Varlaam and Ioasaf – the Novel and its Influences in Romanian Culture and Spirituality
Varlaam and Ioasaf – the Novel and its Influences in Romanian Culture and Spirituality

Summary/Abstract: Among the multitude of apocryphal and popular works that appeared and circulated in the entire Christian world, a place apart is occupied by the popular novel Varlaam and Ioasaf. To us, the presence of a manuscript with this work is deeply anchored in history, somewhere in the 14th century. Lecturing such a book left marks, especially in the monastic space Therefore, more monarchs received in the moment of monkhood the names of the characters in the novel, and the image of the pious saints Varlaam and Ioasaf was represented on the walls of some churches and monasteries. At the same time, the local cultural productions among which a place apart is occupied by Învăţăturile lui Neagoe Neagoe Basarab către fiul său Theodosie, took fragments and parables from the popular work. Even in official court documents, were used some fragments from the novel Varlaam and Ioasaf, the boyars and probably the princes thinking that they are an excess of beauty to their decisions. For all these, the novel Varlaam and Ioasaf is an example of the happy and fertile circulation of the manuscripts to us.

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