Синайский глаголический псалтырь Димитрия

Author(s): Heinz Miklas / Language(s): Russian,Old Bulgarian Issue: 49-50/2014

The article reviews the latest results from the analysis of the Old Church Slavonic Glagolitic Psalter Sin. slav. 3/N, which was discovered in 1975 at St. Catherine’s Monastery and named after its prominent user and, possibly, last private owner, Demetrius of Sinai. Attached to the article is the text of the manuscript’s first page, containing the beginning of the prayer-cycle and an intertwined Graeco-Latino-Glagolitic abecedarium that was added by Demetrius on empty folia after the Psalter’s completion. On the basis of this and similar additions to other Sinaitic Glagolitic manuscripts, we can hypothesize that their author was a monk-priest (Glagolash) from the Western Balkans, who migrated to Sinai in an attempt to preserve and defend the Cyrillo-Methodian tradition.

Общите пасажи между колекцията Златоструй и Княжеския изборник

Author(s): Yavor Miltenov / Language(s): Bulgarian,Old Bulgarian Issue: 49-50/2014

Zlatostruy and the so-called Kniazhiy (or Kniazheskiy) Izbornik (the Princely Florilegium) are among the most interesting and important Old Bulgarian anthologies. The former is a collection of more than 120 Chrysostomian homilies that served as a source for miscellanies of stable content (known as “redactions of Zlatostruy”) and strongly influenced the Lenten homiliaries and other early florilegia. The latter is a compilation from compilations, as William Veder defined it, which means a selection from various previously made and subsequently revised Slavonic translations from Greek. Both Zlatostruy and the Knyazhiy Izbornik have much in common: time and place of origin, a connection with the Bulgarian royal court during its early history, similarities in terms of structure and source adaptation. Last, but not least there are direct textual correspondences between them. The article compares the common passages. This analysis leads to the conclusion that the collections under consideration do not depend on one another, but transmit a larger proto-collection containing translations, excerpts and gnomai.

Византийското пространно житие за св. Петка Епиватска (BHG3 1420z) като извор за химнотворчеството за светицата

Author(s): Evelina Mineva / Language(s): Greek, Ancient (to 1453),Bulgarian,Old Bulgarian Issue: 51/2015

By comparing the text of the Byzantine vita of St. Paraskeva of Epivates (BHG3 1420z) and the canon from the oldest Slavonic office for the saint from the 13th c., this article establishes that the canon in question (whose Byzantine original has not been found) was composed on the model of the hagiographic text. The episodes from the saint’s life are introduced almost in the same sequence as in the Vita and sometimes even use similar phrases. Such correspondences suggest that the canon is a translation from Byzantine Greek, and that the Byzantine vita here analyzed was probably the one brought and translated into Slavonic together with the encomium and the hymns for St. Paraskeva at the time of the transfer of her relics from Kallikrateia to the Bulgarian capital Tarnovo in the second quarter of 13th c. The Slavonic translation of the Vita was probably the basis for the composition of the oldest Slavonic canon. Unlike the oldest Slavonic canon, the extant Byzantine canon, written most likely in the 14th c., and its Slavonic translation both omit important hagiographic episodes and differ from the Vita in some details. These differences indicate either that, in the meantime, the vita had been shortened and revised or that it had lost its popularity after the 13th c. This assumption is confirmed by the fact that the early Byzantine hagiographic text has a very limited manuscript tradition: it is documented only in two fourteenth-century codices and its Slavonic translation has not yet been discovered.

Старозаветни ексцерпти с юридическа функция: текстова история и културен код

Author(s): Mariyana Tsibranska-Kostova / Language(s): Greek, Ancient (to 1453),Bulgarian,Old Bulgarian Issue: 51/2015

The article aims to trace how the Old Testament compilation known in the Byzantine juridical literature as Νόμος Μοσαϊκός (Nomos Mosaïcos), or Moses’ Law (Laws), functions in the Slavonic translation, through what manuscript sources it was disseminated, and how it differs from other Slavonic translations of Old Testament books made for liturgical or non-liturgical (individual reading) purposes. The analysis is focused on the earliest known copy of this compilation from the Ilovik Kormchaia of 1262, which reproduces St. Sava’s Zakonopravilo (Legal Code) and is known as the South-Slavonic Kormchaia with commentary. In this fundamental compendium for all Balkan Slavs, Nomos Mosaïcos appears as Chapter 48, in the portion of the manuscript written by the copyist priest Bogdan, on leaves 249б–255а. Comparison of the Slavonic text to approximately 40 Byzantine copies from the 11th through the 16th centuries reveals two main typological peculiarities. First, the translation and text history of Nomos Mosaïcos exhibit in Slavic milieu an independence similar to that of other, secular, Byzantine legal texts (e. g., the Ecloga, Procheiros nomos, Nomos Georgikos). Second, it was copied mostly within the Kormchaia, which became for the Slavs the natural context for reproducing Old Testament normative legal texts. Its presence in the Kormchaia culturally codes not only the prestige of Old Testament law as eternal model and norm and the influence of the Greek prototype upon the Slavonic translator(s) (the closest Byzantine counterpart is Vat.gr.1167), but also the need to establish a legal basis for the new Serbian Archbishopric of 1219-1220. On the other hand, the fact that a copy of Nomos Mosaïcos appears in the Ilovik Kormchaia allows us to explore the tradition of Slavonic Old Testament excerpts back to the 13th c,, almost a century prior to the date of the first extant Slavonic translation of the Pentateuch.

Нови данни за Поучението за спасението на душата, приписвано на Черноризец Петър

Author(s): Yavor Miltenov / Language(s): Bulgarian,Old Bulgarian Issue: 51/2015

The Sermon On the Salvation Of the Soul, attributed to the 10th c. Bulgarian writer Peter the Monk (Peter chernorizets) is poorly attested in the Slavonic manuscript tradition. It is evidenced in only two Russian miscellanies dating from 14th and 16th c., respectively. This paper identifies a witness of a second branch in the tradition of the text, under № 54 in the longer redaction of the Chrysorrhoas (Zlatostrui) collection. Analysis shows that a number of innovations were introduced in this version. It features a new title, an introduction and conclusion, segmentation into three parts, abridgement, and various editorial interventions. Even though this branch is independent from the first one, it could still contribute to the reconstruction of the archetype, especially since the text variant featured in the Slavic Synaxarion (Prolog) clearly derives from it.The study also reveals a Byzantine source for a passage in the Sermon On the Salvation Of the Soul, identifies other passages that might have Greek counterparts, and offers some lexical observations on the Slavonic text. Both versions of the Slavonic text are published side by side in the appendix.

Преводи и книжни контексти. Деяние на св. Никола (Praxis de stratilatis) и южнославянските календарни сборници

Author(s): Diana Atanasova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 52/2015

Praxis de stratilatis is a story about a miracle of St. Nicholas who rescued three generals from death. The text was translated not once but twice at the dawn of Old Bulgarian literature. My research aims to explore the earliest translation of Praxis de stratilatis produced in a South Slavic milieu. The main objective of the study is to identify the Greek prototype of the Slavonic version and to trace the textual tradition of this account in the South Slavic context. The study is based upon the hypothesis that the two translations were affected by the introduction of specific types of calendar collections. In this respect, the earliest translation of Praxis de stratilatis was introduced into the repertoire with the emergence of a collection known in the Byzantine tradition as panegyrikomartyrology – an assemblage of texts that pertain to both the movable and immovable Orthodox feasts. Witnesses of the earliest translation of Praxis de stratilatis date from the 14th through the 17th centuries. Despite the large temporal scope, however, individual manuscripts do not show significant differences or other traces of deliberate editing or interventions. This gives us reason to believe that the Slavic version of the collection panegyrikomartyrology was not reproduced as a whole, which would account for the fact that the texts, although they were copied in the later manuscript tradition, remained relatively unchanged.

Житие на св. имп. Теофана от дякон Николай: издание на среднобългарския превод

Author(s): Maya Petrova-Taneva / Language(s): Bulgarian,Old Slavonic,Old Bulgarian Issue: 53-54/2016

The article presents the full text of the Life of St Theophano the Empress, the first wife of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI the Wise (866‒912), attributed to an otherwise unknown author called “Nicholas, Deacon of the Great Church of St. Lazaros, Bishop of Drynopolis” in the title of the text. The Greek original of this Life is unknown. This text is now preserved in a few Bulgarian, Serbian and Moldovian manuscripts, dating from the end of the 14th to the beginning of the 16th centuries. Its Slavonic translation has been made during the Middle-Bulgarian period, most probably in Tărnovo, as a result of the dissemination St Theophano’s cult after the transfer of some of her relics to the Bulgarian capital. The full text of the Life of St Theophano the Empress is published according to its copy preserved in the Zagreb miscellany from 1469 written and compiled by Vladislav the Grammarian. Variant readings are given according to the four other existing MSS witnessing the same translation.

Словo о местах святых в Иерусалиме: значение и функция паломнической литературы в Бдинском сборнике

Author(s): Marcello Garzaniti / Language(s): Russian Issue: 53-54/2016

Discourse on the Holy Sites in Jerusalem is the first pilgrim account of Bulgarian origin and constitutes the most important evidence of the pilgrim ideal and practices in the context of the Bulgarian Kingdom during the second half of 14th century. The narrative generally follows Greek and Slavonic models of short pilgrim accounts, mentioning only the most notable sites and events related to the Holy Land. The text is well integrated into the structure of the Bdin Miscellany (1359) and appears to be the answer of the new Bulgarian capital Vidin to the strong pilgrim tradition that had been focused on the Turnovo cult of St. Paraskeva.

Охридский архиепископ Иоанн Каматир как вероятный автор славянской службы Михаилу Воину из Потуки

Author(s): Sergey Yurievich Temchin / Language(s): Russian Issue: 55-56/2017

In a previous publication, the author demonstrated that the Slavonic liturgical Office for St. Michael of Potuka is a translation from а lost Greek original: reverse translation of the canon’s incipits into Greek allowed him to reconstruct, with a relative certainty, a fragment from the original Greek acrostic which contained the saint’s name ΜΙΧΑΗΛ. Using the same method in this publication, he reconstructs another fragment of the Greek acrostic, which, in the last two odes of the Canon, features the Greek name IΩΑΝΝΗΣ—apparently, the author’s name. This person may tentatively be identified as the archbishop of Ohrid John Kamateros (after 1183–1215).

Словото за Въведение Богородично от Теофилакт Български и неговият славянски превод

Author(s): Iskra Hristova Shomova / Language(s): Bulgarian,Old Slavonic,Old Bulgarian Issue: 55-56/2017

The first part of the article discusses the content and stylistic features of the Sermon. It is strictly catechetic and contains no epideictic rhetorical turns. Its central theme is the journey of humankind toward the temple and the role of the Christian temple in a human life. The article’s second part focuses on the Slavonic translation of the Sermon. Its earliest extant copy is found in MS no. 107 from the Zograph monastery on Mount Athos and dates from the last quarter of the 14th century. The Slavic translator demonstrates excellent linguistic competence and a good stylistic sense. He uses some rare lexemes registrated also in liturgical books that had been revised in the 14th century in accord with the Jerusalem Typicon. The vocabulary of the Sermon’s Slavonic translation is thus representative of texts written in the 14th century in Bulgaria and the Balkans. The article includes a publication of the Slavonic text according to Zograph 107, with a parallel edition of its Greek original.

Vis et Sapientia: Studia in honorem Anisavae Miltenova. Нови извори, интерпретации и подходи в медиевистиката. София: Издателски център „Боян Пенев“, Институт за литература – БАН, 2016. 800 с. ISBN 978-619-7372-00-7 .

Author(s): Mariyana Tsibranska-Kostova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 55-56/2017

Ана Стойкова. Свети Георги Победоносец. Агиографски произведения в южнославянската средновековна традиция. София: Изток‒Запад, 2016. 724 с. ISBN 978-619-152-903-2

Author(s): Klimentina Ivanova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 55-56/2017

Публикации по старобългарска литература и култура, излезли в България през 2016 г.

Author(s): / Language(s): English,Bulgarian,Russian Issue: 55-56/2017

Папското освещаване на славянските книги през 868 г.: факти и хипотези

Author(s): Krassimir Stantchev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 57-58/2018

This article analyzes the available evidence about Pope Adrian II’s consecration of Slavic books in 868, which in effect consecrated the Glagolitic alphabet created by Constantine-Cyril. The evidence, found in the Slavonic Lives of St. Cyril (VC) and St. Methodius (VM), is absent from both the Latin Italian legend and the few other extant documentary sources from that period. The author argues that the description of the event in VC, with its rich topographic and prosopographical details, must have been written by a well-informed eyewitness, and should therefore be considered more credible. By contrast, the narrative in VM features prosopographical inaccuracies, abbreviations, contaminations, and creative additions, whose role most probably was to protect Methodius from possible charges. Specifically, the author supports the view that the Epistle of Adrian II in VM is not a paraphrase of an actual document, but a compositional element devised by the hagiographer. In the final analysis, while the exact nature of the papal blessing remains unclear, it is beyond doubt that, without this event—and the better documented papal elevation of Methodius to the rank of Moravian (arch)bishop—the further history of the Slavonic alphabet would have followed a very different trajectory.

Папският благослов на славянските книги като полемичен аргумент

Author(s): Aleksander Naumow / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 57-58/2018

Based on extant texts, this article analyzes the attitudes of the pontiffs of Rome toward the introduction of the Slavonic language into Christian worship, beginning with the blessing of the liturgical books that SS Cyril and Methodius brought to Rome. The decision of Adrian II and John VIII to allow the use of the new barbarian language was gradually cancelled out or reduced to a marginal phenomenon (Dalmacia, Prague, Olesnitsa, Cracow). After the Union of Brest (1596), however, it became a tool of Catholic proselytism with respect to the Orthodox Slavs. According to the ideology of Paposlavism, this blessing sanctified Slavonic writing and culture and introduced Bulgaria and Kievan Rus’ into the sphere of Western Christianity, a gesture not unlike the anointing of the newly baptized in the Eastern rite. Significantly, in this view, submission to the Pope was the only criterion for belonging to the Church and the right faith. In the East, by contrast, the Slavonic alphabet and writing were considered a gift from God that, by the will of the Emperor and the Synod, found its application in missionary work. The Papal blessing did not concern the essence of the gift of the Word, but was only an administrative decision of the ruling hierarch, which affected only local practice. The discussion about the place and role of SS Cyril and Methodius in the history of cultural, ecclesiastic and political relations between Slavs and Greeks, Slavs and “Romans,” as well as among the different Slavic peoples, has not lost its relevance today, as it provides scholars with a wide range of more or less familiar arguments and facts.

„Славянские книги“ и папское благословение: о чем рассказывают (и о чем умалчивают) Пространные Жития Константина-Кирилла и Мефодия

Author(s): Cristiano Diddi / Language(s): Russian Issue: 57-58/2018

The article takes as a starting point the account about the “Slavic books” (книгы словенскыѥ –Vita Constantini 17:5) brought to Rome by the Slavic apostles Cyrill and Methodius, and their blessing by Pope Adrian II. By “Slavic books,” scholars usually mean loosely defined “liturgical books” that could reasonably be identified with the Slavonic Gospel (словѣньское евангелиѥ) mentioned in Vita Methodii 6:1. The liturgical books referred to in VC, however, still remain undefined, as it remains unclear who completed their translations, when and where. In an attempt to answer these questions, the author considers some passages from the Lives of the Slavic apostles with explicit references to “books,” and “letters.”Careful reexamination of the vitas’ entire manuscript tradition cannot support the assumption that, after his arrival in Moravia, Constantine continued to engage in translation activities. Taking up a proposal advanced in the past by other scholars, the article assumes that, instead of translating some undefined “liturgical texts” (VC 15:2 вьсь црк҃овныи чинь прѣложь/прїимь), Constantine “transferred”, “transcribed”, and “fixed” in Slavic letters texts that had already been translated (by the way, different passages of VC mention Constantine’s dispute with the Latin and Franco-Germanic clergy that related not so much to the translation of books as to the Slavic letters – see VC 15 and 16). For a more precise identification of these translations, the article briefly reexamines the literature produced by Irish and Frankish missionaries in the dioceses of Salzburg, Regensburg, Freising, Passau during the 7th and 8th centuries, as well as translations made by the Frankish clergy in the 9th century. The interpretation proposed in this article fits well with the Pope’s willingness to bless books written in Slavonic, since the practice of translating [essential Christian] texts into local languages served a well-established and long-standing missionary program, one that aimed far beyond the Slavs of Moravia. Through this politics, the papacy could regain control of territories that had previously been under the jurisdiction of Rome, yet had meanwhile fallen under the control of the Franks.In conclusion, the author challenges us to reread the Cyrillo-Methodian sources afresh, without any theoretical nor ideological bias, keeping in mind that these texts are primarily literary and ideologically inflected works, not historical sources.

Новгородски ли са Новгородските чети-минеи?

Author(s): Elka Mircheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 57-58/2018

The article examines the Slavonic translation of the complete Reading Menaia, containing readings for the entire liturgical year, and its genesis. The author contests the position of the Russian scholar D. Afinogenov on this subject, and offers the alternative hypothesis that the translation was completed during the First Bulgarian Kingdom and is associated with the Preslav cultural center.

Венета Савова. ПЕСНИ ОТ КЛИМЕНТ. Химничната прослава на св. Алексий, човек божи сред православните славяни. София: Парадигма, 2017, 392 с. ISBN 978-954-326-311-0

Author(s): Mariya Yovcheva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 57-58/2018

Адаптирани и преводни текстове за нуждите на обучението по български език като чужд

Author(s): Reni Manova,Katrin Kostova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2024

When talking about the role of the text in foreign language learning, an important differentiation should be made between an authentic, adapted text for educational purposes, and a completely invented text. The adapted text goes through a variety of steps such as shortening, selecting parts, simplifying, co-contextualizing (giving learners the opportunity to activate the cognitive scheme through the use of pictures, illustrations, photographs accompanying the text body), creating a phrasebook. An essential element of foreign language training is working with texts for translation. Translation is not just transferring words and sentences from one language to another. Transmission is from one culture to another. Culture is very clearly manifested in the linguistic picture of the world. Translation aims to achieve effective intercultural communication. The article describes practical observations from the work with adapted and translated texts during the Bulgarian language classes for foreign students from the Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”.

Border Crossing and Exile in Vesna Goldsworthy’s 𝐼𝑟𝑜𝑛 𝐶𝑢𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛 (2022)

Author(s): Sava Stamenković / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2023

The novel 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐼𝑟𝑜𝑛 𝐶𝑢𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛: A Love Story by the British and Serbian writer Vesna Goldsworthy is set in London and in the capital of an unnamed state-socialist country behind the Iron Curtain. It follows the fate of young Milena Urbanska, a privileged “red princess” but also a victim of the communist regime, both in exile and on her return to her homeland. The protagonist leaves her homeland in pursuit of freedom and love, but her return becomes an act of vengeance, casting her in the role of a latter-day Medea. This article focuses on the themes of border crossing and exile, which are central to this exophonic novel.