TA 6/2007 (112. vuosikerta)

Prospects in Agricola Studies — It is the 450th anniversary of the death of Mikael Agricola, the primus motor of the Reformation in Finland. In this year, a dozen monographs and many more articles have been added to the body of research on him and his work. There can scarcely be more to be discovered concerning Agricola’s biography, but on the other hand there is still no comprehensive exposition of his usage of the Finnish language. The sources of his Prayer Book also need further study, as does his Finnish translation of the Bible, particularly that of the Old Testament. A study of all surviving works by Agricola is being prepared, as is a critical edition of the Visby Maritime Law which he translated from Low German into Swedish.

From Priestly Privilege to Popular Book: Form and Function of Basic Religious Literature in Finland — This article discusses the relationship of the shape and form of books to their use in an era when printed basic religious literature in Finland was still only just emerging. The discussion focuses on missals, catechisms, hymnals and the Bible. What exactly is a popular book, and how does a book become a popular book?

The Vocabulary of Mikael Agricola from a Linguist’s Point of View — The written works of Agricola are almost without exception translations of religious works. In the preface to his New Testament, he explains that he has given precedence to the dialects of southwest Finland, the region around Turku, the spiritual and administrative epicentre of the land. However, he drew on the expressive potential of other dialects as necessary. Because of their narrow scope, Agricola’s works do not give a reliable overall impression of the vocabulary of Finnish in the 16th century. The texts contain numerous loanwords and neologisms which Agricola obviously coined on the fly to meet a particular need in translation. On the other hand, there is a singular lack of vocabulary related to everyday life, and loanwords which are common today but which were not introduced into modern Finnish until after the 16th century are of course also missing.

”Burgher, relation, kinsman, subject”: A Conceptual History of the (Pre)political Concepts of Mikael Agricola — The article discusses how Mikael Agricola translated into Finnish in his New Testament (1548) certain political concepts which are of prime importance today, such as ”citizen” (Swedish ”medborgare”, Finnish ”kansalainen”) or ”citizenship”, and also explores how he made use in his writings of the new political concepts which he adopted or created. The point here is to seek the historical roots of these concepts in early literary Finnish through conceptual history. The article aims to demonstrate that although Agricola did not have a monolithic concept for the notion of ”citizenship”, its fundamental features can nevertheless be identified in his writings. His concepts ”burgher” (”borgare”, ”porvari”), ”relation/kinsman” (”släktning”, ”sukulainen” or ”heimolainen”) and ”subject” (”undersåte”, ”alamainen”) are different aspects of the concept of ”citizenship”; ”subject” focuses on civic responsibilities and ”burgher” on civic rights, and ”kinsman” can be seen to embody a notion of solidarity which is very much a feature of modern or even post-modern citizenship.

The Roots of Agricola’s Prayer Book — Rucouskiria Bibliasta (Prayer Book from the Bible, 1544) by Mikael Agricola is unique among Reformation prayer books in its scope and diversity. It contains nearly 700 prayers, translated into Finnish by Agricola from Mediaeval sources and from devotional books published in the 1520s and 1530s; 73% of the liturgical and casuist prayers are derived from the five principal sources used by Agricola. An emphasis on tradition is evident in the collection, which was prepared with the needs of the Diocese of Turku in mind. Excluding the Biblical prayers, nearly two thirds of the content is from Mediaeval and Catholic sources; on the other hand, several significant evangelical prayer books were not used by Agricola.

The Liturgical Heritage of Mikael Agricola — The literary output of Mikael Agricola is exclusively linked to services of the Church: the mass, the offices and ecclesiastical ceremonies. Agricola grew up with the Catholic liturgical practices of the Diocese of Turku, but he adapted their theological content and procedures to conform to the precepts of the Reformation while also translating them into the vernacular, i.e. Finnish. Agricola was not alone in this task; he had the work of earlier German, Swedish and Finnish reformers to draw upon. However, he did preserve the old traditions of the Diocese in several respects. His liturgical output has continued to exert an influence on the mass, other church services and ecclesiastical ceremonies in Finland up to the beginning of this millennium.