Wojciech Kordyzon

Dialogue and Controversy in «Tragedy on Mass» (1560) by Bernardino Ochino: Study and Text Edition provides a complex critical edition of Trajedyja o Mszej [Tragedy on Mass] by Bernardino Ochino. This anti-Roman literary dialogue propagating the Protestant perspective on the Eucharist and related ceremonies was anonymously translated into Polish, printed in 1560 in the printing shop run by Daniel of Łęczyca in Pińczów and financed by Francesco Lismanini, who acted as one of the leaders of the Reformed congregation in Lesser Poland. Part I of the book comprises the monographic study of the text and discusses its diverse historical aspects, literary patterns, contexts, and reasons for its publication. Chapter 1 introduces the biography of the author, provides literature review and an outline of the Tragedy’s plot. Chapter 2 lays out select information on the Reformation Eucharistic controversies in the early modern era and serves as an essential background for the main problems posed by Ochino’s work. In Chapter 3, the production of the Polish translation is discussed, exhibiting the differences between the Polish and Italian versions of the text, as well as presenting hypotheses on the main innovations introduced either by the anonymous Polish translator or the original manuscripts sent to Poland. The Polish edition is, in fact, the editio princeps of the text as corresponding Italian and Latin versions were not published until 1561. Chapter 4 analyses the circumstances of the text’s publication in 1560. It includes a depiction of the current state of the Reformed congregation in Pińczów and presents elements of its publishing programme, part of which was Ochino’s work, while also discussing educational and persuasive goals set by this circle to inform about and convince to their religious agenda. Chapter 5 comparatively discusses the literary aspects of the text, which was designed as a dialogue. Other dialogues that were published in Poland or by Polish authors are introduced and cover the thematic scope of Ochino’s work. This chapter analyses how the authors, who had been exploring problems similar to Ochino’s, chose to shape their works in terms of genre to construct their fictional debates and meet their persuasive goals. In Chapter 6, the context of the Reformation Apocalypse exegesis is employed to examine how Ochino and other Protestant authors combined the quasi-tragical structure (applied by the type of Protestant writings referred to as the tragoedia sacra) of the polemical texts with the expression of millennialist views. Chapter 7 deals with the question of literary sources (both Latin and vernacular) for the construction of the allegorical figures used in the Tragedy and consequently identifies three main areas as relevant contexts: German and Swiss Reformation literature from the beginning of the 16th century (by Pamphilus Gengenbach, Hans von Rüte, Niklaus Manuel, Johannes Atrocianus), the writings of the Italian diaspora in the mid-16th century (by Francesco Negri, Celio Secondo Curione) and English Protestant pamphlets of circa 1530–1550 (particularly those of William Turner and William Punt). Chapter 8 summarises the main arguments and examines perspectives for further studies. Part II provides the annotated critical edition of the Polish text. It comprises a detailed description of the transcription guidelines designed to transcribe the text, reflecting the specificity of the preserved early printed text witnesses; the critical apparatus; the transcribed text of the Tragedy; and a commentary, including linguistic, factual and contextual annotations. The edition is supplied with an index of early Middle-Polish vocabulary as well as an index of biblical references. The supplement additionally contains the edition of the fragmentally preserved Polish translation of Ochino’s Tragedy of the Papal Supremacy (1558).