Translating Reformation-era Latin works
Wenden House exemplifies New Saint Andrews College’s passion for the Reformation. Capitalizing on the college’s extraordinary language faculty and curriculum, Wenden House produces original, English translations of Reformation-era theology and literature.
Students gain an inside look of the Reformation’s theological works, and the lesser-known but equally-rich literature. Technological advances and in-flowing Reformation-era writings have created a new time in Reformation studies—alongside the now exhausted, familiar primary resources, there is a wealth of undiscovered texts.
Wenden House is one of the few programs in the nation that gives students tools to grapple with untouched and untranslated documents that contain the history of the Reformation.
This study begins with an examination of Girolamo Zanchi’s De Tribus Elohim (1572), setting this important defense of the doctrine of the Trinity in the immediate context of the recent rise of antitrinitarianism within the Reformed Palatinate.
De Tribus Elohim focused on the grammatical peculiarity of the Hebrew word Elohim (God) in order to refute the biblicism of its contemporary antitrinitarians. In doing so, Zanchi’s argument followed an exegetical thread common within the late medieval case for the doctrine of the Trinity, but which ran contrary to the exegetical sensibilities of many of Zanchi’s own Reformed colleagues.
This disagreement over the correct interpretation of the word Elohim, then became a touchstone for distinguishing between two different approaches to the Hebrew text with the Reformed Church of the late sixteenth century, and becomes a significant piece in understanding the development of Reformed exegesis.
Anna is translating Francisco de Enzinas’s Historia Vera de Morte Sancti Viri Ioannis Diazii, which translated is The True History of the Death of the Godly Man Juan Diaz of Spain.
Brian is translating Joachim Camerarius’s Querela D. Martini Lutheri Seu Somnium, which translated is The Complaint of Martin Luther or a Dream.
Dr. Joseph Tipton is the director of Wenden House
Students interested in applying for a place on the Wenden House Project should write a letter of interest to Dr. Tipton including names and contact details of two referees who can affirm the student’s language skills.
Thanks to the Davenant Institute and to the Acton Institute for their generous funding to support this project.
