Textual Changes in the Book Die Sprüche Salomonis (1672) by Georg Mancelius

Abstract

This article examines publication of the Book of Proverbs in Latvian by Georg Mancelius (1593–1654). It focuses on an analysis of textual changes between the first edition (1637) and the second, posthumous edition (1672), which was revised by unknown editors who made modifications to Mancelius’s text. The analysis of both texts focuses on language corrections, divided into grammatical and lexical changes and additions. A total of 90 such changes have been identified, but given that Proverbs consists of 31 chapters (~100 pages), it can be assumed that there are not a large number of changes, and that the book has not been substantially edited.

Grammatical corrections (40) took the largest share of the three types of changes. These often reflected variation in the Latvian language, where one form is replaced by a similar one. Among the more frequent corrections were the change of the dative -ms ending of the plural nouns to the newer -m ending (10) and the change of the form Mais to Maiſe (8). Other grammatical changes are sporadic. Lexical changes in Sal₂ are also occasional, and there are relatively few of them – 13. Their motivation seems to be very similar to that of grammatical changes, which are often due to variation in the Latvian language, where one word is replaced by another, perhaps closer to the region and time of the editor.

The number of text additions in Sal₂ is 37 (30 of which are single-word and 7 are two-word). All instances are given in brackets in the translation, formally indicating that they are textual additions and not part of the original Book of Proverbs. Although most are in Latvian, one is inserted in German, a clarification of the polysemous Latvian word vārds ‘name, word’ (Taß Wahrtz (Nahme)). Of the 36 Latvian additions, the word kungs ‘Lord’ is clarified 20 times. This is followed by the words dievs ‘God’ (15x), eekſchan debbeß (3x) or no debess (3x). There is a tendency for a higher proportion of the additions to be theological in nature, such as Diews ‘God’, Chriſtus ‘Christ’, or Debbes ‘sky, heaven’. The abundance of commentaries of a theological nature may have been due to a change in the recipients of the books, i.e., the first were intended for pastors and for reading aloud in the church, but later they gradually moved on to individual users and home reading. Therefore, the clarification of the text seems to be a way to avoid ambiguity and interpretation.