MANUSCRIPTS

This paper provides novel, relevant data to study the translation technique of the First Old Church Slavonic Version of Gregory of Nazianzus’ Homily 38 “On the Theophany” (Εἰς τὰ Θεοφάνια, CPG 3010.38; BHG, 1921-1921b; PG 36, 312A-333A). This work was rendered from Greek into Old Church Slavonic by an anonymous Bulgarian translator, presumably between the late 9th and the early 10th century. The text is transmitted by two testimonies, one of East Slavic (St Petersburg, Russian National Library, Q.п.I.16, late 11th century), the other of South Slavic origin (Sofia, SS Cyril and Methodius National Library, № 674, mid-14th century). The translation’s archaic morphological and lexical features reveal a marked analogy with the language of the Old Bulgarian Ecclesiastical Writer, Constantine, Bishop of Preslav. By investigating hitherto unexplored aspects of the translation technique the author offers further compelling evidence of a connection between Homily 38 and Constantine’s Didactic Gospel. The focus is on a very peculiar rendering of the Greek modality adverb ἴσως (“possibly, perhaps”), which is translated by means of the verb “мьнѣти” (“to mean”, “to think”, “to assume”, “to consider”), conjugated in the first-person singular present indicative.

Subject: Scripta

Keywords: Old Church Slavonic Translations MANUSCRIPTS Greek Patristics Gregory of Nazianzus Constantine of Preslav translation techniques modality adverbs

The study examines the cult of the unmercenary Saint Tryphon. Attention is paid to his folklore veneration in Bulgaria and the specifics of his iconographic depiction. The emphasis is on the examination of his image, presented in the Martyrdom as attested in two Slavonic manuscripts from the 15th century housed in the Library of the Romanian Academy, Nos. 306 and 152. The characteristics of both manuscripts are also presented, as both texts are related to the Serbian language environment. The comparison of the two texts shows a complete coincidence in the narrative. The plotline of the narrative has classic features for this genre: introduction, main part, and a short conclusion. The main part of the narrativе stands out two semantic cores: the first is the expulsion of demons from the daughter of Emperor Gordian by Tryphon and the second is the verbal opposition between Aquilinus and the saint and the physical torture he is subjected to after each verbal struggle with his antagonist proving the strength of his spirit and the strength of the Christian faith.

Subject: Scripta Medieval Studies Linguistic History of Literature

Keywords: St.Tryphon martyrdom cult MANUSCRIPTS hagiographic genre

In cases where there is a larger collection of manuscripts, the scribe or author of which is unknown or in doubt, analyzing such manuscripts can take a lot of time and effort. The more pages and potential writers are involved, the more complicated it is to get tangible results. LiViTo is a free tool2 that requires a minimum of experience with the command line and allows a simplified search for keywords, revisions, and clustering of historical manuscripts. We present the application of LiViTo on the “lab case” of the biographies of Czech Protestant refugees from the 18th–19th century. Most of these manuscripts include stories of farmers’ and craftsmen’s families who fled to Berlin because of their religious beliefs. The examination of this type of biographies and manuscripts using the methods of Digital Humanities takes place for the first time for Czech. Using extracts from the research project in which LiViTo was developed, individual functions of the tool are explained. In addition, individual findings relating to the manuscripts and the potential further development of the tool are presented.

Subject: Digital humanities

Keywords: protestant Czech MANUSCRIPTS handwriting clustering

This paper examines the development of the image of the biblical Joseph (Genesis 37-50) in the Slavonic tradition. Although Joseph appears in the Slavonic Bible and the Christian tradition in many forms, e.g. as a righteous martyr, pious believer, merciful caretaker of the poor, ideal ruler, and as the prefigurement of Jesus Christ, the image of Joseph as a Christian spiritual expert has not been studied methodically. Based on the denomination that medieval Slavic Christians gave to Joseph, i.e. Їѡсифь Прѣкрасни, which literally means, “the most beautiful Joseph,” I argue it refers to his inner beauty, which makes him radiate with divine light and turns him into a spiritual expert in the interpretation of the messages from God. Slavs took over the biblical traditions about Joseph from the Greek translations before enriching them with their own creativity and spirituality. The fact that Їѡсифь Прѣкрасни is clearly the translation of Ἰωσὴφ ὁ Πάγκαλος, and that the Syriac History of Joseph does not exist in Slavonic, precisely because it had never existed in Greek despite its literary quality, supports this premise.

Subject: Language and Literature Studies Theory of Literature Language studies Philology Studies of Literature

Keywords: JOSEPH OLD TESTAMENT Slavonic tradition MANUSCRIPTS TRANSLATION RECEPTION