Vita divi Pauli Primi Eremitae by Valentin Eck Shortly Introduced and Poetically Translated

Abstract

Valentin Eck (1494–1556) also known as Valentinus Ecchius is one of the most prolific humanist authors associated with the territory of current Slovakia. Though born in the Bavarian city of Lindau, he spent the majority of his life in the eastern Slovak city of Bardejov serving, at first, as the principal of the local school until he finally reached the position of the city judge (der Richter). Behind his rise to prominence stood the patronage of Alexius Thurzo, one of the most influential royal dignitaries of Louis II. and Ferdinand I., to whom he dedicated most of his works including the epyllion Vita divi Pauli Primi Eremitae, a poetic adaptation of the legend about the anchorite Paul of Thebes written by Jerome more than a thousand years ago. Our paper contains a short introduction both into the life and works of the poet trying to describe his political and literary activities in the then Kingdom of Hungary in connection with other eminent humanist scholars of those times such as Rudolf Agricola Junior and Leonard Cox. Then it compares the Eck’s versified version of Paul’s life to its prosaic original briefly trying to identify the main changes which the Hieronymian work underwent. Neither the aesthetic appraisal of the poem is neglected. The heart of the paper is, however, represented by the commented translation of the aforementioned Pauline epyllion into English hexameter the purpose of which is to popularize the literary production of this humanist scholar abroad.