God, Angel, Christ

Variations on Psalm 8.

Abstract

Imre Újfalvi, editor of the 1602 Calvinist hymn book, published Miklós Bogáti Fazakas’s Psalm 8., although the preface to the hymn book suggests that Újfalvi was not aware of Bogáti’s Psalterium. Presumably, the source of the text is a sixteenth-century Unitarian hymn book that is no longer extant, and in my paper I supply new arguments for this opinion.
Based on the textual variants of Bogáti’s Psalm 8., there was a common original source on which both the Calvinist hymn book and the Unitarian editions relied. Furthermore, Újfalvi even omits a part of the Psalm which had been the subject of fervent theological debates for a long time. Based on contemporary works on theology and translations, it seems that Újfalvi had every reason to omit the part in question, as it does not conform to the theological views of his denomination. This is another argument for the supposition that the original source is a Unitarian text.
My results not only contribute to the philology of Bogáti, but also shed new light on Újfalvi’s editorial practices.