Elena Tomova

The article analyses problems related to the literary history of the Prolog’ Vitae of the well-known Bulgarian saints Paraskeve of Epibatai / Petka of Tărnovo, John of Rila, Hilarion of Moglena (Măglen), and Michael, the Warrior of Potuka, as found in the Slavic manuscript tradition (more precisely, in the sixteenth-century Serbian hagiography), according to the Prolog in Verses for the winter half of the year (Cod. Kop. 19 from 1594, Kopitar’s collection, National and University Library, Ljubljana). The aim of the investigation is, on the basis of text-critical study of the Lives in Bulgarian, Russian and Serbian copies, to outline their specific features, genealogy, belonging to a literary school and their place in the hagiological complex, dedicated to the Bulgarian saints.

Жития на български светци в Стишния пролог от ХVІ в. Cod. Kop. 19 от сбирката на Йерней Копитар (НУБ, Любляна)
Елена Томова
(Институт за литература при БАН, София, България)

В статията се анализират проблеми на литературната история на проложните жития на известните български светци Параскева Епиватска / Петка Търновска, Иван Рилски, Иларион Мъгленски и Михаил Воин в славянската ръкописна традиция (конкретно в сръбската агиография от XVI в.), поместени в Стишен пролог за зимната половина на годината (Копитарова сбирка в Народната и университетска библиотека в Любляна, Cod. Kop. 19 от 1594 г.). Целта на изследването е на основата на текстологическото проучване на житията в български, сръбски и руски преписи да се определи тяхната специфика, генеалогия, принадлежността им към определена литературна школа и тяхното място в общия агиологически комплекс, посветен на българските светци.

Project (2007-2008), funded by the Austrian ministry of science in the 7FP, united scientists from Austria, Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia and Bulgaria. Coordination of the project is concentrated in the Department of Old Bulgarian Literature of the Institute of Literature, BAS. Participants from five countries have established operational network between research institutions and libraries aimed at studying the Balkan monastery culture and presentation of South Slavic culture and literature in comparative perspective. During the project (February 2008) training is implemented in the use of international standards for description and analysis of the written heritage (principles and methods, terminology, etc.) Results: 1). Establishing a common platform for electronic publications in Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabet (Unicode 5.1); 2). Supporting an international conference with participants from 10 countries; 3). The most important result of the project was the creation of experimental electronic portal on the Internet for medieval written culture in the Balkans (http://slovo-aso.cl.bas.bg ). The project created an initial basis for collaboration and for further development of study, conservation and exhibition of Slavic heritage in digital libraries.

Object of a research interest is the literary history of the so called Third Russian revision of the Tarnovo prologue vita of the national Bulgarian St. John of Rila. The revision is resented in six copies from the end of the 15th to the 17th century (the earliest in prologue for September – February from the end of the 15th century, RNB, Main assembly, No F. I. 297) and it is distributed in collections with permanent and mixed structure: in prologues about the winter half of the church year, in codex with vitas, instructions and stories, in collections with services and vitas. Discussed are issues about the Third revision of the Prologue, whose origin is connected with the literature of Novgorod and Pskov, and in whose composition we find the earliest copies of the new version. In the Bulgarian, Serbian and Moldovan-Romanian hagiographic tradition this version is not known. The new version of the Tarnovo prologue vita later penetrates the literature of the Moscow state and the Moscow cultural centers, and its distribution continues in the 16th and 17th century. In this way it turns into a significant element of the entire cult of the Bulgarian saint in the medieval Slavonic Cyrillic tradition. The results from the textological study of the copies and the interrelations between the separate texts have been presented.

Doxae are an organic part of Slavic hymnography. They are especially important for the cults of the South Slavic saints Petka Tărnovska, Stefan Dechanski, Sava Srbski, Simeon Srbski, etc., as in most cases they are original works by Slavic authors. The article summarizes the results of the archeographic and palaeographic work of the author in 1996-2002 in the Kopitar Collection in Ljubljana, Slovenia, exporting unknown and unstudied data from the manuscripts.