Vizsoly Bible

Gáspár Károli, Calvinist pastor in the town of Gönc, began working on the translation in 1586 and finished it three years later.

Mantskovit was of Polish origin, and in a note he asks the reader to overlook the errors he possibly left in the text.

[5] On March 3, 1589 Archduke Ernest and the royal secretary Faustus Verantius accused Manstkovit of printing calendars and other forbidden books, and asked for the press to be confiscated.

[6] On March 26, Sigismund Rákóczi, the future Prince of Transylvania, to whose estate Vizsoly belonged, denied the accusations and asked to be allowed to finish the printing of the Bible.

Károli names his sources in the foreword: the Vulgata, the Septuaginta, translations and commentaries by Franciscus Vatablus, Sebastian Münster, Santes Pagninus and Immanuel Tremellius; he also used the Hebrew and Greek texts.

Károli also included short summaries and commentaries before each chapter, explaining some of the verses with parallels to situations that were well known in the period.

Károli was aware that the translation was not without errors, as he wrote in the foreword:[7] I don't doubt that this work of ours, after it becomes known among people, will be envied and slandered.

[8] Twenty of the fifty-one surviving copies are in Hungary, fourteen are in Romania (Transylvania), thirteen in Slovakia, two in the Czech Republic, one in Austria and one in Denmark.