This collection of essays charts the influence of the Lutheran
Reformation on various (northern) European languages and texts written
in them. The central themes of Languages in the Lutheran Reformation: Textual Networks and the Spread of Ideas
are: how the ideas related to Lutheranism were adapted to the new
areas, new languages, and new contexts during the Reformation period in
the 16th and 17th centuries; and how the Reformation affected the
standardization of the languages. Networks of texts, knowledge, and
authors belong to the topics of the present volume. The contributions
look into language use, language culture, and translation activities
during the Reformation, but also in the prelude to the Reformation as
well as after it, in the early modern period. The contributors are
experts in the study of their respective languages, including Czech,
Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, High German, Icelandic, Latvian,
Lithuanian, Low German, Norwegian, Polish, and Swedish. The primary
texts explored in the essays are Bible translations, but genres other
than biblical are also discussed.