Sorbian literature refers to the

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

written by the

Western Slavic The West Slavic languages are a subdivision of the Slavic languages, Slavic language group. They include Polish language, Polish, Czech language, Czech, Slovak language, Slovak, Kashubian language, Kashubian, Upper Sorbian language, Upper Sorbia ...

people of

Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the a ...

called the

Sorbs Sorbs ( hsb, Serbja, dsb, Serby, german: Sorben; also known as Lusatians, Lusatian Serbs and Wends) are a indigenous West Slavic ethnic group predominantly inhabiting the parts of Lusatia located in the German states of Saxony and Branden ...

British Library Lusatian (Sorbian) Collections
/ref> in

Sorbian languages The Sorbian languages ( hsb, serbska rěč, dsb, serbska rěc) are the Upper Sorbian language and Lower Sorbian language, two closely related and partially mutually intelligible languages spoken by the Sorbs, a West Slavic ethno-cultural min ...

(

Upper Sorbian language Upper Sorbian (), occasionally referred to as "Wendish", is a minority language spoken by Sorbs in Germany in the historical province of Upper Lusatia, which is today part of Saxony. It is grouped in the West Slavic language branch, together ...

and

Lower Sorbian language Lower Sorbian () is a West Slavic minority language spoken in eastern Germany in the historical province of Lower Lusatia, today part of Brandenburg. Standard Lower Sorbian is one of the two literary Sorbian languages, the other being the mo ...

). Sorbian literature began with the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

and the translations of religious texts. The first translation of the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

was made in 1549 by M. Jakubica and the first printed book in 1574 was Albin Moller's Zpevnik a Katechism (

hymnal A hymnal or hymnary is a collection of hymns, usually in the form of a book, called a hymnbook (or hymn book). Hymnals are used in congregational singing. A hymnal may contain only hymn texts (normal for most hymnals for most centuries of Chr ...

and catechism). See also

Bible translations into Sorbian Lower Sorbian The oldest Sorbian languages, Sorbian Bible version, that of the New Testament of 1547, is extant in a manuscript in the Royal Library at Berlin. The translator was Miklawš Jakubica, who employed a now-extinct dialect of Lower Sorbian ...

. The

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

houses many copies of early Sorbian literature, the earliest being a copy of the

Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...

dating from 1603. Sorbian is also noted in one of the first multilingual dictionaries: Megiser's Thesaurus Polyglottus, published in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

in 1603. Around twenty books were available by 1700, mostly about religion. Little from that early period has survived. Jurij Brězan published books both in Upper Sorbian and German and Jurij Koch in Lower Sorbian and German.

Sorbian Poetry

Sorbian

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

flourished in the late 1800s with one of the most notable poets being

Handrij Zejler Handrij Zejler (1 February 1804 – 15 October 1872; official German name ''Andreas Seiler'') was a Sorbian writer, Lutheran pastor, and national activist. He co-founded the Lusatian cultural and scientific society '' Maćica Serbska''. Zejler ...

, who published between 1883 and 1891.

Sorbian Journals

The longest running of various Sorbian journals is called the Casopis Macicy Serbskeje, published between 1848 and 1918.

List of writers

* List of Sorbian-language writers * List of Sorbian-language poets

References

{{Reflist European literature West Slavic history