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David's Psalter (Polish Psałterz Dawidów) is a translation of the Book of Psalms by Jan Kochanowski, the most prominent poet of the Polish Renaissance. It was printed in 1579 in Kraków, at the Lazarus printing house.

Kochanowski, like many of his contemporaries in Western Europe, used a Latin translation of the Book of Psalms as the basis for his translation. Being expert on the ancient Classics, he combined the Biblical spirit of the original with some artistic achievements of Greek and Latin authors.

The work of Kochanowski gained recognition from both Protestants and Catholics in Poland, and created also some echoes abroad, notably in the work of Moldavian Metropolitan Dosoftei. Some of his renderings of the psalms are still used in Poland during Catholic masses.

Notes

1. Some would translate the title as Davids' Psalter, since the original Polish "Dawidów" appears to be in the plural. The Polish-American professors of Polish literature, Michael J. Mikoś and Czesław Miłosz, however, both render the title as David's Psalter. Michael J. Mikoś, Polish Literature from the Middle Ages to the End of the Eighteenth Century, p. 285. Czesław Miłosz, The History of Polish Literature, p. 63.

References

• Michael J. Mikoś, Polish Literature from the Middle Ages to the End of the Eighteenth Century: a Bilingual Anthology, Warsaw, Constans, 1999.
• Czesław Miłosz, The History of Polish Literature, 2nd ed., Berkeley, University of California Press, 1983.

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