Jürgen Fuchsbauer

This article presents the first steps in the implementation of REGEST, a collaborative digital reference tool designed for the systematic documentation and semantic annotation of medieval Slavonic translations from Byzantine Greek. Developed at the University of Innsbruck as part of its joint project with KU Leuven – The Slavonic Metaphrasis of Byzantine Orthodoxy (2024–2028) – REGEST provides a structured approach to cataloguing Byzantine-Slavonic texts. Utilising Semantic MediaWiki, this open-access platform captures the dynamic relationships among medieval authors, source texts, translations, and collections, providing efficient processing and retrieval of information while enabling continuous expert curation and update. A case study on Christopher of Mytilene’s hagiographic epigrams illustrates the tool’s capacity for tracing textual transmission and transformation – from the composition of these poems (their initial context, function and target audience) to their later integration into a version of the Synaxarion of Constantinople and, finally, to their transmission within the Slavonic Verse Prolog through two independent South-Slavonic translations. This example highlights REGEST’s potential to reveal complex textual histories and facilitate comparative analysis. By combining semantic structuring with collaborative input, REGEST opens new avenues for research on Byzantine-Slavonic literary heritage.

Written in 1095/1097 by Philippos Monotropos, the Dioptra represents a work of app. 7000 political verses consisting of five books: the Klauthmoi, a poem of contrition addressed to the soul, and four books of a dialogue between the soul and the body treating various theological and philosophical issues. The Dioptra was immensely popular throughout the Byzantine and Post-Byzantine periods. One of the reasons for this popularity was doubtlessly its language and style, which appealed mainly to a literate, though not scholarly public: a simple Schriftkoine with elements of unclassical grammar and syntax. Occasionally vernacular expressions are used as a stylistic element, while figures of speech are applied rather rarely. In the second quarter of the 14th century the work was translated into the Middle Bulgarian redaction of Church Slavonic. The abundant manuscript tradition – presently we know about 200 Bulgarian, Serbian and Russian manuscripts containing either the complete Slavonic Dioptra or parts of it – attests its enormous popularity among the Orthodox Slavs. In the present paper author examines data from orthography and phonetics and compares the language of the Greek and the Slavonic version with special regard to the translation technique.