Preslav literary school

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.


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.


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