The Slavonic Tradition of the Apocryphal Acts of Thomas in India and the MS 1789/700 of the Dragomirna Monastery (Moldavia, Romania)
The Slavonic Tradition of the Apocryphal Acts of Thomas in India and the MS 1789/700 of the Dragomirna Monastery (Moldavia, Romania)

Summary/Abstract: This paper examines the Slavonic translations of the Apocryphal Acts of Thomas in India, focusing particularly on a copy included in the Dragomirna miscellany No.1789/700 dated back to the fifteenth century. The Slavonic Acts of Thomas in this codex deserves special attention, as the deviation of this manuscript from the other Slavonic copies of the same title indicate that it is arguably derived from a Greek Vorlage, different from the one other Slavonic manuscripts were made from. This paper analyzes the textual and linguistic features of the Dragomirna manuscript in comparison with other Slavonic copies and argues that the protograph of the Dragomirna copy appeared in the early Middle Bulgarian period up to the 12th–13th centuries. It is also noticed that the Dragomirna manuscript is characterized not only by the difference of Vorlage but also by the way in which the Greek text was translated. It is the translator’s effort to make a faithful translation of the Vorlage that makes this manuscript strikingly different from other Slavonic copies of the Acts of Thomas.

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