Hieronim Malecki
File:Postylla1-Pol.6.III.79.jpg's postil by "Hieronim Malecki, parson of Lyck (now Ełk)".]]
Hieronim Malecki (also Hieronymus Maeletius or Meletius) (1527, most likely in Kraków – 1583 or 1584 in Lyck, Ducal Prussia (now Ełk) was a Polish, Prussian Lutheran pastor and theologian, as well as a translator, publisher, writer{{cite web|url=http://www.spxvi.edu.pl/spxvi/korpus.php?menu=4&id=72 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121228083117/http://www.spxvi.edu.pl/spxvi/korpus.php?menu=4&id=72 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-12-28 |title=Hieronim Malecki |publisher=Instytut Badan Literackich Polskiej Akademi Nauk |work=Slownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku }} and creator of literary Polish.
Hieronim Malecki was the son of Johannes Maletius (Jan Malecki) (sometimes referred to as "Jan Sandecki" or "Jan Sandecki-Malecki"), who was a printer of Polish language Lutheran religious literature in Königsberg in Ducal Prussia, then a fief of Kingdom of Poland. Hieronim studied in Kraków at the Jagiellonian University and then at the University of Königsberg.
He worked as a teacher at a Polish school in Lyck and as a translator for the starosta of Lyck. In 1563 he was hired as the resident translator of Polish in the printing house of Hans Daubmann in Königsberg Królewiec. Malecki's translations include Martin Luther's "House Postil" (Postylla domowa, to yest: Kazania na Ewangelie niedzielne y przednieysze święta, 1574, Królewiec), as well as Luther's Small Catechism (Catechismus maly: dla pospolitych plebanow y kaźnodzieiow, 1615, Królewiec){{cite book | title=Catechismus maly: dla pospolitych plebanow y kaźnodzieiow | publisher=Hans Daubmann | author=Luther, Martin | year=1615 | location=Krolewiec}} He also published works by his father, Jan, including Libellus de sacrificiis et idolatria Borussorum, Livonum... ("Treatise on the sacrifices and idolatry in Prussia and Livonia", 1563, Królewiec), originally a letter to the rector of University of Königsberg, Georg Sabinus, which Hieronim also published in a German-language version.{{cite journal | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p00-AAAAYAAJ&q=Libellus+de+sacrificiis+et+idolatria+Borussorum+Malecki | title=Die Lycker Erzpriester Johannes und Hieronymus Maletius | author=Sembrzycki, J. | journal=Ateneum | year=1890 | volume=2 | pages=176–178}}
In his translations into Polish, Hieronim, following his father, relied heavily on Czech, and even argued that Czech and Polish were a single language.{{cite book | title=Selected Writings: Early Slavic Paths and Crossroads, Volume 6 | publisher=Walter de Gruyter | author=Jakobson, Robert | year=1985 | pages=51 | isbn=3110106051}} This practice had origins in an argument between Hieronim's father and another Polish translator in Królewiec, Jan Seklucjan.{{cite book | title=Polish Sacred Philology in the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation: Chapters in the History of the Controversies (1551-1632) | publisher=University of California Press | author=Frick, David | year=1989 | pages=13 | isbn=0520097408}}
According to some historians,{{cite journal |url=https://etalpykla.lituanistikadb.lt/object/LT-LDB-0001:J.04~2018~1556116444562/J.04~2018~1556116444562.pdf |title=Sūduvių knygelė – vakarų baltų religijos ir kultūros šaltinis. I dalis: formalioji analizė |first=Rolandas |last=Kregždys |journal=Lituanistica |year=2009 |volume=3–4 |issue=79–80 |pages=179–187 |issn=0235-716X |language=lt }} Malecki may have been the author or co-author of the Sudovian Book.