The Earliest Version of the Slavic Translation of De Anastasiā patriciā in the Serbian Copy of the 14th Century

The section examines the language of an unknown version of the Slavic translation of Περὶ τῆς πατρικίας Ἀναστασίας – article 75 in the Alphabetic–Anonymous Patericon, included in the Serbian Menaion and Triodion Panagyric NHM24. The text is compared with the translation of the sermon in the Alphabetic-Anonymous Patericon and in the Svodnyj Paterik in their earliest copies Gilf50 and Zogr83. The language of the translation is examined on textological, grammatical and lexical levels by applying two main principles: a) for full excerption of the language facts; b) for their systemization based on predefined parameters. The general conclusion from the study is that житие in NHM24 is not only the earliest version of the Slavic translation of Περὶ τῆς πατρικίας Ἀναστασίας, but it is also an independent translation, made at the end of IX and the start of X c., i.e. before the translation in the Alphabetic-Anonymous Patericon. There are grounds for the assumption that the translation is the work of an Old Bulgarian translator and that it was made in the Pliska-Preslav literary center.

The Old Church Slavonic Translation of the Martyrdom of St. Anastasia of Rome

The Martyrdom of Anastasia relates the cruel death of the Roman saint. But, as has been shown by Paul Devos, that woman never lived, but was invented by a Byzantine hagiographer. The Martyrdom of Anastasia exists in two versions, both of which were translated into Old Church Slavonic. One Slavonic version (BHG 76z) has come down to us only in East Slavonic MSS, whereas the other one (BHG 76x) is attested in the Croatian Glagolitic, East Slavonic and Serbian redaction (from the 14th century onwards). Some East Slavonic MSS and the Serbian copy apparently go back to an antigraph that underwent a Middle Bulgarian redaction. The unchanged MSS – the Croatian Glagolitic fragment and two East Slavonic MSS – point to a translation from the East Bulgarian Literary School of Preslav in the 10th or 11th century.

A Folio from the Vukan Gospel (1196–1202): A Predecessor to “Bosnian” (Western Serbian) Manuscripts of the 13th–15th Centuries

According to M. Pešikan, Fol. 10 from the Vukan Gospel (10a.8–10g.21) was almost entirely written by Scribe IV, one of the eight scribes involved in writing out the original book. The greatest part of the manuscript was written by the monk Simeon. Scribe IV was a follower of an ancient, non-calligraphic Cyrillic tradition, older than any other tradition identified in this manuscript. In terms of palaeographic and orthographic features, he was a predecessor of the "Bosnian" codices of the 13th–15th centuries. This confirms that there was a direct link between the Serbian literacy tradition in Bosnia and the earlier literacy tradition in Raška, namely one of its many lines. Further, in the past, this tradition can be traced back to the South Slavic literacy tradition developed in the Byzantine Empire, in the territory of present-day Macedonia. The concept of the "southern line", which has so far been used in explaining the origins of western Serbian, "Bosnian" literary monuments, acquires a different meaning in this light: a crucial hub in spreading literacy from the south to the north were Serbian scriptoria – from northern Macedonia, through Kosovo and Metohija, to Raška – where the Serbian recension was fist-shaped and then spread further to the west, to Bosnia.

On Some Sources of the Izbornik of the 13th Century

The section highlights several sources of the Izbornik (“Miscellany”) of the 13th century (National Library of Russia, Q.п.I.18): Christian Topography by Cosmas Indicopleustes, Zlatostruj (Chrysorrhoas), Historia Ecclesiastica by Germanus of Constantinople. Also, it argues that the fragments of Theodoret of Cyrrhus and Gennadius of Constantinople came into the Izbornik from two (or more) preceding Russian exegetical compilations.

The Service for St. Nicholas of Myra according to the Serbian Menaia of the 13th Century

The service for St. Nicholas on the 6th of December in Serbian menaion of the 13th century follows the Typikon of Evergetis. We can see it comparing the service with the description in the Typikon. The section analyzes the service from three serbian manuscripts of the late 13th century. The service of the first one is very similar to the service included in Russian menaions of the same period. Two other manuscripts show some changes of hymns including a canon which is not known in other traditions. The liturgical explanations of the manuscripts help to reconstruct the service as full as possible. The section analyzes the changes and their possible connection with Russian tradition.

Translation of the Expression nardos pistikē (Mk 14:3) in the Slavic Literature Tradition of the 10th –14th Centuries

The section analyses translation variants of the Greek expression νάρδος πιστική (Мк 14:3) in the Slavic written language tradition of X–XIV centuries. It is shown that the choice of the Slavic correspondences is determined by the desire for "graecization" / "slavization" of the text, familiarity with different interpretations of this text in the Byzantine theological tradition and the attempt of the translators to harmonize parallel passages of the Gospels.

The Suffix -ic-ĭ in the Slavonic Languages

The section in some way continues the previous work on the name of the Great Moravia’s prince Ðàñò¸öü, in which suffix -ic-ь stands out. The section discusses controversial issues related to the suffix -ic-ь. The analysis reveals that at the level of the Proto-Slavonic language the suffix -ic-ь can be distinguished with meanings of diminution and agent nouns as non productive palatalized correlate of suffix -ik-ъ. This derivational formant was typical for South Slavonic languages, its presence in East Slavonic languages is discussional, and it is unknown to West Slavonic languages. Regarding the name Ðàñò¸öü an assumption was made that it means ‘short man, shorty’ or ‘sprout’ if we assume that the prince might be an indirect descendant (a collateral branch) of his family.

Rare and not Described in Dictionaries Lexemes in the Old Slavonic and Old Russian Literature

The information presented in the major works on Paleo-Slavonic, Media-Slavonic, Old Russian and Middle Russian historical lexicography needs constant revision, additions, and updating. The replenishment of the source database of historical dictionaries leads to the accumulation of information regarding lexicographically not described lexemes, aging of quotation material, a reinterpretation of the semantics of rare words. The section contains the linguistic, historical, cultural and symbolic description of some rare names of shells in the Church-Slavonic-Russian script: skol(ь)ka, ostreosъ, konьkha, matica zhemchuzhnaya, omidi sъsoudъ, shivada, chashulya, pin(n)a, kokhlь, kolikhiya, kolьkhiya, kon(ь)khilь, konьkhila, bagryanica etc.

Translation Technique Features of the Old Croatian Bull to the Pauline Order from 1371

The study deals with lexical and syntactic features of the Pope Gregory XI’s consistorial bull to the Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit, written in Avignon in 1371 and translated from Latin into Old Croatian (Čakavian). The focus is on the degree of consciousness of the translator’s work, which does not imply a word for word (or even morpheme for morpheme) translation, but rather work with the semantics of the original text and careful selection of language elements. The analyzed examples demonstrate 1) variability of translation of lexemes and syntactic constructions (cf. for example, Latin persona ‘person’ and Old Croatian prelat ‘prelate’, stroitelь ‘administrator; abbot, prior, superior’ and oblastnik ‘administrator, governor’); 2) generalization of meaning of Latin lexemes (cf. for example, Latin antistes ‘bishop, abbot or prior’, episcopus ‘bishop’ and pontifex ‘pontiff’ and Old Croatian biskup ‘bishop’); 3) possibility of translating Latin tokens with phrases (cf., for example, Latin cum usuagiis ‘with the right to use the forest’ and Old Croatian z d’rêvi plodovitimi i neplod’nimi ‘with fruit-bearing and non-fruit-bearing trees’). In general, the translation technique of the bull is characterized by a conscious work with the original text at the level of its semantics and genre.

On the Recently Discovered Versions of the Church Slavonic Prayer of St. Gregory

The section presents an analysis of the newly found Church Slavonic versions of the so-called Prayer of St. Gregory. The prayer was translated from Latin and its complete text was preserved in six manuscripts in Russia and Serbia. The oldest part of the prayer – precisely the last third of the prayer – was written in the manuscript of Dimitri’s Psalter, which was discovered in 1975 in the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. The analysis confirms that all the versions were derived from the same archetype whilst the two basic branches of the textual tradition split no later than in the 11th century. According to the presented research, West Slavonic origin of the translation is still the most probable; a short quotation of the prayer documented in Prayer to the Holy Trinity (another Church Slavonic paraliturgical text of Czech origin) serves as the evidence that the observed literary monument was well known and used in Bohemia in the 11th century.