ЕПИГРАФСКИ ДИАЛОЗИ - 2. НАДПИСИТЕ ОТ ЧЕРНОГЛАВСКИЯ МАНАСТИР И АРХИВЪТ НА ТОДОР БАЛАБАНОВ
EPIGRAPHIC DIALOGUES – 2. THE INSCRIPTIONS FROM THE MONASTERY OF CHERNOGLAVTSI AND TODOR BALABANOV’S ARCHIVE

Summary/Abstract: The new reading of the so-called Glagolitic cryptogram allows the identification of the initial verse from the Second Epistle to the Corinthians: “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God”. Deciphering such as this is an important testimony of the reverence for the great apostle of Christ in the Old Bulgarian culture. This understanding is in accordance with other documents which rely on the authority of the apostle Paul in the interpretation of the good news as light of the apostle. Such documents are the extensive hagiographies and hagiographic prologues of Saints Cyril and Methodius, St Constantine’s Prologue to the Gospels and the Vita of Clement. The analysis of the Inscription with the name of St Castor (954/5) allowed to draw the general conclusion that this is a preceptive administrative text and precisely due to its ecclesiastic and disciplinary nature it was put in a prominent place. The positioning of the inscription attests the determination of the monastery’s administration (the abbot) to execute the sanction (expulsion from the cloister) due to drunkenness. The palimpsest letters in this inscription and the newly deciphered bilingual inscription in 4 rows (from fragment II and III) attest to the possible artistic work of one of the monks – Nicola who painted the icon Deisis during Christmas.

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