The Slavonic Translation of the (Ps.-)Chrysostomian Homily de Capto Eutropio (CPG 4528)

Abstract

The Homily оf the arrested Eutropios (Homilia de capto Eutropio; CPG 4528), which may be ascribed to St John Chrysostom, has come down to us in more than 40 Greek copies of the 10th – 17th centuries. According to the Clavis patrum graecorum the Slavonic translation of the Homily is preserved in the November volume of the Great Reading Menaea of Makarij. However, the Slavonic text is attested in numerous manuscripts. There are Middle Bulgarian (e. g. Russian National Library, Hilferding collection № 35; only the beginning is preserved), East Slavonic (e. g. Russian State Library, Collection of the Trinity Monastery № 167) as well as Serbian (e. g. Vienna, Slav. № 131) copies. No copy is older than the 14th century. On the basis of some linguistic features (e. g. confusion of the nasal vowels) one can assume that the translation originated in the 13th or 14th century in Bulgaria. The Slavonic translation of the Homily has never been investigated before. The present paper gives a description of the language of the oldest copies and tries to establish their textological relationship.