Slavonic Translation Research Articles

“And They Joined Him in Elphegor”: on the Relationship Between the Romanian Translation of the Palaea Historica and Its Slavonic Model

The Palaea Historica, a Byzantine apocryphal text from the 9th century, was translated into Romanian between the late 16th century and the early 17th century via a Slavonic intermediary. Although the Romanian text was edited and published in full in 2001, recent developments in the academic discussion around the Slavonic version of the Palaea Historica have led to the publication of an edition of the second Slavonic translation in the year 2016, thereby raising the question of whether the Romanian text was solely influenced by the first redaction or not. This study is a continuation of the author’s previous research on the Romanian version’s relationship with the two Slavonic redactions, with more focus being given to grammatical peculiarities and loci obscuri that were highlighted by the editors of the Romanian manuscripts as having been stemmed from the Slavonic text’s influence. These passages are analyzed in comparison with the two Slavonic translations and the Greek original, allowing for a better perspective on how dependent the Romanian grammatical constructions were on their Slavonic model. Finally, this study refers to an onomastic confusion between Abraham’s brother and Abraham’s father, which is avoided or possibly Romanian version.

O modlitwach w Podróży do Świętych miejsc w 1830 roku Andrzeja Murawjowa

Conversation with God accompanied people of various times, nations and religions, because of a universal dimension of the desire for dialogue with the Absolute. The article attempts to analyze those of the prayers which Andrey Muravyev, a Russian writer, poet, state and church activist, practiced during his first pilgrimage to Palestine. Texts of the prayers were from The journey to Holy Places in 1830 (2 vols), which is a record of the author’s experiences and impressions from his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. As an epigraph to both parts of this Muravyev’s work, the words from Ps 135(134) – a hymn of praise to the Lord who works miracles – were served. Attention of the article is paid to: the sense of the prayers, their biographical and literary context, the lexical and partly grammatical material, which Muravyev used (making necessary reference to the Greek and (or) Hebrew sources of Church Slavonic translations of the prayers) and their theological message as well.

Lexical Greekisms in the Slavic Translation of the Byzantine Life of St. Athanasius of Athos

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of the use of lexical Greekisms in the language of the Slavic Life of St. Athanasius of Athos, which belongs to the new Svyatogorsk translations from Greek of the late 13th century. By comparing the translation of the list NBKM 307 that is the closest to the archetype with the Byzantine original, it is shown that, along with observing the general Athos-Tarnovo tendency to replace Greekisms with Slavic equivalents, borrowings are very actively used in the translation (more than 40 units). It has been established that lexical Greekisms not only act as a striking sign of the book style, but also perform three important functions. Firstly, they serve to nominate a new phenomenon, object, concept (колиба, красѡволъ, солинарь), for which there is no Slavic equivalent. Secondly, they make it possible to differentiate similar concepts that are different in the cultural and linguistic environments of the 13th–14th centuries (киновїа and монастырь). And fi nally, they have a signifi cant impact on the evolution of paradigmatic and syntagmatic connections between the lexical units of the Church Slavonic language.

Vocabulary for Human Anatomy in the Earliest Slavonic Translation of Books of Samuel and Kings

Vocabulary for Human Anatomy in the Earliest Slavonic Translation of Books of Samuel and Kings

Once again about the translation principles of Epiphanius Slavinetsky and Euphemia Chudovsky (based on the material "Epitomy")

The subject of the study is the linguistic features of the Slavic translation of the Epitomies by Konstantin Armenopoul, performed by Epiphanius Slavinetsky. The object of study was the translation itself, presented in several major manuscripts. The work on the Epitomies belongs to one of the early works of Epiphanius in Moscow, since the Kiev scribe began it in 1652-1653. In the course of the analysis, we considered both the earliest discovered lists of "Epitomies" and the latest (up to the end of the XIX – beginning XX centuries), however, the most important textual and linguistic material is presented in the following lists: Usp. 91, GIM – a draft of the hand of Epiphany Slavinetsky; Und. 40, RGB – records of active editorial editing; Sin. 129, GIM – the final version, rewritten by Euphemia Monstrosky. The work uses the linguotextological method, as well as methods of continuous sampling, analytical observation and comparison of the Slavic text with the original in Greek. The novelty of the study consists in the introduction into scientific circulation of lists that have not been studied by researchers in the linguistic aspect before. The analysis of the Epitomium material not only makes it possible to reconstruct the history of the text, but also has fundamental linguistic significance. It makes it possible to summarize the general and highlight the differences in the linguistic features of Epiphanius Slavinetsky and his pupil Euphemia Chudovsky. Thus, the author of the translation, Epiphany Slavinetsky, and the editor, Euphemia Chudovsky, have different linguistic orientations – the first relies more on Slavic grammars, and for the second it is important to convey the Greek original as accurately as possible, which also leads to the elimination of regionalisms characteristic of the Ukrainian-Belarusian translation of Church Slavonic, and the Grecization of the text.

Newly Found South Slavic Manuscripts of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries with the Pseudo-Athanasian Questions and Answers to Antiochus the Duke

Abstract This paper addresses the problem of an insufficient base of manuscript material for the study of the Slavonic translation of the Pseudo-Athanasian Questions and Answers to Antiochus the Duke (QAD). It begins with a brief survey of the two existing approaches to identifying the main groups of manuscripts and versions of the text (Lara Sels and William R. Veder) and alerts researchers to the fact that the number of examined witnesses today is too small to establish the real textual tradition of QAD. In the second part of the article, the authors present three newly found manuscripts as a way of partly responding to this problem and also suggest a new way of grouping them with those that have been previously studied.

Manuscript Copy of “The Jewish War” by Josephus Flavius “Rukaniskania” of Prince Dmitry Vasilievich Romodanovsky

The article is devoted to the study of a manuscript book of the middle of the 17th century, kept in the collection of E.E. Egorov in the Manuscripts Department of the Russian State Library and containing the text of the Slavonic translation of Josephus Flavius’ “The Jewish War”. This copy, which remained unaccounted for in the domestic historiography of the monument, is accompanied by additional articles, one of which, dating back to the “Tale of the Princes of Vladimir”, which remained unknown until now, is introduced into the scientific turnover. The owner of the book, judging by the entry in its margins, was Prince Dmitry Vasilyevich Romodanovsky, exiled in 1660 to the Solovetsky Monastery.On the basis of a review of manuscripts belonging to the family of D.V. Romodanovsky and a comparison with one written by him himself, it is proved that the prince also produced the manuscript of Egorov. It is assumed that it was written by D.V. Romodanovsky still at home, before his exile to the Solovetsky monastery. It was possible to read in ultraviolet rays the erased record on the protective sheet, which testifies to the fact that the manuscript was put up for sale in the 17th century. An attempt is made to find the antigraph of additional articles of the book, particularly in the libraries of the Solovetsky Monastery and the Romodanovskys. It is concluded that it is necessary to introduce the manuscript under study into a wide scientific circulation as an important historical source.

Akathist Hymn in the East Slavonic Literature of the 15th – 16th Centuries: On the Problem of the Existence of Russian Version

Purpose. The paper presents the results of a textological investigation of the Church Slavonic translation of the Akathist Hymn – the masterpiece of the Byzantine hymnography – based on East Slavic manuscripts of the 15th – 16th centuries. The author examined textological data proving the existence in the Russian area of a special (unknown n the South Slavic territories) version of the Akathist Hymn. The problems concerning the process of the appearance and the existence of that version in the East Slavic written tradition are discussed in the work.Results. That distinct version is presumably attributed to Metropolitan Cyprian (1330–1406) basing on the attribution of the manuscripts containing its full form, its South Slavic protograph (that fact was also proved with the usage of textological methods), as well as the language features of the corrections to the text of the hymn. Due to textological data it is also supposed that the correction to the text of the Akathist was performed by Cyprian after he had come to Rus and worked on the correction to the Psalter. The compiling process of the certain version of the Akathist with the Athonite version, that existed simultaneously in Rus, explains the diversity of textual traditions of the Akathist Hymn presented in Russian manuscripts of the 15th – 16th centuries.

Венецыянская Біблія – „Бивлия руска” Францыска Скарыны: механічнае прытрымліванне ці творчая перапрацоўка?

The article is devoted to some features of the translation technique used by the famous forerunner of Belarusian printing Francysk Skaryna when translating the Holy Scriptures. Francysk Skaryna is one of the greatest figures of Belarusian Renaissance. Numerous scientific investigations have been devoted to his work, but his legacy still remains terra incognita. One of the questions concerns the original he used when translating the Holy Scriptures – the ancient Hebrew Masoretic text, the Septuagint, the Vulgate, the Czech translation of the Bible, or the Bible in the Church Slavonic language? The article presents the results of the textual analysis of the Book of Job, the Book of the prophet Daniel, and the Book of Ecclesiastes, as well as numerous examples of Skaryna’s use of the Czech translation of the Bible. It should be noted that in some cases when translating well known passages, he used the Church Slavonic translation of the Holy Scriptures. Frequent lexical elements and collocations from the Old Church Slavonic canon entered Skaryna’s translation of the Bible. The article concludes that it was the archaic of Church Slavonic text of the Bible that prompted Skaryna to reach for another, more modern version – the Czech translation. As a result, a hybrid text was created, in which both Church Slavonic and Czech elements were presented at the lexical level.

Чудесата на св. Димитър от солунския хартофилакс Йоан Ставракий в южнославянската традиция: Предварителни бележки

The article describes the content and the internal textual features of the Greek collection of miracles of St. Demetrios of Thessalonica by John Stavrakios in the 13th century, in comparison with the only two Slavonic copies, autographs of Vladislav the Grammarian from the 15th century, which attest the Slavonic translation. The collection is one of the most recent chronologically, reproducing both older miracles reflecting the flexible adaptation of the cult of St Demetrios and the uninterrupted veneration of the saint across wide spatial and temporal boundaries. The comparison of the Greek and the Slavonic traditions does not allow the exact Greek prototype to be identified. It probably belongs, however, to the filiation attested in the 1940 edition of Joachim Iberites, since individual textual samples prove that the Slavonic translation follows its Greek source quite closely. The role of Vladislav the Grammarian and the historical context of the emergence of the translation is discussed. The appendix contains two previously unpublished miracles, known only from the work of Stavrakios, in Slavonic translation based on the Rila Panegyric of 1479 and translated into modern Bulgarian.

A Rediscovered Codex of the Old Church Slavonic Translation of the Books of the Kingdoms

This article opens up hitherto unexplored avenues of research into the textual transmission of the Old Church Slavonic version of the Books of the Kingdoms (1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings in the Hebrew Bible), undertaken from the Septuagint by an anonymous Bulgarian translator no later than the late 9th – early 10th centuries. The focus is on a mid-15th century South Slavic manuscript, which until the early eighties of the XX century was kept in the Croatian Historical Museum in Zagreb under the call number R-38. Its subsequent place of preservation remained unknown for a few decades until in 2021 the author succeeded in tracking it down in the town of Pakrac, in Western Slavonia, Croatia. The codex, which is today in the possession of the Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Slavonia, stands out not only for being the only surviving testimony of the translation written in Resava orthography, but also for its unique linguistic and textual features, making it a precious witness for investigating the translation’s oldest textual layer. Specifically, it differs from any other existing source because of its textual arrangement. Furthermore, it appears to be very conservative from a linguistic standpoint given it comprises lexical, grammatical and syntactical archaisms. The analysis of its textual readings proves it not to be a direct copy either of one of the surviving Middle Bulgarian or of the existing East Slavic testimonies; rather it unexpectedly represents an additional third, hitherto completely unexplored branch of transmission. Consequently, this recently rediscovered codex is a source of exceptional significance, particularly since it enriches our understanding of the textual history of the Old Church Slavonic translation of the Books of the Kingdoms.

По стопам гуманистов: Mаксим Грек и «Oтче нашъ толковои»

This essay is dedicated to the Pater noster Commentary (Otče naš tolkovo), a commentary on the Pater noster that is found in a manuscript collection of Maximus the Greek’s works, the ms. RNB OLDP nr. 176, and until now has been erroneously counted among his original writings. The text is here for the first time restored to the Slavic tradition of Pseudo-Chrysostom’s Interpretatio orationis Pater noster (CPG 4596) and identified as a witness to the third version of the second redaction of the Slavic translation, which I suggest here may have been taken (copied) from the ms. GIM Čud. nr. 167. In the Slavic tradition, the version of the Interpretatio chosen by Maximus the Greek did not enjoy textual autonomy but was included in the Tolkovaja služba within the Kormčaja kniga of the Čudovskyj type. In researching, selecting and moving the text, Maximus the Greek shows a humanist sensibility, moving in the footsteps and applying the method of his Italian masters, and especially following the example of the camaldolese monk Pietro Candido in the arrangement of the ms. BNCF Conventi soppressi G.II.496.

The Slavonic Solunskaja Legenda (“The Legend of Thessalonica”) and Its Syriac Original

Abstract The Slavonic eschatological apocryphon Solunskaja Legenda (“The Legend of Thessalonica”) is a direct translation from Syriac. The archetype of the extant recensions is datable to 893–972. It was created, in the First Bulgarian Empire, on the base of an earlier Slavonic text that did not mention the Bulgarians. The Sitz im Leben of the original Syriac recension and its Slavonic translation is a Syrian monothelete colony in North Macedonia (then, a part of Byzantium) between 752/754 and 839/842. The legend echoed events related to a successful Syriac monothelete mission to a slavinia (Slavic enclave headed by an autonomous prince) in the region of Thessalonica in the 670s or 680s. The legend describes the creation of the first Slavonic alphabet, and it uses specific terminology for writing tools. In its Slavonic translation, this terminology was transliterated instead of being translated. It can be assumed that the translator wanted to introduce new terms into the Slavonic language in this way.

Pronouns той, тая, тое in the Church Slavonic Translation of the New Testament by Epiphanius Slavinetsky and Euthymius Chudovsky

The New Testament translated from Greek by Epiphanius Slavinetsky and Euthymius Chudovsky is characterized by the excessive use of demonstrative pronouns той, таꙗ, тоѥ instead of personal pronouns of the third person. In the “draft” translation there is a large array of replacement of personal pronouns with demonstrative ones, although there is as well an opposite correction. The «clean» copy of the New Testament maintains this inconsistency. The analysis of the set of corrections allowed us to reconstruct the initial competition of the forms той, таꙗ, тоѥ and *и, *ꙗ, *ѥ. This trait isinherent to the Epiphanius Slavinetsky’s translation and is due to the orientation towards the functioning of the Greek nterpretive pronoun αὐτός as a personal one in all the cases and as a possessive pronoun in the genitive case. The inconsistency of Eupthymius’ correction is due to a combination of various factors: the following of the Epiphanius’ usage, the influence of the older Gospel translation, as well as the desire to avoid homonymy of pronouns when changing the person, dictated by exegetical considerations. The further correction observed in the «clear» copy of the New Testament shows a tendency towards the limitationin the use of the pronouns той, таꙗ, тоѥ to the contexts of the “strong” anaphora.

ОТРАЖЕНИЕ АНТИКВАРНОГО МЕТОДА "ВЕТХОГО ЛЮБОПЫТНИКА" УИЛЬЯМА КЕМДЕНА В ЦЕРКОВНО-СЛАВЯНСКОМ ПЕРЕВОДЕ "БРИТАНИИ"

The article analyses the interpretation of particularities of the antiquarian method that was very popular among the European researchers of the 16th century in the Church Slavonic translation of W. Camden's "Britannia". Created by the English antiquary this treatise was included in the fourth volume of the most famous world geographical atlas - the "New Atlas" of Blaeu. This volume was translated very accurately into Church Slavonic by Isaiah, the Little Russian scribe of the Chudov Monastery in the 1650s-1661 upon the orders of Patriarch Nikon. The examples of archaeology, numismatics and epigraphies were examined. These auxiliary disciplines were just beginning to form in Europe in the late 16th - early 17th centuries. For the Russian state of the same period, it is not necessary to talk about a similar level of development of these areas of historical thought, so Isaiah acted as a pioneer, interpreting, for example, information about ancient coins, archaeological finds, that is, artefacts.

Неизследвани страни от почитта към светите мъченици Ина, Пина и Рима във византийските и славянските агиографски и химнографски извори

The article explores the controversial matters of the localization and chronologization of the martyr acts of the Scythian / Gothic? saints Innas, Pinnas and Rimmas, presenting data from the scant Byzantine and Slavonic hagiographic sources and the new archaeological findings from the Medieval city Zaldapa of Scythia Minor. Special attention is paid to the hymnographic office on the three martyrs, written in the 9th century by Joseph the Hymnographer, which is known from Byzantine manuscripts. The study focuses on the Slavonic translation of this office, attested in two related Eastern Bulgarian Menaia: Second Menaion of Dobrian (Оdessa National Scientific Library, Grig. No. 1/5) from the 13th century and Cod. 609 of Monastery Hilandar from the 14th century. The two key specificities of the translation are outlined in the study: 1) its non-homogenous nature, resulting from the interweaving of innovative and markedly archaic trends; 2) the abundance of inaccurately translated Greek words or phrases, or mistakes due to inaccurate understanding of the Greek original, paronymic errors or translator’s factual ignorance. The collation between the two Bulgarian copies evidences the closed tradition of this hymnographic text in Slavonic milieu, a text, which – once translated – has never been compared to the Greek original. At the same time, the composition of the office from the Monastery Hilandar manuscript was updated and supplemented, according to the rules of the Jerusalem Typicon, introduced to the South Slavonic context in the 14th century. The publication of the hymnographic text is based on the Cod. 609 from the Monastery Hilandar with versions from the Second Menaion of Dobrian.

The Byzantine chronicles of Symeon the Magister and the Logothete (10th cent.) and Joannes Zonaras (12th cent.). Lesser known sources of knowledge on the Balkan and Eastern Europe Slavs (review of research)

The article deals with two Byzantine chronicles that were translated into Old Church Slavic in the Middle Ages on the Balkan Peninsula and were subsequently adapted in Rus’, where they served as the base and source of inspiration for indigenous East Slavic historical studies in universal history. It is about the works of Symeon Magister and Logothete, who probably wrote between the reign of Romanus I Lecapenus and the beginning of the reign of Basil II, and the Epitome historiarum of John Zonaras, covering history from the creation of the world to 1118, which is the most comprehensive Byzantine historical work and which, possibly, was completed ca. 1145. The aim of the article is to establish the chronology of the creation of the Old Church Slavic translations of both chronicles and the history of their dissemination in the Slavia Orthodoxa area (with a review of the state of research). The editions of the translations and unpublished manuscript material were examined (its excerpt is presented in the appendix). We were able to establish that the complete translation of the work of Symeon Magister and Logothete is preserved only in the Moldavian historiographical compilation of 1637, while the text of John Zonaras was translated by the Slavs several times and functioned in their literatures in many versions, none of which, however, is complete.

За някои звукоподражателни глаголи в Римския патерик, или как дяволът плаши хората

The themes of medieval literature prevent the penetration not only of separate lexemes, closely related to the everyday life of the Bulgarians into the literary Old Bulgarian language but sometimes this affects entire classes of words. Onomatopoeias are one such class. The question of these words is completely unexplored historically. One of the stories in the Slavonic translation of the Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great allows for observations on the ways in which three times in Old Bulgarian literature an adequate translation was sought for the animal sounds with which Satan tried to drive the bishop of Milan out of his house.

The translation of “Dogmatic Panoply” by Euthymiоs Zigabenоs in Paleoslavistics: research state and perspectives

The article summarizes the known so far scholarly facts and focuses on the problematic research fields in the study of one of the most significant translations of the South Slavonic Middle Ages, such as that of Dogmatic Panoply by Euthymios Zigabenos. The Slavonic translation of the Second Book appeared on Mount Athos at the very beginning of the 15th century, and was associated with the activities of South Slavic monks-literati who maintained links with Greek scribes. The Athonite monasticism acted as main engine for this translation in the context of the Ottoman invasion of the Balkans, when the Orthodox literary legacy was the mainstay of identity.

Rendition of σώφρων and σωφροσύνη in Ukrainian translations of the New Testament

Summary The article focuses on the rendition of the key words of the Christian ethical vocabulary σώφρων and σωφροσύνη in Ukrainian translations of the New Testament in comparison with other East Slavic translations in synchronic and diachronic dimensions. The σώφρων word group covers a range of “intellectual” and “moral” meanings in Ancient Greek, which continue to evolve in Hellenistic Greek to denote ‘soundness of mind’, ‘prudence’, ‘discretion’, ‘good sense’, on the one hand, and ‘moderation’, ‘self-control’, ‘temperance’, ‘restraint’, ‘decency’, ‘modesty’, on the other. Retaining such polysemy in the New Testament, the σώφρων word group also displays various connotations depending on gender, age and social status. The Old Slavonic and Church Slavonic calques of the σώφρων word group mostly accentuate its “moral” meanings, especially the meanings of ‘chastity’ and ‘purity’, which evolve in Christian ascetic literature after the New Testament, although in some cases they retain their primary “intellectual” meanings. The article also explores the use of semantic equivalents of the σώφρων word group in Old Ukrainian, Old Russian and Old Belarusian based on corpora data and historical written monuments. We came to the conclusion that Ukrainian biblical translations of the 19th to early 21st century, as well as some Russian and Belarusian translations, generally take into consideration the polysemy of the σώφρων word group in the New Testament, though a great extent of variability of equivalents and a lack of consistent reproduction of gender and age connotations are observed. We argue that the use of certain moral equivalents of the σώφρων word group in modern East Slavic translations (in particular, Ukrainian цнотливий, цнотливість, цнота, Russian целомудренный and Belarusian цнатлівий) is inappropriate due to the resulting narrowing of their meanings to ‘innocence’, ‘virginity’ and ‘sexual purity’.