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AN UNKNOWN SLAVONIC TRANSLATION OF THE HOMILY DE NEOMENIIS ET DE SABBATIS ET DE NON OBSERVANDIS AVIUM VOCIBUS BY PSEUDO-EUSEBIOS OF ALEXANDRI ANISSAVA MILTENOVA, YAVOR MILTENOV (SOFIA) (Summary) Medieval Slavic literature did not preserve the cycle of works attributed to (Pseudo-) Eusebius of Alexandria. The present article is dedicated to the textological research and editing of the Slavic translation of a rare homily of this early Christian author De Neomeniis et de Sabbatis et de non observandis avium vocibus, BHG 635kb, CPG 5516. The text is directed against magical practices, especially against the evil eye (βασκανία), and it contains a rare description of this popular belief. The homily was found in the sixteenth-century miscellany No 1170 from the collection of I. Svencickij in the National Museum in L’viv, Ukraine. The codex with Serbian linguistic features has preserved archaic specifics of a much older archetype. In its composition the L’viv MS is close to other miscellanies studied by K. Stanchev and other medievalists. Presenting it to scholarship provides new opportunities for the study of this interesting tradition.
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ON THE HISTORY OF THE CRITICAL LATIN HAGIOGRAPHY STILYANA BATALOVA (SOFIA) (Summary) Although in contemporary Bulgarian studies medieval Byzantine, Latin and Slavic hagiographic works are subject of various publications, Latin hagiography and hagiology have never been presented to the Bulgarian scholarly community in their entirety and interdependence. In this paper two significant topics are surveyed. Firstly, special attention is paid on the first investigators’ undoubted contribution to the research and publication of the hagiographic documents both in Greek and in Latin. Secondly, stressing on the necessity of considering every single literary work in its context, the author presents the variety of hagiographic sources and the main methods of hagiographic research.
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INCOGNITA CYRILLOMETHODIANA KRASSIMIR STANTCHEV (ROME) (Summary) The article subjects to a critical analysis the interpretations of some parts of the Life of St. Cyril, XV and the Life of St. Methodios, XV.4. 1. The evidence from the Life of Cyril, XV that in Moravia Constantine translated въсъ цръковныи чинь is analyzed. An attempt is made to prove that this phrase does not point to the corpus of the liturgical texts, but rather to a book regulating and/or clarifying the liturgical order (чинь); it is also possible that it does not speak about translation, but – in agreement with a part of the manuscript tradition – about the acceptance and explanation of the liturgical order (notwithstanding which one). 2. A new interpretation is proposed of the phrase “selected church liturgies” in the Life of Methodios, XV.4 based upon usage of the word combination “church liturgies” in the oldest texts. The author supports Alexander Naumow’s hypothesis that the phrase о(т)чскыꙗ книгы (“the Books of the Fathers”) in the Life of Methodios, XV.5 most probably does not speak about a different translation that took place along with the translation of the Nomokanon, but should rather be interpreted as a extended explanation of the Greek term: “Than he translated the Nomokanon, that is to say the Rules of the Law and [those of] the Books of the [Church] Fathers.” An attempt is made to support this hypothesis both with evidence from the manuscript tradition of the Nomokanon and with contextual analysis of some of the lexemes used. Furthermore, some considerations about the chronology of the usage of the term Nomokanon are put forward.
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THE ARCHIVSKIJ SBORNIK AND THE ELLINSKIJ LETOPISETS – FIRST RECENSION DIMITER PEEV (SOFIA) (Summary) The article deals with two Old Slavonic historical compilations – the Archivskij Sbornik and the Letopisets Ellinskij i Rimskij (first recension). Although they are known only from Russian codices, they bear definite marks of the Bulgarian cultural doctrine from the tenth century. The monk Gregory’s heading saying that he had translated the Books of the Old Testament from Greek into Slavonic by the order of Tsar Symeon I of Bulgaria in the beginning of the tenth century is to be found in the Archivskij Chronograph. The second compilation discussed keeps the Rulers’ List (Imennik of the Bulgarian Khans). The comparative analysis of composition and contents of the two compilations suggests that the Heading of monk Gregory functions as an introduction to the world history that marks the first appearance of the Bulgarians in it , whereas the Rulers’ List is used as a substitute for the Bible books Paralipomenon in the composition of the Letopisets Ellinskij i Rimskij. Both the Heading and the Rulers’ List are seen as parts of ideological constructs representing the concept of ruling of the tenth-century Bulgarian tsars Symeon and Peter.
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THE BOGOMILS IN CANON-LAW TEXTS AND MANUSCRIPTS MARIYANA TSIBRANSKA-KOSTOVA, MARIYA RAYKOVA (SOFIA) (Summary) The article deals with the problem of how the Bogomils are presented in Slavic juridical manuscripts and what is the place of the texts about them among the other textual components. It is well known that unlike the rich documentation of the heretic movements in Medieval Western Europe, the Slavic written sources about the Bogomils are very limited in their number and type. Apart from the famous Cosmas’ Treatise against the Bogomils from the end of the tenth – beginning of the eleventh century, most of the testimonies represent full or abridged translations of existing Greek originals. Nevertheless, it might be presumed that the Slavic priests and monks (who have been the main editors of the juridical miscellanies) undertook some modification, adaptation and additions. Moreover, in spite of the poor data about the Bogomils and the scarcity of the Bogomils’ original works, the treatment of their dogmas, of their religious and social behavior finds its expectable place in the texts of Canon Law. The collected examples of anti-heretical texts prove the large spreading of this heresy, its substantial role in the Bulgarian, South Slavic and Balkan milieu and reveal the attitude of the medieval society towards them. These texts are gathered especially from manuscripts in depositories in Romania and Russia, where these texts were copied until the seventeenth century. Two very precious units from Bulgarian book holdings – MS slav. 1160 from the Library of the Church Historical and Archaeological Institute (fourteenth century) and MS slav. 1117 from the National Library (fifteenth century), both in Sofia, are among the most important sources on Bogomils in the medieval Slavic studies.
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THE IMAGE OF ST. JOHN OF RILA IN THE BOYANA CHURCH BISERKA PENKOVA (SOFIA) (Summary) The latest restorations of the Boyana church near Sofia revealed that the image of a monk in the nartex defined as St. John of Rila in the inscription (written by a different hand than the rest of the inscriptions in the church) has not been altered. This is the oldest preserved image of St. John of Rila, dating from 1259. The formation of his iconography is a part of the development of the saint’s cult in the capital of Tărnovo after 1195 when his relics were translated there from Sredec. The article raises the question if some depictions of St. John of Rila were created in Sredec (where his relics were kept for more than a century and where a local cult was formed). According to the author the few images of St. John of Rila dating before the fifteenth century could be divided in two groups, defined as “Sredec type” and “Tărnovo type”. The painting in the Boyana church belongs to the former. Its iconographic analysis leads to the conclusion that the most appropriate model for it was the image of St. John Klimax. The depiction of St. John of Rila in Boyana testifies that in the middle of the thirteenth century a Bulgarian tradition for representing the saint as a high-ranking monk who had taken vows of the Great Schema already existed. Yet, in the Boyana church St. John of Rila is depicted along with the most respected figures of the Eastern monasticism (across him is St. Pachomios, the founder of the cenobitic monasticism) and next to the portraits of the Bulgarian rulers. The place of St. John of Rila in the iconographic program of the Boyana church suggests that those who had painted his image considered St. John a spiritual advisor of great authority rather than a hermit living in utmost solitude. This representation corresponds to the outstanding place of the saint in the spiritual life of the Second Bulgarian State during the second half of the thirteenth century.
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GEORGI POPOV AT 65 REGINA KOYCHEVA (SOFIA) (Summary) The article sums up the most important achievements of the outstanding Bulgarian palaeoslavist Prof. Georgi Popov on the occasion of his 65th anniversary. It is centered around the main topic of his studies – medieval Slavic hymnography – and presents the most important attainments of the scholar in three groups: 1) Discoveries of unknown poetic works and other important monuments, as well as of facts related to the attribution of certain texts; 2) Literary history of the rise and development of the Old Bulgarian hymnography; 3) Theoretical studies in the realm of hymnology and of palaeoslavic studies in general. The article summarizes Popov’s views on some principal theoretical problems, such as: the function and significance of the acrostic, the reasons for the flowering of the Old Bulgarian original hymnography in the ninth century, the specificity of the hymnographic text as a synthesis of original and translated components, etc.
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“TARKAN” – AN HONORARY TITLE AND/OR AN ADMINISTRATIVE TITLE TATYANA SLAVOVA (SOFIA) (Summary) The article comments on the usage of the title “tarkan” and its double function in epigraphic and literary monuments from the ninth–tenth century (i.e. protoBulgarian inscriptions, Greek sources, Slavic originals and translated works). It is argued that when the title was used in post-position after another administrative / status title (e. g. ὁ βουλίας ταρκάνος, ὁ ζουπαν ταρκανος) or after an adjective (e. g. Κουλουτερκάνος, Καλουτερκάνος, Кълоутороканъ) it performed the role of an honorary title – probably accorded as a reward for specific services. However, when the same word was a part of composite titles, in post-position after a word meaning “rank” (ολγου, turk. uluγ, uluq “great, big”; ζερα, turk. yiri, yir “north, northern”; βορι, turk. böri, buri “wolf”) it accrued the function of administrative title, synonymous with a representative of the ruler of an enormous province.
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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.
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The article presents a first attempt of a publication of fragments from medieval Slavonic written records in electronic form – a problem which so far has not found a satisfactory solution. Two manuscripts from the National Library on Budapest (Szechenyi) have been studies, described and realized as electronic publications. The first one (MS Duod. Eccl. Slav. 2) is Glagolhic, from XI-XII century and contains Vita of Simeon Stulpnik. The second one (Fragm. Eccl. Slav. 3) includes seven parchment fragments from XIII-XIV century with partially conserved Cyrillic text by the Apostle. The possibilities to deliver the data and metadata from the fragments are examined. As a result the most precise and close to the original electronic publication can be realized. Subject of discussion are the rules created in the framework of the Text Encoding Initiative, which although oriented to a wide range of different kinds of texts, do not reflect the specificity of the medieval manuscripts. Regarding the fragments, of paramount importance is the necessity in the model of description the degree of preservation of the text, depending on the preservation of the material on which it has been conserved, to be noted. As the fragment does not contain the whole text of the primarily existing manuscript but only part of it, the hierarchy of the computer description should reflect this peculiarity, as at the same time it well presents the separate lines in the text, about the separation of words, about the preserved (or missing) letter symbols and the punctuation. Meanwhile a place for marking the identification of the biblical text should be provided. Discussed in detail are the possible approaches to the elements, their characteristics and order in the publication – from the highest to the lowest level at the description of the text and its articles. Some questions connected with Unicode have been presented, in the context of the author’s view that not only the encoding of the texts is important, but also the adequate representation of their position in the writing margin, for example, referring to the rubrics and their writing in the margins. Enclosed is an illustration of the acquired approach – publication of fragment No. 1 (its front side, Romans 1:8-14).
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The article offers new attributions and localizations of ten Adzhar monuments on the basis of a paleographic analysis. The scribal activity in the centre is viewed in comparison with that of the rest of the calligraphic centers in the Bulgarian lands in the XVII century. The analysis of the repertoire of Adzhar monuments in the light of the new material brings about the conclusion that in the second half of the century the settlement became a literary and educational centre of a parish type, where the book copying was directly bound with the preparation of priests.
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Recent developments in Unicode have made it possible for a large variety of historic characters of the Slavic languages to be correctly encoded in Unicode. However, there are some areas which require additional work, and for other problems, several solutions co-exist. A puzzling problem arises when texts contains obvious errors, especially so if one single text is the only available source for the claimed existence of a specific letter. The Glagolitic "Pe" character is such a character, and because it represents such a unique case, it paper will present a fresh look at the original source (the famous "Munich Abedarium") and its interpretation.
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Positioning Theory represents a useful approach for studying cultural conceptualizations and patterns of language use. The notion could also be implemented in cross-cultural research, for example in contrastive discourse studies. Nevertheless, cross-cultural studies of positioning are rare. The aim of this paper is to elaborate foundations for further methodological considerations and practical applications of the Positioning Theory in contrastive discourse studies. It gives theoretical considerations, reflects existing literature where the notion is implemented in discourse studies and presents examples from a pilot study conducted to analyse the cross-cultural potential of positioning. By doing so, it identifies the possibilities and methodological challenges of the notion that arise when it is implemented in contrastive discourse analysis, beyond its initial role in Interaction Analysis. The implementation of Positioning Theory in contrastive discourse studies seems useful to shed light on specific cultural positions as well as formal and functional patterns of discursive positioning practices and resources. A contrastive discourse analysis that aims at cross-culturally comparing positioning activities requires extensive reflections on the analytical and methodological as well as theoretical levels. A requirement for the design of such studies is the use of operationalizable categories as analysed objects. Further challenges emerge regarding implicit positioning and the need to include cultural knowledge.
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