnUnknown Biblical Translation byDamião deGois T. F. EARLE The sixteenth century was one ofthegreatagesofbiblicaltranslation in theChristian West.The invention ofprinting, thegrowth ofhumanistic scholarship, anddissension within theChurch allstimulated theproduction ofa vastnumber ofnewversions ofScripture, including newtranslations intoLatinas wellas intothevernacular languages ofEurope.It was not onlythemajorlanguages that wereinvolved. Luther's famous Bibleof1534 was inHighGerman, buta Low Germanversion appearedinLübeckthe same year.In thesixteenth century therewerealso translations of the completeBibleintoIcelandic,Slovene,Hungarianand otherlanguages with relatively few speakers.1In Spain and Italy,the heartlandsof Catholicismin SouthernEurope, therewere fewertranslations than elsewhere. ButBrucioli's ItalianBiblecameoutin1532,andMarmochini's in1538.InSpanishtwodifferent versions oftheNew Testament appeared before theIndexof1559,and a Ladinotranslation oftheOld Testament was issuedby the firm of SamuelUsque in Ferrarain 1553. The first complete SpanishBible,translated byCassiodorode Reyna,appearedin Baslein1569.2 Butinallthisactivity Portugal hasalwaysbeenregarded as the odd man out, a staunchlyCatholic and Christiancountry, yet throughout thesixteenth century withnoBibleinitsownlanguage. It is truethatin theveryearlydaysof Portuguese printing Rodrigo Alvaresbrought out thegospelsand theepistles, in a versionbased on Williamof Paris'sPostillasuperepistolaset evangelia(1497),whilein Lisbonin 1505Valentim Fernandes, at therequest ofthedowagerQueen Leanor,issuedtheActsoftheApostles inthevernacular.3 Butboththese worksbelongtotheMiddleAges.4 The intellectual andreligious ferment which inthesixteenth century ledother Europeans tomakenew,scholarly versions oftheBibleintheir ownlanguages is notrecorded as having left 1Fora list,see GuyBedouelleand BernardRoussel,Le Tempsdes Réformes etla Bible (Paris: Beauchesne,1989),pp. 459-61. 2 E. M. Wilson,'Spanish Versionsof theBible to c. 1600' in The CambridgeHistoryof the Bible: theWestfromtheReformation to thePresentDay, ed. byS. L. Greenslade(Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press,1963)pp. 125-29 (pp. 127-28) and Bedouelleand Roussel,p. 408. 3 See Bibliografia GeralPortuguesa 1:Século XV (Lisbon:ImprensaNacional, 1941),pp. 221-44 and F. J. Norton, A DescriptiveCatalogue of Printingin Spain and Portugal,1501-1520 (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity Press,1978),p. 507. 4 William of Paris was a fifteenth-century writerof uncertainidentity. See Dictionnairede Spiritualité, 17 vols (Paris:Beauchesne,1932-95), s.v. Guillaumede Paris.Mário Martinshas shownthattheAutosdos Apóstolosarebased on a textoriginally compiledaround1200.See his Estudosde CulturaMedieval,11 (Braga:Magnificat, 1972)p. 154. ECCLESIASTES DE SALAMAM 43 anymarkinPortugal atall.Suchefforts as there werearebelieved tohave beensuppressed, as inthecaseofAntonio Pereira Marramaque.5 A chancediscovery inthelibrary ofAllSoulsCollege,Oxford, however, showsthattherecordforPortugal is notso bareafterall. Thereis no translation ofthewholeBible,norevenofa wholetestament, butthere is atleastonebookoftheBible,Ecclesiastes, ina scholarly translation, made byDamião deGois,todayeasilythebestknownofPortuguese humanists, whoseinternational career,contactswithLutherand Melanchthon and friendship withErasmushavegivenriseto a largequantity ofscholarly work, inPortugal andelsewhere. The littlebook, in octavo, Ecclesiastesde Salamam, con algüas annotações necessárias, waspublished byStevão(Stefano) SabioinVenice in1538.Góis'snamedoesnotappearon thetitle page,butheisidentified at thehead ofthededication to Rui Fernandes de Almada.Thereis no recordoftheworkinFrancisco Leitede Faria'sveryfullbibliography of Gois.6The standardPortuguese bibliographers, Barbosa Machado and Inocencio, makeno mention ofiteither. The AllSoulscopyhasprobably beenin thecollegesincetheCodrington Library was builtin theearly eighteenth century. Itisboundtogether withanother, almostequallyrare, bookbyGois,hisversion ofCicero'sDe Senectute.7 The first edition isso rarethatLeitede Fariawas onlyabletoexaminethetitle page,conserved intheHarleiancollection intheBritish Library.8 Thetwotranslations were published bythesamepublisher inthesameyearandhaveexactly thesame format, although theDe Senectute, whichcomessecond,hasitsowntitle page. Once again Gois is identified as the authorat the head of the dedication. Thereisconsiderable evidence tosuggest thatGoisconsidered thetwotranslations toform a pair,as willappearlater. TheEcclesiastes deSalamamisa true discovery, inthatitsexistence was unknownand even unsuspecteduntilthe presentday. As the only translation ofa bookoftheBiblemadeintoPortuguese intheRenaissance ithas considerable importance, increased bythefactthatitsauthorwas one of theveryfewPortuguese writers of thesixteenth century witha genuinely international reputation. But,as Ecclesiastes himself so often 5 See AntonioDias Miguel,'AntónioPereiraMarramaque, senhorde Basto: subsídiospara o estudoda sua vida e da sua obra', Arquivosdo CentroCulturalPortuguês,15 (1980), 135-221 (pp. 167and 173). FranciscoLeitede Faria,Estudosbibliográficos sobreDamião de Góis e a sua época (Lisbon: Secretariade Estado da Cultura,1977). Góis's book has a title-page and thirty-one unnumbered folios.Itmeasures14x 9 cm. 7LIVRO DE MARCO TULLIO Ciçeram chamadoCatammaior ' ou da velhice, dedicadoa Tito Pomponio Attico(Venice:Stevão Sabio, 1538). The book has a title-pageand thirty-nine unnumbered folios.Thereisa lateredition(Lisbon:Rollandiana,1845). Leitede Faria,Estudosbibliográficos, pp. 15-16. 44 T. F. EARLE remarks, 'Nihilsubsolenovum'.9 Góis's translation is an indication that the religious tradition of Portugalis not as orthodoxas is sometimes supposed, butthedisappearance ofhisbookformorethanfourcenturies anda halfshowshowsmallanimpact hewasabletomakeonthethinking ofhiscountrymen. Damião de Góis inAntwerp,Freiburgand Padua Probably moreisknownaboutDamião deGóis'slife thanaboutanyother Portuguese writerof his period.10 Here it...