Balkan Slavic sources
Manasses Chronicle - Legend of Troy
Originally titled Pověsti o izvěstovannyix veštei eže o kralexъ pričę ('Histories about famous things telling about kings'), the original, placed as an addendum to the Chronicle of Manasses, can be found in the manuscript Vat.slav.2 of the Vatican Apostolic Library in Rome (f. 42r-62r).
Although written in Church Slavonic, the text shows strong influence of Bulgarian vernaculars. The text is likely based on a source from the Western Europe. This edition contains references to both the Croatian edition, which can be found in Petrisov Zbornik (pp. 640-658, link), critically published by Jagić (1868), as well as to later East Slavic edition from manuscript № 456 of Rumyantsev Museum in St. Petersburg (17th c., l. 198-202), published by Pypin (1857). The text has been recently digitalized by D. Ruseva (2011), available online at the website of the Sofia University "Sv. Kliment Oxridski" (link). This edition has been further adapted to the layout of the Vatican edition. The facsimile can be accessed via thumbnails directly at the website of the Vatican Apostolic Library.
Literature:
Jagić, Vatroslav (1868) Prilozi k historiji književnosti naroda hrvatskoga i srbskoga, Zagreb. link
Miklošič, Franc (1871) Trojanska pritča - bugarski i latinski, Zagreb. link
Pypin, A. (1857) Očerk literaturnoj istorii starinnyx pověstej i skazok russkix. Sankt-Peterburg: Imperatorskaja akademija nauk. link
Ruseva, Dimitrina G. (2011) Elektronno izdanie s rečnik na Trojanskata pritča, dipl.rabota. Sofia: SU "Sv. Kliment Oxridski". link
Veselovskij, A.N. (1888) Iz istorii romana i pověsti, vypusk vtoroj. Sankt-Peterburg: Imperatorskaja akademija nauk. link
Letters of Wallachian princes
Church Slavonic correspondence between 15th century Wallachian princes and the citizens of Braşov, at the time a part of Kingdom of Hungary. The text is based on Cyrillomethodiana corpus of the "Sv.Kliment Oxridski" University of Sofia (link) and the originals, available at the Medieval Archives of University of Bucharest (link). Originals of the letters are preserved in the State Archive of Braşov.
The sample presently contains three letters:
1. Letter by Vlad III the Impaler (†1477) concerning confiscated steel (№ 210 in the Archive, № 72 at Sofia corpus, № 65 in Bogdan 1902), written between 1456-1462,
2. Letter by Basarab IV the Young (†1482) concerning stolen money (№ 89 in the Archive, № 135 at Sofia corpus, № 107 in Bogdan 1902), written in 1481, and
3. Letter by Basarab IV the Young concerning freedom of trade (№ 76 in the Archive, № 107 at Sofia corpus, № 91 in Bogdan 1902), written in 1479.
Literature:
Bogdan, Ioan (1902) Documente şi regeste privitoare la relaţiile ţării rumîneşti cu Braşovul şi Ungaria. Bucureşti: I.V. Socescu. link
Miletič, Ljubomir (1896) Dako romъnitě i těxnata slavjanska pismenost. Čast II. Novi vlaxo-bъlgarski gramoti ot Brašov. Sbornik za narodni umotvorenija, nauka i knižnina. Kniga XIII. Sofia: Ministerstvoto na narodnoto prosvěštenie. 3-152. link
Venelin, Jurij (1840) Vlaxo-bolgarskija ili dako-slavjanskija gramoty. S.Peterburg: Imperatorskaja rosijskaja akademija. link
CIAI 1161 - How Michael Defeated Satanael
The story of Satanael-Antichrist, his rebellion against God, and his fight with Archangel Michael. The story spread as a part of apocryphal miscellanies, which served as a source for Punčo's translation.
The manuscript CIAI 1161 from the 16th century shows strong Serbian, but also Macedonian dialectal influence. Unlike the Tale of Alexander the Elder in the same source, it also shows postposed articles. The source also shows uncommon diacritics. Combined uks (as here - о̿у) and most iotas show two short horizontal lines (something like ı̿, given as ï), while initial ots/omegas carry two or three dots above (ѡ֒). Long horizontal lines seem to be used for both accents and titlos. As their position differs (gravis tends to be written more on the left from the letter), we interpret them with conventional markers.
Facsimile provided by Dr. Miltenova and the Church Historical and Archive Institute in Sofia.
The Punčo's and CIAI 1161 editions can be opened in a collated view.
Kiev damaskin - Life of St. Mary of Egypt
The source represents the earliest translation of Damaskēnos Stouditēs' famous Thēsauros into Church Slavonic by Gregorius, bishop of Pelagonia. Only one transcript of this translation survived. One half of the original manuscript is in Skopje, called Krnino damaskin. The other, containing this chapter, is held in the Manuscript Institute of the National Library of Ukraine "V. I. Vernadsky" in Kiev under the signature IR NBUV Ф.301 № 290. A critical edition with facsimile has been published by Krasimira Ilievska and Petar Ilievski (2015), which is also used as a source for this edition. The text can be found on folios 113v-123r.
The text by Stouditēs circulated in 17th c. Bulgaria alongside an older Church Slavonic edition from the 11th century. The Stouditēs' edition, characterized by author's original epilogue, has been later translated into a vernacular-based variety in Svištov (see below). Another translation was done on Mt. Athos by Ruthenian-born Samuil Bakačič (NBKM 327), which is cited in comments for comparison.
The Kiev and Svištov editions can be seen in a collated view.
Tixonravov damaskin - St. St. Cosmas and Damian
One of the oldest and best preserved damaskini, written in a language close to the dialects of Bulgaria spoken in the 16th-17th century, now held at the Russian National Library in Moscow (signature ОР Ф.299 № 702). The manuscript has been extensively studied especially by Evgenia I. Demina, who published a three-tome work about it containing a full transcript. She also led the production of a dictionary based on this damaskin - now invaluable resources for scholars not only of Bulgarian language and literature, but also of a broader field of Balkan linguistics. See the website about Life of St. Petka for more information about the source manuscript.
The text, likely based on a lost Church Slavonic source, can be found on f. 75r-78r of the manuscript. In comparison to the Punčo's transcript of a related source, the text in Tixon.d. also includes a fifth miracle concerning a feast in Cherson. Both Punčo's and Tixon.d. version can be read in a collated view.
NBKM 328 - Legend of St. Thaïs
The manuscript is held at the National Library "Sv. Sv. Kirill i Metodii" in Sofia under the signature № 328. It represents one of Josif Bradati's knižici - working books used during his travels (Angelov 1963:55). The text of the Legend can be seen on f. 43v-47r. The excerpt contains the Legend of Thais the Harlot, likely based on a Church Slavonic source. The text was later copied by pop Ioann of Vratsa (BAN 3312, 116r) and pop Punčo.
Svištov damaskin - Life of St. Mary of Egypt
An 18th-century translation of the Stouditēs version of the text found also in the Kiev damaskin (see above). Our excerpt is based on the critical edition by Ljubomir Miletič (1923:191-197), as the original is not available - possibly held at a private reading house in Svištov. Still, together with the Berlin damaskin, it is one of the most remarkable examples of the so-called togizi-circle of translators, working in the Northeast Bulgarian (Moesian) dialect. Pictures of the damaskin in Miletič's edition show, that it is actually a collection of manuscripts, written in the 18th century by various hands. The script of the Life of St. Mary of Egypt is an archaic one, similar to monastic poluustav seen in older damaskini.
Jankulov sbornik - Massacre of Fathers of Sinai and Raithu
Another example of Josif Bradati's school. The manuscript is held at the National Library "Sv. Sv. Kirill i Metodii" in Sofia under the signature № 689. The script resembles that of Bradati, but it was written by his student Jankul of Reljovo. The excerpt contains a story of St. Nilus of Sinai, a student of John Chrysostom, and his son Theodulos. Likely in the time when Chrysostom himself was exiled (ca. in 398-404), Nilus and his family left Constantinople, becoming hermits. During their stay in the desert they were raided by pagan Arabs, who captured Theodulos, murdering most of other hermits, who were not able to flee.
The account was summarized and translated by Josif Bradati into a West BG "simple" variety. The text has been released originally on the basis of Conev's transcript (Conev 1923: 259-264), later corrected according to the manuscript (f. 457r-464r).
Temski răkopis - Homily on the Punishment of Children
The manuscript is attributed to the hieromonk Kirill Živković (1730-1807), abbot of the Monastery "St. Georgi" in Temska (Serbia) at the time of writing (1764), later becoming a bishop of Pakrac. Kirill was born in Pirot and studied literature at Zograph Monastery; his language shows both Bulgarian and Serbian influences. It is likely a relevant source for comparison with modern Torlak dialects (cf. Vuković 2021). As the manuscript, now held under signature PP 169 (possibly obsolete) at the Library of Matica Srpska in Novi Sad, was not available to the author of these lines yet, the transcript is based on the critical edition by Vasilev (1986:67-72).
Literature:
Vasilev, Vasil P. (1986) Temskijat răkopis - bălgarski ezikov pametnik ot 1764 g. Starobălgaristika 10/1. 49-72.
- (2001) Za dialektnata osnova na edin răkopis ot XVIII vek. Radeva, Vasilka (săst.) Bălgarskijat ezik prez XX vek. Sofia: Akad. izd. "Prof. Marin Drinov". 280-283.
Vuković, Teodora (2021) Representing variation in a spoken corpus of an endangered dialect: the case of Torlak. Language Resources and Evaluation 55. 731-756. doi:10.1007/s10579-020-09522-4
Doino Grammatik - Introduction
Introduction to the Slavenobulgarian Chronicle by Paisius of Hilandar, the famous 18th century history of Bulgaria, often considered the beginning of the national awakening. Doino wrote his transcript in Elena in 1784, staying close to the Paisius' original, and it is presently held at the National Library "Sv. Sv. Kirill i Metodii" in Sofia (№ 370). The Introduction was also copied by Punčo in his Sbornik, although likely not from this very source; both can be compared in a collated view.
Petăr Carski - various
A selection of texts from the manuscript № 1423 of the National Library "Sv. Sv. Kirill i Metodii" in Sofia. It contains texts written by Petăr Kovačev Carski (ca. 1745-1790), Catholic vicar of Plovdiv. They are written in a variety typical of South Bulgaria using Latin letters and Italian orthography, a unique phenomenon at the time. Our sample includes several miracles attributed to St. Anthony of Padua and St. Nicholas of Tolentino. These texts are highly valuable as a source for the dialects of the era, as they are new translations, produced independently on older, Cyrillic-based text traditions. However, it is not clear, which texts (Italian? Croatian?) were used by Carski as a source.
Carski wrote miscellanies like NBKM 1423 likely for individual persons (cf. Abadžieva 2014). Other Balkan Slavic authors among the Catholics are not well known, the attested dictionary by Father Mauricio from 1845 (cf. Abadžieva 2021) hints that there may have been more.
Joakim Krčovski - Second Homily of Saint Prophet Daniel about Lord's Judgement
First printed books showing Balkan Slavic varieties appear mostly outside of the areas, where they were spoken. Joakim Krčovski thus published in Budapest in 1814 a book titled Pověstь radi strašnago i vtorago prišestvïę Xrïstova ('Story of the Terrible and Second Coming of Christ'). Besides the eponymous apocalyptic text, it also includes a Slovo vtoroe svętago proroka Danïila (p.25-46), which has later been copied in the Raikovo damaskin (see below). Both original and Raikovo editions can be opened together in the collated view. It does not only form a small text tradition, but it is also one of the earliest texts based on the vernacular from Macedonia.
Pavel Popovič - various
The manuscript № 1081 of the National Library "Sv. Sv. Kirill i Metodii" in Sofia is a collection of homilies and apocrypha written likely in 1821. One of the Sources was "Stoiko ierei", possibly young Sophronius of Vratsa. It does not contain texts by Damaskēnos, but it shares many texts with other damaskini from the area (Petkanova-Toteva 1965:254). The excerpt contains two prophecies on the destruction of Ottoman Turkey and the coming of Antichrist: one is based on the biblical Book of Daniel (not related to the texts in Krčovski 1814 and Rai.d.), the latter is based on the prophecies of Martin Zadek (cf. Temelski 2011).
Raikovo damaskin - Second Homily of Saint Prophet Daniel about Lord's Judgement
A late Greek-script damaskin contaning homilies and lives of saints from Raikovo, a village near Smoljan in Southern Bulgaria, likely by a student belonging to the circle of Kirjak Belkovski (1820-1892, cf. Mitrinov 2015:6). The manuscript is bound to a larger tome, whose parts are written mostly later, by different persons. The whole tome is held in the National Library "Ivan Vazov" in Plovdiv (№ 600). Our excerpt contains the Second Homily of Saint Prophet Daniel about Lord's Judgement (p.147-155), originally composed (if not only transcribed) by Joakim Krčovski and published in Budapest in 1814 (cf. Šimko 2021, Mitrinov 2022 for the discussion and details about the linguistic differences between the two editions).
Both editions of the Homily can be seen in a collated view.
Folk damaskin № 722 - Homily about Job the Rich Man
An anonymous manuscript held at the National Library "Sv. Sv. Kirill i Metodii" in Sofia. Information about the text is scarce; Conev (1923:377) dated it to the 19th century, recognizing the basis of some chapters in Punčo's Sbornik, as well as the scribe's Northwestern dialect. The script resembles that of manuscript № 232 in the Church Archive Institute in Sofia, attributed to daskal Pъrvan from Ljuta (today Vladimirovo in Montana Province), written in Vidin, which contains some transcripts of Punčo's chapters too (Miltenova 1981:98). Our excerpt contains the text on Job (1r-5r), chapter 006 of Punčo's Sbornik.
Both editions of the text can be seen in a collated view.
Other sources
Kiev folia
A famous fragment of an Old Church Slavonic missal, written likely in Pannonia in the 10th century, currently held in the National Library of Ukraine "V.I. Vernandsky" in Kiev. One of the oldest examples of Slavonic literature. The preserved fragment contains liturgical prayers for the feasts of St. Clement and St. Felicitas, all martyrs, and others. The text is provided in Glagolitic (a Cyrillic rendering can be accessed via changing the font) and Latin transcript. The edition was prepared for didactic purposes at the Slavic Seminary of the University of Zurich.
Šimon Kozičić - Life of St. Peter
A short excerpt from Kozičić's Lives of Roman Patriarchs and Emperors, published in Rijeka in 1531. The text has been selected as a kind of "prototype" for the larger Kiev folia text described above. However, it represents a Croatian redaction of Church Slavonic, showing typical differences from older Glagolitic sources.
Sborník Matice Slovenskej - Three daughters
A short folklore text (a fairy tale) recorded by Anton Huska in Liptovský (Sv.) Michal in 1928, published in the Sborník MS in the same year. The text, retaining the dialectological transcription, has been added to the corpus for didactic purposes, as an example of North-Central Slovak dialects.
Notes on Annotation
Most of the sources are annotated according to MultextEAST Damaskini specifications for morphology, Universal Dependencies for syntax (with ammendments described in the Technical Description document here), and the dictionary based on Pup Punčo's Miscellany for lemmatization. Due to differences in both grammar and orthography, annotation of some of the sources diverge from the common model.
Acknowledgements
The website development is funded by the Stiftung Empiris, Jakob Wüest Fonds, via Foundation for Research in Science and Humanities at the University of Zurich, and realized at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the University of Zurich. The corpus data was collected within the project 'Ill-bred sons', family and friends: tracing the multiple affiliations of Balkan Slavic funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF № 176378), led by Prof. Dr. Barbara Sonnenhauser. Also thanks to Jürgen Fuchsbauer for the help and guidance with the choice of individual editions of the Life, Olivier Winistörfer, Dumitru Chihai and Cristina Bleorţu for providing invaluable help with annotation, as well as to Teodora Vuković and Tomaž Erjavic for the guiding and patience during the development of annotation schemas.