Serbian Manuscript Research Articles

Clitics in Old Serbian: What does the text of the Troyan Parable tell us?

The present paper examines the diachronic development of Serbian clitics. The investigation of clitics is of special interest in Slavic languages: despite the fact that these languages display free worder, the use of clitics is subject to strict rules. Clitics were present already in the Proto-Slavic language, however, in the course of the history of the language they were totally lost in Eastern Slavic and also partially in Western Slavic. The array and function of Serbian clitics has undergone substantial change: (1) similarly to Proto-Slavic, in Old Serbian manuscripts three types of enclitics were used, namely, discourse, pronominal and auxiliary clitics; and (2) clitics in present-day Serbian (PDS) tend to cluster and, within the clusters, their order is regulated by strict rules. This ordered position of clitics within the clusters has undergone changes. Moreover, there are significantly fewer clitic clusters in the investigated manuscripts than in PDS texts. The investigation of clitics is carried out in a 15th century Serbian manuscript, the Troyan Parable (Троянска притча) and in Old Serbian documents from the Middle Ages.

Saint Nicodemus of Tismana’s Tetraevangelion and Its Relation With Slavic-Byzantine Manuscripts

This study aims to bring a series of clarifications regarding the objectives pursued by Saint Nicodemus in creating a Tetraevangelion for the Tismana Monastery in 1405. We believe that these objectives could be better understood based on the investigation of the relationship that Saint Nicodemus’ Tetraevangelion has with similar Slavic-Byzantine manuscripts, especially with Bulgarian and Serbian manuscripts, of his time. This relation helps identify both the characteristics of the manuscript made by Saint Nicodemus at the beginning of the fifteenth century, as well as its originality among other Slavic-Byzantine manuscripts. Keywords: Tetraevangelion, Saint Nicodemus, Slavic-Byzantine manuscripts, liturgy

Service Menaion of the Jerusalem type in the South Slavic manuscripts of the 14th-15th centuries

Serbian manuscripts played a major role in the development of South Slavic Service Menaion based on the Typikon of Jerusalem, which had been introduced in Byzantium in the second half of the 13th century. The oldest Church Slavic Menaia of the Jerusalem type appeared on Mount Athos in the second or third decade of the 14th century. They are all of Serbian origin. In the 1330?s and 1340?s, the Menaion reached Macedonian lands, which were part of the Kingdom of Serbia. It spread further across Bulgarian lands by the mid-14th c., and was to become the only type of hymnographic book in South Slavic lands by the end of the same century.

ТАТЬЯНА СУБОТИН-ГОЛУБОВИЧ Молебен — краткая служба особого состава в сербской книжности XIV-XV вв.

The paraklesis is a short service addressed to a saint composed of texts taken from the menaion dedicated to the same saint. Parakleses attest to the popularity of the saint they are dedicated to and usually originate from the area associated with his/her life or the location of their relics. Services of this type usually comprise parts of existing services. Several parakleses to St. Sava, comprising parts of different canons from the services by Teodosije the Hilandarian, have survived in the Serbian manuscript tradition of the first half of the 15th century. The paraklesis composed on the occasion of the translation of relics of St. Luke the Evangelist to Smederevo in 1453 is an original work of Serbian literature. Two manuscripts that include only parakleses to various saints have survived from this period and both are kept at the Museum of the Orthodox Church in Belgrade (МСПЦ Грујић З- I -З, МСПЦ 34).

A Russian triodion sticherarion from the late 12th century - MS Hilandar 307

MS Hilandar 307, a triodion sticherarion from the late 12th century, is one of the oldest Slavonic manuscripts kept at Hilandar. The manuscript has not survived in its entirety - it is missing the first part which contained stichera of the Lenten cycle; the extant part contains the pentecostarion cycle of stichera. It was written in the Russian recension. The manuscript has probably been kept at the monastery ever since its establishment and could have been even procured by St. Sava at the time of the formation of the monastery library. Its presence at the Serbian monastery confirms that there were no linguistic or practical liturgical obstacles to its use in religious services. Since the Serbian manuscript heritage does not include surviving sticheraria as a type of liturgical book, its content is highly interesting. This paper explores the interrelationship between the sticherarion and corresponding services in the oldest Serbian triodion, copied in the first half of the 13th century and now kept in the National Library of Russia in Saint Petersburg (F. ?. I. 68). Two services were selected as examples - the service for the Mid-Pentecost (Midfeast) and the service to the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council. An initial careful comparison already revealed the appearance of different translations of the texts shared by both manuscripts. Also, it was found that only a part of stichera in the sticherarion appear in full triodion services, in which stichera make up just one segment of the service as a complex hymnographic ensemble.

Крестобогородичные тропари Антифонов Великой Пятницы (опыт текстологического анализа по спискам XI – XIV веков)

The paper deals with certain troparia found in several Church Slavonic manuscripts as a part of the Great and Holy Friday Antiphons which don’t respond to the described Greek versions of the text. Troparia which appear in the penultimate place of each of the 15 Antiphons are devoted to the Mother of God and could be attributed to the Stavrotheotokion type. The Stavrotheotokia appear regularly almost in all East Slavonic manuscripts up to Patriarch Nikon book correction of the 17th century, while in the South Slavonic tradition they appear regularly only in two early Serbian manuscripts, in the most of the Antiphons in two early Bulgarian manuscripts and in one Antiphon in another Bulgarian manuscript. In the 14th century after the Mount Athos book correction the Stavrotheotokia disappear completely from the South Slavonic manuscript tradition. The goal of our study was a scientific critical edition of the Stavrotheotokia troparia based on 13 East and South Slavonic manuscripts (Triodion and Pentecostarion, Pentecostarion, Lent and Pentecost Sticherarium) of 11th – 14th centuries as well as their textological analysis. Based on the results of the textological analysis we distinguish two versions of the text: the first one is present in East Slavonic manuscripts and Zagreb Triodion, the second one – in two Serbian Triodia, and their compiled type – in the Orbele Triodion. Although no Greek correspondence to these texts have been found so far, the textual evidences argue for the Byzantine origin of a certain text. The outstanding poetic characteristics of certain troparia as well as their remarkable correspondence with the whole poetical structure of the Antiphons cause us to believe that unlike the Theotokia which are included in the Antiphons in the modern Greek and Slavic tradition, the Stavrotheotokia were the part of the initial text of the hymn. Since two versions of the Church Slavonic text are not located on a certain territory, the translation of these texts into Church Slavonic was probably made in the South Slavic area and later transferred to the East Slavonic tradition.

Unknown Аrchaic Тranslation of Sermon 5 from John of Sinaya’s Scala Paradisi, in a Serbian Manuscript from the 14th Century

The subject of this research is an unknown Slavic translation of Sermon 5 John of Sinaya’s Scala Paradisi (Lestvica) in a Serbian Menaion and Triodion Panagyric, rewritten from an old Bulgarian antigraph which has preserved the archaic grammatical traits of the prototranslation. In the sermon’s text, forms of asigmatic aorist and first sigmatic aorist with a preserved “s” are being registered, as well as non-contrahered forms for imperfect, forms of past active I participle formed with suffix -ьш- from verbs with a base ending on -и-, possessive adjectives as a translation of the Greek genitive case for possession, usage of a local prepositionless, excessive prepositionless usage of ablative case, descriptive future with a preponderance of forms of хотѣти + infinitive, dual number forms, non-contrahered forms of complex (determinative) adjectives, etc. The translation of the sermon of the transcript in NHM24 includes rare lexemes that attribute it to the early translations of Cyril and Methodius. It demonstrates similarities to the Glagolitic translations of the hand-written cannon of 10th–11th century.

Фолклор и књижевност у српским рукописним песмарицама XVIII и XIX века

Фолклор и књижевност у српским рукописним песмарицама XVIII и XIX века

Synaxarion vita of Saint Mary of Egypt - the earliest Serbian manuscript copies

The paper discusses Synaxarion vita of Saint Mary of Egypt according to earliest Serbian copies in synaxarions. The texts of the three translations are compared between each other and also with the extensive Vita of Saint Mary of Egypt. In both simple prologue and prologue with verses the text about this saint is established on the duration of two opposite parts in her life and it points out the details existing in iconography, although one version of synaxarion with verses introduces an unfamilliar information about her burial.

The abbreviated Latin version of Nikodim’s Gospel according to the Serbian written copy dating from the 16th-17th century

The paper deals with the abbreviated Latin version of Nikodim?s Gospel, which is kept in the Serbian manuscripts section of the National Library in Vienna, dating from the 16th-17th century, bearing the signature Slave 76. This segment of the Gospel is a separate second part of the whole version in Latin, wherein Christ?s descent into Hades is described. This is also the main difference between the Greek and the Latin version of this apocryph. As such, this copy represents a separate phenomenon among Slavic copies. The addendum contains the edited text of the abbreviated variant, compared to the corresponding part of the full version.

The language of the Story of the Sage Ahiqar from Serbian Manuscript No. 53 of the National Library of Serbia

In terms of homogeneous diglossia, the basic characteristic of the Serbian mediaeval language situation, the usage of two language systems, Serbian Church Slavonic and Old Serbian, were clearly functionally demarcated. However, in some genres they could get closer to each other, could influence each other and could even interfere with each other. In some texts of secular character (especially those written in different sociolinguistic contexts or in peripheral shtokavian dialectal zones) as a result of the mutual influence of two language systems a hybrid language, a mixture of Serbian Church Slavonic and Old Serbian (shtokavian) elements, could have arisen. Narrative texts of non-liturgical character represented a mixed zone, that is, the texts which could have been written in different types of language. So far it was confirmed that some texts of this genre could have been written in high-style Serbian Church Slavonic (e.g. the Barlaam and Joasaph Romance), the other in its lower functional style (e.g. the Serbian Alexander Romance), and the third in almost pure Old Serbian (e.g. the Troy Romance). This paper investigates the phonological, phonetic, morphological and syntactic features of the Story of the Sage Ahiqar in order to expand the knowledge about the possibilities of language realisations in Serbian medieval non-liturgical narrative prose. Analysis was conducted on the 16th-century transcript from Serbian Manuscript No. 53 of the National library of Serbia, which originated in the west shtokavian dialectal zone. The results have confirmed the presence of elements originating both from Serbian Church Slavonic and Old Serbian (shtokavian vernacular) at every language level without a possibility to say which of them prevail. The analysis has also shown that the dominant vernacular features include those of common shtokavian character which had developed until the 15th century, while those from the later period have not been noted. Regarding the stylistic aspect, the functional style in this text is similar to the other narrative texts where traditional language patterns overlap with patterns characteristic of spoken language or oral literature.

The terms designating diacritical Marks above leters and punctuation Marks in the Serbian manuscript Miscelany at the Austrian National Library in Viena (cod.Slav.93)

The study presents the previously unknown list that contains terms designating diacritical marks above letters and punctuation marks, written out on fol. 111v of the Liturgical Miscellany (early 18th century, Vienna, Austrian National Library, Cod. slav. 93). The list offers the most comprehensive record of these marks in Serbian manuscript heritage. It may be assumed with great probability that the scribe of the Miscellany adopted these terms either from the Primer by Theophan Prokopovich, which was published on several occasions between 1724 and 1734, or another, earlier primer in the Russo-Slavonic language. This is indicated by the fact that this type of compendium contains almost identical lists of prosodic and punctuation marks.

The Serbian manuscripts of the lader of divine ascent of St. John Sinaites (14th c.)

The Ladder of Divine Ascent of St. John Sinaites has been very popular among the Slaves in the Middle Ages. From the 14th century 66 manuscripts were kept, 29 of them are Serbian. Not less than seven ancient manuscripts are kept in the National Library of Serbia (in the collections of the monasteries of Decani and Pec and in the New collection). Two manuscripts are kept in the library of the University of Belgrade, in the collection of manuscripts Lesnovo monastery. Five Serbian manuscripts of the Ladder are kept in the Russian National Library (St. Petersburg). Three ancient Serbian books of the Ladder are kept in Moscow, in the Russian State Library. Six ancient Serbian manuscripts of the Ladder are kept in the libraries of Mount Athos: four in the Hilandar monastery and two in the Zograf monastery. Four manuscripts of the Serbian Ladder are kept in Bucharest, in the Library of the Romanian Academy of Sciences. One ancient manuscript is kept in Macedonia, in the Ohrid National Museum. One Serbian book of the Ladder is kept in Paris, in the Slavic Fund of the French National Library. Of course, the former number of ancient Serbian manuscripts of the Ladder was much more than 29. The Serbian manuscripts preserved all ancient Slavonic translations of the Ladder: Preslav (in two versions), Tarnovo, Serbian (in two versions) and Athos. The author gives a description of each manuscript, names its location, dating and the related manuscripts. The Ladder as a book has many components. The basics of this book are the Life of St. John Sinaites and his message to John of Raif and 30 homilies. In the Slavic tradition we added a lot of new texts to this, not Greek but Slavic. One of these texts is the dictionary ?Tolkovanie recem?. According to our observations, this dictionary appeared in the Serbian book culture not later than the second half of the 14th century. The text of this dictionary began to appear separately from the Ladder very early as a part of the ascetic Sammelbands. An example is a Sammelband of the library of the Hilandar Monastery, number 455. The text of this dictionary is in the appendix of the article.

O „русизмах” Берлинского сборника

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Phytotherapy in medieval Serbian medicine according to the pharmacological manuscripts of the Chilandar Medical Codex (15–16th centuries)

The Chilandar Medical Codex is the most significant and best preserved medieval Serbian manuscript and collects together documents on European medical science from the 12th to 15th centuries. It represents the best-known and most complete example of a large collection of medical manuscripts from the Salerno-Montpellier school, written in the vernacular - something which does not exist among the majority of European nations. This paper presents the section of the Codex that deals with phytotherapy, which is contained within the pharmacological manuscripts. An analysis of their contents shows that out of a total of 167 recorded substances, 135 are of plant origin (81%), 13 animal origin (7.7%) and 19 inorganic (11.3%). The recorded plant species are categorised into 63 families, of which the most frequent are: Apiaceae (8.1%), Lamiaceae (8.1%), Asteraceae (5.9%), Rosaceae (5.9%) and Fabaceae (4.4%). All possible plant parts were used in treatments: the whole plant (6%), underground parts (13.7% - root, rhizome, bulb) and aerial parts (80.3% - stem, leaf, flower, buds, fruit, seeds). Of the plants quoted, the following are mentioned most frequently: Vitis sp. (120), Rosa canina (55), Olea europaea (45), Pistacia lentiscus (25), Saccharum officinarum (23), Artemisia absinthium (16) and Foeniculum vulgare (15). The contents of the pharmacological manuscripts of the Chilandar Medical Codex point to the sound contemporary knowledge of the diversity of plant species, their origins, habitat types, the levels of their healing powers, and when and how to gather them and prepare them, as well as the recommended dose for the treatment of specific illnesses. As these manuscripts contain not only common, lay terms for the plants, but also scientific, botanical ones, we can consider them the precursor to Serbian botany. Based on its contents and the way in which they are presented, it can be viewed not only as the first Serbian pharmacopeia, but first Slavic pharmacopeia, too, because similar manuscripts written in the vernacular did not exist during that period among the other Slavic nations, or even most European nations.

Saint Petka the hosia - Saint Petka the martyr

The cult of the holy recluse Paraskeve (Petka) of Epibatai (October 14th) was translated to medieval Serbia by the middle of the XIII century at the latest, as attested by the oldest Serbian transcription of her service (Archive of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts no. 361). However, there are two other martyrs of the same name - Paraskeve of Rome (July 26th) of Paraskeve of Ikonium (October 28th). The three holy women of the same name undeniably caused a confusion which has also been reflected in a number of Serbian manuscripts. This text deals with two Serbian copies of the service from manuscript no. 516 from the National Library of Sofia (end of XIII - beginning of XIV century; November 8th) and manuscript no. 34 from the collection of the monastery of Decani (end of XIV - beginning of XV century). Both services, regardless of the dates to which they are assigned, are dedicated to Paraskeve the martyr. A careful comparison of the two services showed that there was a cross-over of services dedicated to two martyrs. Particularly interesting are the combined canons, in the odes of which part of the troparia are dedicated the holy woman from Ikonium and part to the martyr saint from Rome. Differentiation was achieved by adopting contents from the vitae of both martyrs in question. Textological differences are also apparent in the translations of parts of the service common to the services of both saints. Structural, textological and differences in content can be observed in a comparative analysis of both services. In part, this study relies also on the Serbian transcription of the service for July 26th dedicated to Paraskeve of Rome (Sofia, National Library no. 118). This service is also dedicated to the martyr Paraskeve. The material presented in this paper indicates all the complexity associated with the cults of three eponymous saints - the three holy Paraskeves (Petkas). .

An example of the influence of the gospel lectionary on the iconography of medieval wall painting

An example of the influence of the gospel lectionary on the iconography of medieval wall painting

A Serbian mystery: A fragment of a Serbian manuscript at Lund university

A Serbian mystery: A fragment of a Serbian manuscript at Lund university