Justus Raphelengius (1573–1628) and Turkish Folk Tales

Abstract

Justus Raphelengius, a Leiden printer and orientalist scholar, translated into Latin a sixteenth-century manuscript compilation of Turkish folk tales associated with the famous Anatolian comic figure Nasreddin Hoca. This article considers the role of Raphelengius’s translation within the framework of the manuscript circulation and print production of Nasreddin Hoca tales in Europe from the first dated manuscript to twentieth-century printed editions Raphelengius’s editorial choices for his intended publication, the style of his Latin translation, and his excision of bawdy or sacrilegious passages from the original text come under scrutiny.