Letters of George Borrow to the British and Foreign Bible SocietyBorrow, George
Religion
Letters of George Borrow to the British and Foreign Bible Society
Borrow, George
Authors, English -- 19th century -- Correspondence; British and Foreign Bible Society; English letters
I subsequently published the Gospel of Saint Luke in the Rommany and
Biscayan languages. With respect to the first, I beg leave to observe
that no work printed in Spain ever caused so great and so general a
sensation, not so much amongst the Gypsies, that peculiar people, for
whom it was intended, as amongst the Spaniards themselves, who, though
they look upon the Roma with some degree of contempt as a low and
thievish race of outcasts, nevertheless take a strange interest in all
that concerns them, it having been from time immemorial their practice,
more especially of the dissolute young nobility, to cultivate the
acquaintance of the Gitanos as they are popularly called, probably
attracted by the wild wit of the latter and the lascivious dances of the
females. The apparition therefore of the Gospel of Saint Luke at Madrid
in the peculiar jargon of these people was hailed as a strange novelty
and almost as a wonder, and I believe was particularly instrumental in
bruiting the name of the Bible Society far and wide through Spain, and in
creating a feeling far from inimical towards it and its proceedings. I
will here take the liberty to relate an anecdote illustrative of the
estimation in which this little work was held at Madrid. The Committee
are already aware that a seizure was made of many copies of Saint Luke in
the Rommany and Biscayan languages, in the establishment at which they
were exposed for sale, which copies were deposited in the office of the
Civil Governor. Shortly before my departure a royal edict was published,
authorising all the public libraries to provide themselves with copies of
the said works on account of their philological merit; whereupon, on
application being made to the office, it was discovered that the copies
of the Gospel in Basque were safe and forthcoming, whilst every one of
the sequestered copies of the Gitano Gospel had been plundered by hands
unknown. The consequence was that I was myself applied to by then agents
of the public libraries of Valencia and other places, who paid me the
price of the copies which they received, assuring me at the same time
that they were authorised to purchase them at whatever price which might
be demanded.
Respecting the Gospel in Basque I have less to say. It was originally
translated into the dialect of Guipuscoa by Dr. Oteiza, and subsequently
received corrections and alterations from myself. It can scarcely be
said to have been published, it having been prohibited and copies of it
seized on the second day of its appearance. But it is in my power to
state that it is anxiously expected in the Basque provinces, where books
in the aboriginal tongue are both scarce and dear, and that several
applications have been made at San Sebastian and in other towns where
Basque is the predominating language.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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