The Place of the Mihanović Psalter in the Fourteenth-Century Revisions of the Church Slavonic Psalter

Modern scholarship on the textual history of Church Slavonic biblical translation recognizes two distinct revisions of the Church Slavonic Psalter from the early fourteenth century, Redaction III (sometimes called the ‘Athonite’ redaction) and Redaction IV, known only in the Norov psalter manuscript. Although they are both attested from the same period and in manuscripts of similar Bulgarian provenance, these two redactions are in some respects systematically different in their linguistic character, their approach to translational issues and their Greek textual basis. In the light of A.A. Turilov’s observation that the Mihanović Psalter, possibly the earliest witness to Redaction III, is written in the same hand as the greater part of the Norov Psalter, this paper examines the textual antecedents of the two redactions and the importance of the Mihanović Psalter as a link between them

Ohrid Literary School in the Period of Tzar Samoil and the Beginnings of the Russian Church Literature

The article is concerned with the role of St. Clement’s Church in the preservation and the spread of Cyril and Methodius’s literary tradition and Slavic church services. Special emphasis is placed on the work of the Ohrid Literary School in the time of Tsar Samoil and the spread of Slavic literacy from its centers toward Macedonia’s neighboring countries and the Kievan Rus

Early music printing in german-speaking lands

Printing was first established in Mainz, the seat of the archbishop who was the most important of the seven Electors of the Holy Roman Empire and head of the largest ecclesiastical province of that Empire, containing 17,000 clerics who made a perfect market for liturgical books.1 The Council of Basel had ended in 1449 with the imperative to distribute newly reformed liturgical texts across Europe, and music was an integral part of those reformed texts. Although it appeared that the entire international church was behind the adoption of the conciliar reformed Liber Ordinarius, the Council of the Province of Mainz that met in 1451 voted against what was essentially a Roman liturgy, supporting instead a text offered by the archbishop of Mainz.2 Despite the pope’s threat to use military force if necessary, the council ended by sending bishops and abbots back to their homes to create unique reformed diocesan and monastic texts in a giant exercise in textual editing.

О некоторых лексических нововведениях в церковнославянских псалтырях русского извода

On some lexical innovations in Russian Church Slavonic Psalters The examples of lexical innovations in Russian Church Slavonic Psalters, which are presented above, show how much their translators respected older Church Slavonic vocabulary. They used a great deal of "new" East Bulgarian words which seemed to be closer to them than the West Bulgarian lexical elements. They also introduced into the Russian Church Slavonic psalters some vocabulary of the East Slavonic origin, but they were very moderate with the lexical changes for the simple reason that the Pslater had to be kept free of informal words.О некоторых лексических нововведениях в церковнославянских псалтырях русского извода В статье представлены примеры нововведений в лексическом материале церковнорусскух псалтырей 11-19 вв по отношению к старославянскому канону. Чужие Синайской псалмыри слова разделены на 3 группы: 1) слова общие для обеих Преславянской и Охридской переводческих школ, 2) типичные "преславизмы", 3) слова восточнославянского происхождения. Примеры показывают высокую степень подражания исследованных рукописей старому псалтырному тектсу пришедшему на Русь из Восточной Болгарии а также их Умеренную тенденцию к заменам старославянских слов родственными восточнославянскими

Patronage, Audience and Ownership of the Psalter of Blanche of Castile

The so-called Psalter of Blanche of Castile (Psautier latin dit de saint Louis et de Blanche de Castille, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Paris, MS 1186 réserve) is a well-preserved illuminated manuscript made in Paris in the first half of the thirteenth century. As a devotional book, it witnesses the concerns of a thirteenth century individual of high rank, most likely a woman. As its modern name indicates, scholars link its existence to the Queen of France Blanche of Castile (4 March 1188 – 27 November 1252; r. 1226-34, 1248-52). No firm documentation, however, attests to the circumstances of its making, nor to its patron, intended audience and first owner. Scholars have studied the text and the miniatures in the hope of finding some clue as to who commissioned it, who created it, and the reasons behind a choice of miniatures and format atypical in comparison with other Psalters made in Paris over the course of the thirteenth century. In studying the Psalter of Blanche of Castile, I find myself intrigued by issues of patronage and context, and unconvinced by some of the arguments and conclusions put forward by scholars who have studied this manuscript. In the following pages, through close examination of the miniatures and comparison with other Psalters, as well as consideration of both the evidence and its interpretation by a number of scholars, I draw new conclusions – some firmly based on the existing evidence and some of a more speculative kind – about the patronage, audience, and ownership of the Psalter of Blanche of Castile

Captatio benevolentiae: A Different History of the Early Romanian Psalters

International audienceOld Greek and Law in have shaped two different Kulturkreise in Europe, meeting where the Romanian lands are situated and giving Romanian culture its versatile, on-again, off-again, half-Eastern and half-Western characteristics. It is not a single culture, but a plural one, and the early Romanian Psalters illustrate it bes

The First Psalters in Old French and Their 12th Century Context

International audienceThere are two ways in which one may write the introduction to the history of medieval French literature. The first one – more common – starts with the Song of Roland. The second one – just as acceptable – starts with the St Albans Psalter (nowadays preserved in Hildesheim, Cathedral Library of Saint Mary, without a designated number). It was there, in this Psalter, that one of the most seminal texts of the Middle Ages was written – the Song of St Alexis –, but it was also from this Latin Psalter that the first translations of the sacred texts into French were ever made. The Oxford Psalter, the very first French medieval translation of the Psalter and the most extensively copied, is arguably one of the best word- by-word translations of the Psalms and Old Testament Canticles ever made, and it stems from that particular text. The autograph of this translation is preserved in the Douce 320 manuscript of the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Completely different from the mise-en-page of the other French Psalters of the time, its avatars, the Oxford Psalter’s layout presents us with a monolingual codex. It dates back to the first half of the 12th century and it was written in England, in the Anglo-Norman dialect of the time. Nothing is known about the original context in which it was produ- ced. The only thing known for certain is that the Oxford Psalter was part of the library of the Benedictine abbey of Montebourg, in Normandy, at the beginning of the 14th century, where it was bound with a copy of a French translation of the Rule of Saint Benedict – dating back to the begin- ning of the 13th century – in what is nowadays known as the composite manuscript Douce 320. This is why it was also called the Montebourg Psalter for quite some time. Its new name, the Oxford Psalter, refers only to the place where it is nowadays preserved