1720ko Imitazionearen iturriak: lehen hurbilketa

Abstract

Jesus-Christoren Imitacionea. M. Chourio Donibaneco Erretorac escararat itçulia [The imitation of Jesus Christ, written and translated into Basque by M. Chourio], was published in Bayonne in 1720. 303 years later, this splendid work of classical Lapurdian remains neither unstudied nor critically edited.

Upon undertaking this research, our aim was to ascertain as to whether Michel Chourio’s sister translated the fourth book of the Imitatio Christi, as was traditionally thought. It was, however, impossible to answer this question without knowing the source of the translation. Therefore the aim of this work is to gather information about any editions and/or any translation of the original text that may have been available at the time and place and discover which of them were used in order to do the 1720 translation.

The study was carried out using two brief samples which allowed us to confidently say that the 1720 translation was done, by means of a French edition of the original Latin, most probably one from the seventeenth century, and the priest Arambillaga’s  Basque translation (1684). The comparison also allowed us to highlight certain translation techniques utilized by Xurio (or the Xurios). Nonetheless, we were unable to dismiss the possibility that they also used Lemaistre’s French translation. In doing so, we also identified this French translation as being the direct source for Arambillaga’s work.