Scripta

The papers in the sections Scripta and Debuts were presented at the international conference “Transfer and Adaptation: languages and Cultures in Dialogue (the Balkans from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern Times)”, held from 24-26 January 2024 in the Sofia University ‘St. Kliment Ohridski’. Participants were from Austria, Bulgaria, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic and Romania. The conference was organised at the Institute of Balkan Studies and Centre of Thracology, Bulgarian Academy of Scienc- es within the reintegration program of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The financial support of the Bulgarian National Scientific Fund (contract Nr. ФНИ КП-06-МНФ/21 of 08.08.2023) was provided following the Memorandum of August 2020 between the Foundation and the Fund. No financial means received through the framework of this contract were planned or used for the publication of the articles in the present journal issue.

The Balkans, where the Greek and Latin written traditions co-existed in the framework of the Roman empire, became a “battle field” of scripts after the disintegration of the empire and the great changes that occurred in the Early Middle Ages. In this development the successful introduction of a “Slavonic script” (Glagolitic and shortly thereafter Cyrillic) played an important role. The changes in the use and the territorial distribution of these and other scripts (Latin, marginally also Arabic and Greek) for Slavonic languages are prese

The Corpus Dionysiacum, possibly authored in the 6th century by an enigmatic figure, stands as a pivotal work within the Byzantine oikumene, yet its reception in the Slavic context has been underexplored. This paper provides an overview of both direct and indirect receptions of the Corpus Dionysiacum, highlighted by direct quotations from a newly discovered cycle of original Slavic homilies from the late 9th century, a discovery that potentially shifts the paradigm of our understanding. We will examine the breadth, philological nuances, and theological applications of these quotations, employing a comparative analysis to contextualize our findings within a broader scholarly conversation. Through this examination, we shed light on the intricate web of cultural and theological exchanges between the Byzantine and Slavic worlds.

The article draws attention to two long scholia by Severus of Antioch, Severus of Antioch, identified in Constantin Preslavski’s Didactic Gospel, which, however, did not refer to his name. The first one, a fragment from 77th Cathedral Homily of Severus, forms the second half of the exegetical part of Sermon 3. The other one, an excerpt from the 89th Cathedral Homily, which also contains two fragments by Gregory of Nyssa, constitutes a significant part of the Exegesis Section in Sermon 35. It appears in Sermon 35 as part of the Greek original, the catena on Luke CPG C130.1, which Constantine used when composing the sermons on the Gospel of Luke. The fragment in Sermon 3 is not part of the main Greek source of Constantine used to explain the passages from Matthew’s Gospel. It was borrowed from catena on Matthew C110.4, which was not used as a source anywhere else in the Didactic Gospel and was probably added later by an unknown author rather than Constantine himself. Nevertheless, the name of Severus, who was explicitly named as the author of the scholium in C110.4, was omitted in the Didactic Gospel, most likely because he was considered a heretical author in 10th century Bulgaria.

The article analyses the translation correlates of ἀρετη, πολιτεία and φιλοσοφία in Constantine of Preslav’s Didactic Gospel. Their contextual meanings are systemised together with their Old Bulgarian transponents. Other Greek words that are translated by the same slavic transponents are analysed and the data are compared to the information in the major palaeoslavic dictionaries. The observations reveal that φιλοσοφία and ἀρετη are rendered by a wide range of lexemes whose array rivals that in far more voluminous Old Bulgarian corpora. It can be shown that the choice of synonyms for the three polysemous Greek nouns is not arbitrary but consistent with the meaning in a specific context. It appears that there is a tendency towards rendering each meaning of a Greek word by one particular Slavic word, i.e. a tendency to transform semantic differentiation in the source language into lexical differentiation in the target language. There is also a rather clearly noticeable semantic differentiation between the synonymous lexemes житиѥ and жиꙁнь and it is motivated not by the translated Greek words but by their contextual meanings, in which житиѥ refers more often to the earthly life whereas жиꙁнь means the eternal life.

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.

The paper analyses the different ways, lexical information can be positioned relative to the two parts of the Old Church Slavonic periphrastic perfect tense, formed by auxiliary быти + l-participle. We find that positioning of information before or behind the construction is most open to rhetoric-stylistic shaping of the utterances in a given context. Positioning of information within the periphrastic construction leads to focus steering; insertion of information of different kind into the periphrastic construction can be interpreted not so much as focus steering towards rhematic, but towards emphasized information. Complex forms of information positioning are a sign of written conceptuality.

In the palaeoslavic studies, it is known that the perfective aspect is used to render the Greek future and various forms of the conjunctive and optative, for the most part – in the aorist. On some occasions, though, Constantine of Preslav used more specific (vis. lexical) ways of rendering the Greek optative. The paper aims at systemising and commenting on the material excerpted from Constantine’s Didactic Gospel Greek sources. Such an approach, oriented towards the Greek as a starting point, might bring a better understanding of how these grammatical forms were perceived in the 9th century when they were no longer active in the spoken Greek language of the epoch. Furthermore, it will elaborate our understanding of Constantine of Preslav’s translation technique.

The paper explores the sources, from which the newly converted Bulgarians could obtain information about the deviations from Orthodoxy and the most famous heresiarchs. It seems that most of the notices are contained in the translations dated to the first decades of the 10th c. during the reign of Simeon the Great. The fact should not surprise us given the role this ruler played in the cultural and literary policy of the new Christian state. Could we however speak about a conscious policy in this regard, or is this a mere coincidence?

The creation of a text in the Middle Ages was a process of superimposition of persistent patterns and ‘topos’ formulas that had acquired universal meaning. It is very difficult to point out a historical-apocalyptic text that consistently conveys the Greek original, without exception all translated works have the intervention of the Slavic scribe who amends, adds or abridges the text. This is a natural process, especially for this type of literature, which has no liturgical purpose, it is outside of following the canon and the liturgical statute. The main reason for the compilation nature of historical- apocalyptic literature is the desire to express and highlight the current local (in most cases – Bulgarian) point of view on the events that took place, to adapt the images of historical figures to the current reality.

This study delves into the common attributes of criteria used to pinpoint invalidity in theses and implausibility in narratives within ancient rhetoric. To achieve this, a comparative analysis is undertaken between the various types of invalid or insoluble issues (asystata) outlined in the “stasis” theory and the theory of coherent narrative as presented in the four key treatises on rhetorical exercises (progymnasmata). These two conceptual frameworks, developed in tandem throughout post-classical Antiquity, are built upon the firm foundation of Aristotle’s logic and find practical application in contexts such as persuasive communication, historical narration, and literary fiction. The study’s findings highlight the shared terminological framework and educational objectives of both theories, fostering critical thinking and enhancing communicative proficiency among students of rhetoric. The article concludes with a comparative table juxtaposing the criteria for inconsistency and incoherence, viewed as breaches of the Principles of Identity, Non-Contradiction, and Sufficient Reason, providing a practical tool for analyzing and improving narratives.

The article discusses the ongoing work on some forty Greek manuscript fragments which Rumen Manov recently donated to the Center for Slavo-Byzantine Studies “Prof. Iv. Duichev”. After introducing Manov’s donation as a whole, the author presents six items in terms of their dating, script, and content (hagiographic, liturgical, patristic, biblical, etc.).

The article examines the different versions of the story of the Trojan War – ancient plots known in Bulgarian medieval literature as a result of translation work. The works are examined in the context of the medieval idea of the historical process. An attempt has been made to show the ways of adapting, rethinking and reassessing the works – through commentary and additions to the native history, by “inserting” into the world Byzantine chronicles, moving the corresponding text from the periphery of literary production to more elite compositions or by combining them with other works in collections of different function.

The article tries to retrace the paths of the semantic development of some Slavic borrowings, which in the history of the Romanian language designate ‘fear’ at different degrees of this emotion: timidity, dread, fear or fright. Five word families have been examined: groază, a se (în)crâncena, scârbă, a se stidi, a se oțărî. As a result of the etymological analysis, various semantic changes have been established. The research on the semantic evolution of the Slavic loanwords in Romanian in the field of emotional vocabulary shows above all that these particular cases reveal the tendency of mixing emotions. The same tendency can be observed when we analyze the autochthonous words from different Indo-European languages.

Personal as well as communal reading is one of the main activities in the monk’s daily life, as witnessed since ancient times. In all likelihood, the readings within the great ascetic framework were then concretely linked to the spiritual proposal that inspired the individual community. Gregory of Sinai himself gave advice on ascetic readings for the monks around him. It was precisely for this use that miscellaneous manuscripts containing texts for reading were formed. In Slavic, the first manuscripts of this type to be attested date back to the fourteenth century and refer directly to the communities linked to Gregory of Sinai.

This essay focusses on Evagrius Ponticus’ Kephalaia Gnostika and its reception. It will offer some results of novel research into the literary structure of this work, including the issue of its so-called ‘silent chapters,’ as well as into its rhetorical strategies and philosophical theology, in particular its anthropology and conception of bodies, Christology, with a proposal for a new reading of one of the Kephalaia Gnostika, and eschatology, especially Evagrius’ doctrine of apokatastasis. Evagrius inherited the last theory from Origen and Gregory of Nyssa, and integrated it in its own further. The influence of Gregory of Nyssa on Evagrius is an aspect of recent research that has been offered as a contribution to scholarship and should now be taken into account. Finally, a brief look will be given at the literary, and partially theological, legacy of the Kephalaia Gnostika.

The article explores the development of the genre kephalaia in the history of medieval Bulgarian literature, especially the changes of its context in the miscellanies in the 10th c. and later in the 13th–14th c. Paraenetic works by many patristic authors, usually presented as short wise sayings in groups of 100 (centuriae), were translated, excerpted, revised, and translated again – a century-long tradition preserved in many Slavic manuscripts. The survey is focused on two works in this genre – Capita de oratione (CPG 2452) by Evagrius of Pontus and Centuriae iv de caritate et continentia (CPG 7848) by Thalassius of Libya. They were first introduced into the Slavic literatures in the early 10th c., and with the development of monasticism and the rise of Hesychasm, their renewed and revised translations were included in the monastic miscellanies from the 14th c. onwards. The linguistic comparison of the versions of the two texts reveals the connections and the differences between them. The analysis of their respective contexts in several manuscripts shows the continuity between the literary traditions of the early and the later period of Slavic literatures.

The paper presents results, including work in progress, related to study of Fragments from the Ladder of St. John of Sinai in the oldest Byzantine and Slavic Codices. The article published 10 fragments of the text of the Ladder as part of Simeon’s Miscellany according to the text of Izbornik of Svjatoslav 1073. The publication of the texts is based on the edition of the text of the Izbornik prepared by P. Janeva (Sofia, 2015) and is accompanied by indications of discrepancies in the most ancient Byzantine manuscripts of the Ladder and comments. The article contains clarifications and additions to the Sofia edition of the Izbornik. As a result of the study some fragments are reconstructed, I consider to be part of the lost Byzantine book, which became the source of the Bulgarian translation of the Simeon’s Miscellany. The article contains biblical quotations in the fragments of the Ladder as part of the Izbornik. The article lists the words of the Preslav literary school, typical for the translation of the Simeon’s Miscellany and for the first Slavic translation of the Ladder.

The Dioptra, a work consisting of over 7000 political verses in form of a dialogue between the body and the soul, as well as prose paratexts, heavily borrows from other texts. Whereas the sources paraphrased in the verses often go unacknowledged, other prose excerpts, mostly patristic but sometimes scriptural, are quoted verbatim and attributed to their respective authors. These paratexts are marginal scholia, texts inserted in the verse parts, and appendices. They are related to aspects of the verse parts, either by supporting an argument, by elaborating on details of the text, or by elucidating an argument from a different angle. The fictional setting of the dialogue functions as a frame, holding together the numerous sources, organising them in questions and answers that prompt more questions, and commenting upon them.

2 Enoch used to be called “Slavonic Enoch” for about 150 years until 4 fragments of the pseudepigraphon were found in Coptic. This Old Testament Pseudepigraphon has been often considered “an enigma”, starting from the fact that the scholars cannot decide whether it was of Jewish or Christian origin. The article provides the scholarly community with state-of-the-art on the most important and “everlasting” problems concerning the text in question, making a special emphasis on the consensus about the provenance of the Slavonic text among Slavists which is based on the comprehensive analysis of the textual history of 2 Enoch.

The article is dedicated to a rare text of Acta Thomae, which has so far been found only in a copy in a manuscript of the 16th century. A review of textological features is made and the text is compared with several Slavic and Greek copies. Such a version is not found among the transcripts of the Acts of the Apostle Thomas known to us and is a separate branch of tradition that emerged after the translation of the Actа Thomaе and Acta Thomae Minora. It is believed that the text in Slavic tradition appeared in the 14th century, probably in Bulgaria, but underwent significant revision before being included in Izmaragd. The research includes a publication of the text.

The paper deals with several sixteenth- and seventeenth-century mural representations from different Balkan regions, illustrating Christ Expels Seven Demons from Mary Magdalene as an individual scene. The representations can be grouped in two categories based on the iconographic interpretation of the subject. The first one includes those in the Church of Prophet Elijah (1550) in Sofia and churches associated with the work of St Pimen of Zographou: the Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos in Zervat (1603, Albania), the Church of St Theodore Tyron and St Theodore Stratelates in Dobarsko (1614), the Monastery of St Nicholas in Seslavtsi (1616). The iconography of these four monuments is as a whole very reminiscent of other scenes of healings by Christ. The scene is placed in the context of the Pentecostarion cycle. The second group includes monuments painted by the artists from Linotopi, especially by Nicholas: the Monastery of the Dormition in Spilaio near Grevena (1649); the Monastery of the Transfiguration in Dryovouno (1652) and the Church of St Demetrius in Palatitsion (1570; 17th century). The general iconography here reminds of the healings of demon-possessed, while the iconographic characteristics of Mary Magdalene are akin to those of St Mary of Egypt. The scene is placed among those illustrating the Miracles and Parables.
In the Hermeneias of Dionysios there is no description of the scene, although it is included as a title in Πήγαι in the Divine Works and Miracles of Christ. Probably Dionysios of Fourna was familiar with representations on the subject. For the time being we can only assume that a representation of this scene has existed before 1550, i.e. before it was painted at the Monastery of Iliyantsi.

The author examines rare and specific words from the incomplete Old Bulgarian translation of John Chrysostom’s Hexaemeron (YoZlSh) based on the manuscript Zogr19, introduced into palaeoslavistic not long ago (before two-three years). Parameters for the grouping of the extracted words are the peculiarities characteristic of the early Old Bulgarian translations. Their comparison with the Old Bulgarian manuscript corpus from the end of the 9th – 10th century is a kind of test of when the translation possibly originated: if at the lexical level the text is indicative of the early Old Bulgarian translations. The results are clear: all 15 orations of Hexaemeron (the 16th oration is incomplete) contain a huge wealth of vocabulary, and a significant part of the rare and specific words from YoZlSh is typical for the corpus of Old Bulgarian translations. This proves that the translation of John Chrysostom‘s Hexaemeron was created also at an early stage of the Old Bulgarian literature.

The article discusses the uncommon definite forms (with pronominal declension) of the possessive adjectives formed with -ов-, -ь and -ии/-ьи in the Old Bulgarian translation of Athanasius of Alexandriaʼs Orations Against the Arians, carried out by Konstantin of Preslav in 906. The translation survives only in Russian manuscripts ranging from the 15th to the 18th centuries. The Russian origin of the manuscripts raises the following question: have the definite forms of the possessive adjectives discussed here been the result of the spreading of the manuscripts in a Russian environment? Although rare, definite forms of possessive adjectives ending in -ов-, -ь and -ии/-ьи have been found in Old Bulgarian and Middle Bulgarian texts. This means that although uncommon, these forms were part of the Old Bulgarian language and the bishop Konstantin of Preslav could have used this declension model. The author argues that the uncommon definite forms of the possessive adjectives божии, отьчь, дѹховъ, съпасовъ, хрьстовъ are part of the translation strategy of bishop Konstantin of Preslav to distinguish between God the Father, God the Son, the Holy Spirit, and Christ the Saviour, on the one hand, and created beings, on the other hand.

The author presents the usage of some of the major Bible quotations in the Slavonic version of De Christo et Antichristo by Hippolytus of Rome. Mainly Old Testament quotations are examined, as well as the longer ones from Revelation. Among them, there are quotes from Genesis, the Book of Isaiah and the Book of Daniel which are compared to the same places in Prophetologium (Grigorovič No. 2 / М.1685, RGB), in the so-called Catena in Prophetas (Saint-Trinity Lavra No. 89, RGB) and where possible with the commentaries of Hippolytus In Danielem, and other early Slavic translations of the Scripture as well. The quotations from Revelation are compared with some later translations of this book in order to underline their importance and usage. The lexical analysis is not the main focus of the conducted study, but it is inevitable when the quotations are compared with biblical manuscripts. Тhe main aim and scope of the article is to highlight how the biblical quotations were approached by the translator. The large-scale comparisons made show how the medieval Slavonic biblical versions vary, depending on the function of the texts translated.

The paper discusses the use of topoi, prototypes and proto-characters to present the protagonists in the oldest surviving Old Bulgarian lives and deeds of saints (The Life and Works of Saint Cyril the Philosopher, The Life and Works of Saint Methodius, and the Anonymous Life of Saint John of Rila). The function of a prototype/ proto-character is to reveal the saint’s resemblance to the former concerning symptomatic characteristics, actions, and situations, for example, by analogy to a familiar authority (biblical, patristic, hagiographic or other). The lives recall the ascetic exploits of the prototype and simultaneously laud the new saint. The meanings of the topoi and prototypes extend beyond the particulars of the text and become a significant element in the creation of shared Christian memory. The topoi and prototypes in hagiographic texts portrayed ideal examples to be followed, passing them on in time and turning them into traditions.

The article compares the text of the „Vidin“ service for St. Petka Tărnovska (Paraskevi of Epivates), featuring a canon for the eighth mode, and the text of the Saint’s service known by three Russian copies in 16th–17th-c. manuscripts from the Trinity–Sergius Lavra. The main peculiarities of the 15 known South Slavonic transcripts of the „Vidin“ service (14th–17th cc.) are analyzied and there are underlined the main stages in the development of the text. It is concluded that the Russian copies are closest in composition and structure to the earliest Bulgarian copy in the 14th-c. manuscript Sinai 25, with added stichera and glories, known from Serbian copies from the 15th–16th cc., and a new kondakion. The Russian copies show that the „Vidin“ service was early included in Russian liturgical practice. It can be assumed that it was done by Gregory Tsamblak who introdusted the cult of Petka Tărnovska to the Orthodox Christian population in the northeastern Slavic lands. The Russian edition of the service for the Venerable Paraskevi-Petka from Epivates, preserved in a 1645 printed menaion, again from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, contains in addition to the canon for the eighth mode a different canon for the sixth mode (instead of the canon for the sixth mode known by the Menaion of Dragan). The new six-mode composition was created in the 17th c. by adding, reworking and adapting other texts, as shown by its distinction from the 16th-17th-c. Cyrillic copies originating from the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth.

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.