Scripta & e-Scripta vol. 7, 2009

Scripta & e-Scripta vol. 7, 2009

Unicode U+2E2F, Cyrillic Yerik (Vertical Tilde)

  • Summary/Abstract

    In the previous volume of Scripta & e-Scripta (vol. 6, 2008), the authors published a "White Paper" concerning "Early Cyrillic Writing after Unicode 5.1", which commented upon achievements in Unicode version 5.1 as well as candidates for future inclusion and variants. The White Paper was accompanied by a large table that included, among other things, representative glyphs for each character and its assigned codepoint in Unicode 5.1. Copies of both documents were distributed to participants in the XIVth International Congress of Slavists, held in Ohrid in September 2008. In the printed version, the Unicode code point for the vertical tilde, a new addition to Unicode version 5.1, was given as U+2E3A. However, as was brought to our attention later, the vertical tilde was assigned a different code point for the final published version of the Unicode standard, v. 5.1. In the standard, the correct code point for this glyph is U+2E2F (see http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2E00.pdf).


Constructing Repertorium 3.0

  • Summary/Abstract

    In this paper a mechanism for transition to a new XML model for the description of Medieval manuscripts is proposed. The acceptance of the TEI P5 model in its current form without modifications was not possible due to the long tradition in electronic cataloguing in the field of Medieval Slavic studies and due to the obvious differences between the Slavic description tradition on the one hand and the description of Latin and Greek codices on the other. The proposed model is an attempt to integrate the various views in modern cataloguing in the field of Medieval studies in one single schema and to propose a solution for a more strict and intuitive representation of records both as data base stucture and as text.


A Slavonic Translation of the Loci Selecti of St John Damascene

  • Summary/Abstract

    The paper contains research work and publication of Slavonic translation of Loci Selecti of St John Damascene (a catena on the Pauline Epistles, the compilation of which is ascribed to St John Damascene). No Slavonic version has previously been identified: that is to say, the existence of fragments of such a translation has twice been noted, but on neither occasion were they recognised for what they are (Archimandrite Amfilochij and Michael Bakker). There is a clear connection between the fragments of the Slavonic version of the Loci selecti and the Second Redaction text of the First Epistle to Timothy, and each must be studied in the context of the other. The copy in the Karakallou Apostolos No 294 is in the centre of the publication, in which the redaction of the text of the epistle is the same as that of the manuscripts cited by Ampfilochij, namely the redaction we now know as the Second or Preslav Redaction of the text. The Second Slavonic Redaction of the Apostolos is considered to have originated in Eastern Bulgaria in the tenth century, and is much better represented by lectionaries than by continuous texts. The author proves that the Second Redaction of the Slavonic Apostolos as we now know it is a composite text: I Timothy was translated separately from the rest. The paper threw new light on the history of the translation of New Testament in Old Church Slavonic.


Fixed Symbolic Frontiers and Borders of the North: Slavic Translations of Alexander Romance

  • Summary/Abstract

    L’article propose quelques observations sur les représentations des marges et des frontières symboliques dans le Roman d'Alexandre. En nous basant, d’au côté, sur deux des versions byzantines du texte, de l’autre, sur les versions sud-slaves (XIe au XIVe siècle) du Roman, nous nous focalisons sur les passages concernant les frontières et les marges du nord et du nord-est, espace auquel les Byzantins assimilaient les peuples slaves. Une attention spéciale est prêtée aux entrelacements de représentations antiques des peuples du Nord, en particulier celles fixées par Hérodote, et les figures de la frontière de l’humanité dans les versions examinées du Roman.


Oratorio for Bulgarian Analyitsm

  • Summary/Abstract

    The lack of declensional endings is the most characteristic trait of the modern Bulgarian language and its dialects. It seems exotic on the background of the remaining Slavic languages but in the large Indo-European language family the development from synthetism to analytism is a rule of which only Slavic and Baltic languages make an exception. Some scholars define the transition from synthetism to analytism as a process of dispatching the nominal flexion, during which part of the grammatical information (syntactic) is transferred to link-words (most commonly prepositions and particles). This is why all analytic languages develop a common form after prepositions (casus generalis), partly or completely fixed word order, pronoun particles for the marking of objects. The main precondition for the common Indo-European development towards the existence of an extended prepositional-declensional use is to be found in the Indo-European protolanguage. The author proposed not only a survey of the well known hypotheses but some new arguments for the appearance and development of Bulgarian analyitsm.


Reconstructing Missing Folia in Selected Medieval Slavic Parimejniks


Toponymical Errors as Text-Critical Criteria when Studying Translated Manuscripts (a Case in Point: Onuphrius Vita)

  • Summary/Abstract

    The purpose of this article is to illustrate how erroneous interpretations or spelling mistakes of foreign, quite often odd, place names can be used to determine relationships between manuscripts. The paper analyses three cases of false toponimy found in Onuphrius vita. One reading, pointing out the location of the monastery where Onuphrius grew up before his escape to the desert, consists of an incomprehensible string of words. The corresponding Greek text is of no help in solving the problem. Not until we examined several available Greek versions and a considerable number of Slavonic manuscripts could we reconstruct the emergence of that enigmatic toponym. The name of the well-known Egyptian city Hermopolis lacking one syllable caused confusion, and an erroneous stress mark over the Greek word (nomos) suggested a completely different sense of meaning (‘low’ instead of ‘district’). The most widely spread Slavonic version of the vita contains both of the above-mentioned slips of the pen. The defective name probably originated as far back as in one of the intermediate Greek manuscripts. It is obvious that the Slavs tried to understand the weird forms without questioning the erroneous Greek readings. We suggest a reconstruction of the conceivable original reading based on a deviating reading of a single south Slavonic (serbian) manuscript, a reading confirmed by one Greek manuscript). The Slavonic tradition also reflects two interpretations of another place name, Scete, which is used as a proper noun only in parts of the manuscripts. Further, a group of manuscripts are distinguished by an unusual and consistent, therefore conscious, replacement of the toponym Egypt. Thus far there is no explanation why this place name was censured in a subgroup of south Slavonic manuscripts. To summarize, misunderstandings and erroneous forms of toponyms veil clues about how the transmission of texts from Greek into the Slavonic tradition occurred. Such errors might contribute to the identification of translations and redactions, they can provide valuable insight into the understanding of cultural transmissions.


The Slavonic Translation of the Minor Prophets with Commentary – a Textological Approach

  • Summary/Abstract

    The paper attempts at a comparative study between Slavonic copies of Minor Prophets with commentary, covering its text in full. A list of the most important variae lectiones is arranged, where primary or secondary origin of a certain reading is supported by its Greek parallel, if available. The analysis of variant readings is preceded by a reconstruction of the history of the text before the emergence of the protographs that have started the Russian and South Slav manuscript traditions, then these two branches are compared. The further investigation comes to the conclusion, that the Russian copies should be a subject of an intensive future research, as they preserve to the greatest extent the features of the Old Bulgarian Glagolitic original. The text of the Minor Prophets with commentary found in South Slav copies shows numerous deviations from the archetype – missing text fragments, which are about half of the translation (527 of 1049 verses and their commentaries) and over 450 cases of text displacements and transpositions; omissions of single phrases and words; various mistakes made in the process of copying; incorrect changes; lexical replacements and intentional emendations. Thus one major principle in Slavonic textual criticism is once again corroborated – the earlier chronology of certain copy and/or its affiliation to the language and provenance of the original do not prove its reliability.


The Bulgarian Translation of the Vita of St. Basil the New

  • Summary/Abstract

    Among the valuable manuscripts found in the Sinai monastery “St Catherine” in 1975, is the codex No 20N. It contains only the Vita of St. Basil the New in Middle Bulgarian translation of the 14th c. The manuscript contains 120 sheets of paper that are kept in a very good condition. At the end of the manuscript is preserved the author's colophon who notes that its name is Father Peter, it provides also information on how he works, the place and time when the manuscript was created. The paper includes the publication of the Vita of St. Basil the New, published in this translation for the first time. The edition follows the orthography and punctuation of the manuscript all possible accuracy preserving the superscripts and accent signs. The publication is crucial for research work on the language and history of Bulgarian literature in the 14th c.


Creating Sacred Space by Commemorating Destruction: The case of the Monastery of Zographou

  • Summary/Abstract

    The destruction of a place or the desolation of a space may be just as laden with information and affective responses associated with political, social, or religious change as their construction. This article aims to establish this thesis by focusing on the example of the Anonymous Story of the Martyrs of the Monastery of Zographou, a source related to the destruction of the Monastery of Zographou on Mount Athos in 1275. The article begins by reviewing the existing scholarship on such unresolved problems as the dating, author, genre, and aims of the medieval text, as well as the circumstances that may have led to its creation. The article then proceeds to offer answers to these problems based on a new interpretation of the text, one that suggests novel connections between the literary qualities of the text and the aims of its author, as well as between its content and its intended audience. The article also proposes a re-evaluation of the historicity of the Anonymous Story of the Martyrs of the Monastery of Zographou, arguing in favor of the possibility that a writer could have departed from the known facts and employed legendary material in order to propagate certain ideas.


The Minov Family of Zographs: Personalities and Works

  • Summary/Abstract

    The article explores the kinship ties in a family of zographs known under the name of Bundovtsi, who worked during the second half of the 19th century in the South-West of Bulgaria, and the heritage they left behind. In the course of his examination of the Minov zographs and their work, the author comes across new information about the history of the zograph family, which not only provides further clarity and corrects certain mistakes, but also, to a large degree, enriches the notion of the life of zographs during the late Bulgarian Revival. The group of monuments where the zographs’ signatures were identified is located in the South-West of Bulgaria. The author attributes to, and expands the works of the Minov zographs by adding a number of new and so far unknown art monuments. The information and evidence presented of the life and work of the artists from the long-forgotten Minov family fill in some of the existing gaps in the history of ecclesiastical art in this interesting and barely explored region of Bulgaria. 


Рукопись 217 Г из университнской библиотеки в Софии и поздняя южнославянская традиция "Слова о 12 снах царя Шахиншаха"

Manuscript No. 217 G from University Library in Sofia and Late Mediaeval Tradition of "Story about 12 Dreams of King Shahinshahi"

  • Summary/Abstract

    В публикации представлены опись недавно найденной южнославянской копии „Слова о двенадцати снaх царя Шахиншаха“ и текстологическое исследование доступных для автора южнославянских копий и одной рукописи русского произхождения, являющейся представительной для первой русской редакции. Цель исследования – оределить место этой поздней рукописи начала XIX века в окружении более ранней средневековой традиции – в основном среди копий XV–XVI века, а также раскрыть еe особенности в ракурсе переплетения традиций Средневековья и Возрождения. Текст Слова очень интересный – это символическое толкование двенадцати снов царя Шахиншаха, имеющее эсхатологический характер. Представлена картина „последних времен“ земли в битовых и нравственных измерениях. По мнению некоторых авторов корни этого текста – очень древние – тибетского или персийского происхождения. Представляет интерес проследить, с точки зрения языка и литературы, наступившие изменения в тексте под влиянием разницы во времени и этно-культурном окружении.


Georgi Petkov at 70

  • Summary/Abstract

    Georgi Petkov is a Professor, Doctor of Sciences at the University “Paisij Xilendarski”, Plovdiv. He is working in the fields of the medieval Slavonic literature, Slavonic textology, Byzantine-Bulgarian translations, archeography and history of Old Bulgarian manuscripts. He also has remarkable contributions to comparative research of medieval Serbian, Wallachian, Moldavian and Russian literature, as well as documents of the period of Bulgarian and Balkan Revival.


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