János Sylvester
Illustration — Sylvester letters János Sylvester sometimes known as János Erdősi (1504–1552) was a 16th-century Hungarian figure of the Reformation, and also a poet and grammarian, who was the first to translate the New Testament into Hungarian, in 1541.
Also recorded as Janos Sylvester · János Erdősi
János Sylvester

Túri Török Tibor · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Born
- 1504 · Seini.
- Died
- 1552 · Vienna.
- Nationality
- Hungary
- Occupation
- grammarian · writer · translator · philologist
- Fields
- renaissance humanism · biblical studies
- Movements
- humanism
- Education
- Jagiellonian University
- Teachers
- Erasmus · Martin Luther · Philipp Melanchthon
- Languages
- Hungarian
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Illustration — Sylvester letters János Sylvester sometimes known as János Erdősi (1504–1552) was a 16th-century Hungarian figure of the Reformation, and also a poet and grammarian, who was the first to translate the New Testament into Hungarian, in 1541.
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wikidata · Q714961 · wikipedia · János Sylvester
In this article
Life
Life
János Sylvester studied at Jagiellonian University. Training under Erasmus, Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon is recorded. The recorded working language is Hungarian. The field of work recorded is renaissance humanism and biblical studies. Places of work recorded in the authority are Kingdom of Hungary. Employment is recorded with University of Vienna.
• Illustration — Schlossplatz Wittenberg • Illustration — Sylvester's Bible He was born into a middle-class family at Szinérváralja in Hungary. He was a disciple of Erasmus, studying at the University of Krakow in 1526/27. He went to study at the university of Wittenberg in central Germany in 1529 and returned in 1534 to 1536, studying theology under Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon. In Wittenberg he lived in accommodation on Schlossplatz east of the Schlosskirche. On return to Hungary he set up one of the first printing presses in Újsziget. In 1543 he moved to the University of Vienna to teach Latin and Greek. He died on 6 May 1552.
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Places
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Seini.
Birth place
Vienna.
Death place
Publications
• Rosarium (1527) the first poem in Hungarian • Grammatica Hungarolatina (1539) the first document to establish "standardised spelling" in Hungarian • The New Testament (first Hungarian translation) (1541) He is also credited with creating the idea of an "essay".
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q714961: János Sylvester
General reference · Wikidata
reference work
- “János Sylvester”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.A magyar irodalom arcképcsarnoka. Trezor. 1995. 963-7685-55-3.
- 2.Magyar életrajzi lexikon II. (L–Z). Akadémiai kiadó. 1969. 978-963-05-2497-1.
- 3.harvsp Sylvester 1539 p=fac-similé 6 .
- 4.harvsp Bartók 2006 p=30-34 = harvsp Sylvester 1539 p=fac-similé 6-10 .
- 5.harvsp Varjas 1960 loc= lang hu Kísérő tanulmány (préface) p=22-23 .
- 6.avant e ou i
- 7.avant voyelle
- 8.après voyelle
- 9.« ẜ » (s long barré), sa barre forme une panse similaire à une des panses de l'eszett « ß ».
- 10.u prend le plus souvent la forme v en début de mot.
- 11.= : halgaccz, ßereccz ; = : halgacćz, ßerecćz (= en orthographe moderne : hal(l)gatsz, szeretsz).
- 12.Les avis sont partagés quant à la différence éventuelle entre ę et ê (ou è) : tous sont devenus en hongrois moderne é fermé, mais certains estiment que ę, décrit par Sylvester comme voyelle différente de e, est fermé (en orthographe moderne ë dialectal ou é ) et que ê marque comme l'accent circonflexe sur d'autres voyelles la longueur de e ouvert ( ), tandis que d'autres pensent au contraire que c'est ę qui est ouvert long : .
- 13.= : tanii̢t (= taníjt).
- 14.= : Elſ ↄ ebet (= Elzse(é)bet).
- 15.= : new, Newtuͤl (= ne(é)v, ne(é)vtűl).
- 16.Macron ou accent circonflexe sont de temps en temps utilisés sur d'autres lettres pour indiquer la longueur : î (ī) pour í moderne , aussi parfois ô pour ó ou n̄ pour nn : .
- 17.Sauf après l'article défini qui est toujours noté az, alors qu'à l'époque par exemple az farkas était prononcé (« le loup », aujourd'hui écrit et prononcé ) : , et = .
- 18.= : iecćziſit, iecćzi (= jeddzísít, jeddzi).
- 19.= : feijrb, feijr (= fejírb, fejír).
- 20.István Prusinszki. Sylvester János és a sárvári nyomda. 2013.
- 21.Szabolcs Osztovits (dir.). Az időmértékes verselés. Encyclopédie du lycée Fazekas Mihály (Budapest).
- 22.Traduction littérale : « Dieu s'est autrefois adressé à toi par les prophètes, / celui qu'il a promis, son fils, voilà qu'il l'a enfin donné. / D'une âme enthousiaste, il s'adresse maintenant aussi à toi, par lui / qu'il te laisse écouter, qu'il te laisse suivre. »
- 23.harvsp Varjas 1960 id=Varjas1960-pref p=16 .
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
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- János MajláthAuthor
- János Mattis-TeutschAuthor
- Janos NyiriAuthor
- János PilinszkyAuthor
- János SzékelyAuthor
- János ZsámbokyAuthor
- János ZsupánekAuthor
- Janou Saint-DenisAuthor
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