The present paper offers a fresh insight into the decipherment, the meaning, and the linguistic features of a Middle Bulgarian inscription, which has todate mostly eluded the attention of scholars. It is to be found on folio 37v of the Greek Manuscript Vat. gr. 353, a Lectionary of the Gospels in liturgical majuscule script that can be dated on paleographic grounds to the mid 10th century. The author rejects Dujčev’s 1966 interpretation by offering a completely different reading of some crucial parts of the text and a new commented edition. Far from being a contract between a widow in financial difficulties and an anonymous priest, to whom she would have allegedly given her son in exchange for a field as well as for material goods (fabrics and food), the inscription would instead be a transfer deed (barter agreement) between a father, Dobryna, and his son, the priest Aspion. The study furthermore offers a series of grammatical and lexical remarks on the text, focusing in particular on the use of loanwords from Greek, that are shown to be the consequence of language contact between Byzantine Greek and Middle Bulgarian in the Balkans. The linguistic and paleographic features of the inscription, as well as its comparison with a number of Middle Bulgarian documents (“gramoti”), enable us to date it to a period no later than the first half of the 13th century and to consider it to be of West Bulgarian origin.
Alessandro Maria Bruni (Venice, Italy)
alessandromaria.bruni@unive.it
B r u n i, A. M. Marginalia slavi nel Par.gr. 1808 (Dialoghi di Platone): frammenti di uno sticherario mediobulgaro. – In: Νέα Ῥώμη. Rivista di Studi Bizantinistici, 13 (2016), 2017, p. 241–262.
D’A i u t o, F. Su alcuni manoscritti greci provenienti da monasteri balcanici nella Biblioteca Vaticana. – In: Νέα Ῥώμη. Rivista di Studi Bizantinistici, 5 (2008), p. 405–424.
D a l’, V. I. Tolkovyĭ slovar’ zhivogo velikorusskogo iazyka. T. 4. Sankt-Peterburg–Moskva, 1911.
D a s k a l o v a, A., M. R a y k o v a. Gramoti na balgarskite tsare: Uvod. Tekstove. Rechnik. Bibliografia. Sofia, 2005.
D e v r e e s s e, R. Codices Vaticani Graeci. Tomus 2: Codices 330–603. In Civitate Vaticana, 1937.
D o i n o v, D., J. R u y s s c h a e r t, (eds). Bulgaria e la storia bulgara negli Archivi Vaticani e nella Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, secc. XV–XVIII [catalogo della mostra]. Sofia–Città del Vaticano, 1988.
D u j č e v, I. Balgarski spogodben akt ot epohata na vizantiyskoto vladichestvo – V: Balgarsko srednovekovie. Prouchvania varhu politicheskata i kulturnata istoria na srednovekovna Bulgaria. Sofia, 1972, c. 209–215 (parvo izd. v: Izvestia na Nauchnia arhiv, 3 (1966), s. 185–190).
D z h u r o v a, A., Kr. S t a n c h e v, M. Y a p u n d z h i c h. Opis na slavyanskite rakopisi vav Vatikanskata biblioteka. Sofia, 1985.
I v a n o v, Y. Balgarski starini iz Makedonia. Vtoro dopalneno izdanie. Sofia, 1931.
L a s k a r i s, M. Vatopedskata gramota na tsar Ivan Asen II. Sofia, 1930.
M a n f r e d i, A., F. P o t e n z a. I codici greci di Niccolò V: edizione dell'inventario del 1455 e identificazione dei manoscritti: con approfondimenti sulle vicende iniziali del Fondo Vaticano greco della Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (= Studi e testi, 552). Città del Vaticano, 2022.
M i k l o s i c h, F. Lexicon Palaeoslovenico-graeco-latinum emendatum auctum. Wien, 1862–1865.
M i r c h e v, K. Istoricheska gramatika na balgarskia ezik. 3. izd. Sofia, 1978.
Monumenta Germaniaе Historica. Scriptores (in Folio). Vol. 17 [Annales aevi Suevici]. Hannover, 1861.
Movsisi Xorenacՙwoy Patmowtՙiwn Hayocՙ. Eds. M. Abełean, S. Yarowtՙiwnean. Tpՙłis, 1913.
M u s a k o v a, E. Rakopisat Roe 27 ot Bodleanskata biblioteka i problemat za gratskite modeli v ukrasata na balgarskite rakopisi. – Godishnik na Sofiyskia Universitet „Sv. Kliment Ohridski“. Tsentar za Slavyano-vizantiyski prouchvania „Ivan Duychev“, 90 (9) (za 2000), 2002, s. 325–333.
P a v l i k i a n o v, C. The Post-Byzantine Greek and Slavic Archives of the Athonite Monastery of Kastamonitou and its History According to the So-Called Legend (Logos Historikos) of Kastamonitou (Codex Kastamonitou no. 114). Sofia, 2020.
Rechnik na balgarskia ezik. T. 11: O. Sofia, 2002.
S o b o l e v s k i ĭ A. Zametki o sobstvennykh imenakh v velikorusskikh bylinakh – V: Zhivaia starina, 2 (1890), s. 93–107.
S o p h o c l e s, E. A. Greek lexicon of the Roman and Byzantine periods (from B.C. 146 to A.D. 1100). New York, 1900.
S t o y k o v a, A. Lĕtopisь: 18–22 sentiabria 1984 g.: Ryl’skiĭ monastyr’. Konferentsiia po opisaniiu slavianskogo rukopisnogo naslediia i roli monastyreĭ v kul’turnoĭ istorii balkanskikh narodov. – Polata knigopisnaja, 13 (1985), s. 74–82.
Svodnyĭ katalog slaviano-russkikh rukopisnykh knig, hraniashchikhsia v SSSR. XI–XIII vv. Moskva, 1984.
Tsonev, B. Istoria na balgarskia ezik. T. 1. Sofia, 1919.