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This paper examines how Kharms uses performativity in his 1928 play Elizaveta Bam to explore the relationship between the subject and the state. The play follows Elizaveta as she attempts to escape a murder charge by cycling through a series of radically different and strange personae. Her many transformations obfuscate her actual identity and personality; in the context of her flight from men who would kill her, this ability to transform is a survival mechanism. Ultimately, however, she is caught, and Kharms frames this as an inevitability. This approach to the relationship between state and subject corresponds to Althusser’s concept of interpellation, which tracks the deep connection between individuals and the ideologies that surround them. This paper argues that Kharms makes the actor’s performance into the central device of the play, and in so doing, he uses the tools of theater itself to depict (futile) resistance to overwhelming state power.

The avant-garde literary group OBĖRIU, with its poetics of the absurd, alogism and grotesque, had a great influence on later Soviet Russian literature and on neo-avant-garde movements as well. This paper investigates the connection between OBĖRIU and the neo-avant-garde of the 1970s and 1980s, especially by comparing two representatives of these different ‘ages’ of avant-garde – Daniil Kharms and Dmitrii Prigov. The analysis will focus particularly on the genre of the anecdote, with which they both experimented. After tracing the heritage of OBĖRIU poetics in Conceptualism and in the work of Prigov, who was interested in the form of Kharmsian prose miniatures, the paper will compare the well-known Anecdotes from the Life of Pushkin by Kharms (1937) with a series of quasi-hagiographical texts, Stories about Stalin, by Prigov (1975-1989). These bizarre sketches have several common features related to the genre, the formal structure, and the stylistic devices employed. Despite some striking parallels, however, the analysis will demonstrate that Kharms and Prigov have two different approaches to understanding deconstruction of myths, the grotesque, and the absurd.

This paper aims at systemising the observations on the constructions used for expressing Future tense in the three known Old Slavonic translations of Vita Antonii Magni by Athansius Alexandrinus. The text was first translated in the early Old Church Slavonic period, while two other (Middle Bulgarian) translations were written in ca. 14th century. This makes the text suitable for observing the different strategies for expressing Future tense, both regarding the translation technique and its dynamics on a synchronic level, i.e., vis-à-vis other translations from the period, and from a diachronic perspective, i.e., paying closer attention to the discrepancies between the three translations themselves. The paper focuses on the Future periphrastic constructions used in the three Slavonic translations of the Life of St Anthony the Great by Athanasius of Alexandria. The approach is based on the relation with the Greek Vorlage, thus analysing closely the situation attested in the Greek original. Observations are made regarding the usage of the periphrases in the Slavonic texts adducing comparative material for similar phenomena from other early (Preslavian) and Middle Bulgarian texts. Some examples provided, as well as those from other texts, might suggest that the Old Church Slavonic periphrases were used not only to express Future tense per se, but for every non-Indicative (or non-factual) Present.

The paper analyses the phenomenon of infinitive loss in Balkan Slavic in the context of the broader cross-linguistic process of subjunctive-infinitive competition (SIC). I adopt a diachronic perspective, analysing the historical developments pertaining to SIC in languages ranging from Old Church Slavonic to present-day Bulgarian and Serbian. The main goal of the paper is to distinguish between those instances of Balkan-Slavic infinitive loss that are a result of broader typological processes and those that can be viewed as genuine Balkan-sprachbund innovations. The specific Balkan innovation in this context was the replacement of infinitives by finite subjunctives in obligatory subject-control environments. I analyse this diachronic development as the result of a formal reanalysis affecting the syntactic status of the Balkan-Slavic subjunctive marker, which allowed it to spread to obligatory-control structures.

Galen’s great treatise on drugs, Simple Medicines, begins with 5 theoretical books which explain the mechanisms of drug actions in the following catalogues. The key agent of change is the mixture of the qualities hot, cold, wet and dry. But drugs also have substance, the leaf, root or fruit of plants, the material of animals and minerals. How does substance act on the human body? This is one of the key questions for the theory of drugs, since mixtures had already been explored by Galen in Mixtures. Galen’s exploration of substance brings him to the composition of a drug – in thick or fine particles – and to the notion of substances in the plural and the notion of whole substance in the cases of foods and poisons, all of which Galen places in the class of drugs. Whole substance is the core of the paper. Galen’s understanding of substance as of qualities depends heavily, as often, on Aristotle. The paper presents an argument based on the key passages in Simples I–V, which I have recently translated for the Cambridge Galen series, as too on related passages in Mixtures and On the Capacities of Foods.

The main aim of this paper is to analyse the text of the 12th book of Geoponica for the purpose of identification of vegetable plants, which were described by Cassianus Bassus. The analysis will serve as the first step for further inquiries that will include the reconstruction of recipes that require some of the vegetables presented in the text. The text of Geoponica is a basic source learn about the agriculture but also the culinary art of the Byzantine Empire, even though it is rather hard to read due to the complicated style and quite a large number of technical terms (i.e. botanical, agronomical or astrological to name just a few). As already mentioned, the first part of the analysis is to identify the plants mentioned by Bassus, which will allow me to take further steps, i.e. to reconstruct the culinary recipes, in which the plants mentioned by the Author can be found. Without this precise identification, the reconstruction of the recipes would not be possible at all. In the 12th book of his Geoponica Bassus gave descriptions of several plants that should be taken into consideration while planning the garden, mostly for their medicinal or cooking properties. Amongst them, Author mentioned garlic, artichoke, melon, leek, radish, celery, and cucumbers. Having the rather big number of plants narrowed down will allow to demonstrate in vivo how they were served according to De re coquinaria by Apicius and present the practical usage of vegetables proposed by Bassus for cultivation. As Apicius’ cookbook is the only one preserved from Antiquity, it will remain the major source of the recipes presented in this paper.

Medieval architecture of the South Caucasus developed a unique tradition of making acroteria shaped as three-dimensional models of churches. Since the church-shaped acroteria have never been thoroughly explored in Georgia, this paper focuses on examples surviving in the region. Special attention is paid to analyzing the architectural and sculptural aspects of the acroteria, as well as their function. This paper aims at discussing both the formal and functional aspects of the church-shaped acroteria from Georgia. It is intended to explore what kind of church models were usually created in Georgia, how they were designed, and to what extent they resemble or differ from the real architecture. Typically, the model erected on the top of the gables of a church was made of stone, though glazed ceramic acroterion can be found as well, such as that of the Alaverdi Cathedral in Georgia. As the research has shown, the models do not replicate real architecture; they represent abridged images of actual buildings, repeating only their general layout (cross-domed or, rarely, single-nave structure) and a selected number of elements that were evidently considered essential or were typical elements of the architectural repertoire of the period in which the acroterion were created.

The paper points to a hitherto not recognized quotation from Galen in the Old Church Slavonic Life of S. Cyril of the 9th century (chapter XI, 15) which demonstrates the Galenic maxim “contraria contrariis curentur”. The Galenic argument is brought forth by the Christian philosopher Cyril in a discussion with Jewish theologians. The paper firstly demonstrates that the author of VC does not only enrich Cyril’s speech with allusions to Biblical formulations but makes also the Jewish interlocutors use a direct quotation from Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians. The Christian and Jewish arguments complement each other leading to the ultimate Christian answer that Christ is the real physician to heal body and soul. In contextualizing the findings and pointing to another passage of Vita Cyrilli the paper shows, that the metaphor of “Christ, the physician” both times occurs in a context, where the Original sin is the main topic. Finally, the paper is concerned with the rhetoric of the metaphor and the limits of what can be possibly expressed by it. The ultimate healing in a Christian sense is expressed in the faith into bodily resurrection and thus transcends the comparison with concrete physical therapy. In contrast to concrete bodily health the qualities of a “body of the resurrection” cannot be positively named and thus are designated by the metaphor of “enjoying the fruit” in the heavens.

This paper will focus on several sources from Scandinavia and the Balkans, and compare the types of genealogies portrayed in them – descent from gods, descent from another kind of supernatural being, descent from a legendary hero. The paper will examine the types of genealogies and the purpose they serve; how and why they were commissioned? Is there a difference in the establishment of the image of the ruler if the latter has descended from gods, legendary heroes, or a specific clan or dynasty? Does Christianity change the tradition of writing genealogies and the stories they retell? Are personal qualities enough to provide legitimate claims?

The paper makes inquiries into the ‘Russian period’ (1965-1972) of prof. Franco Miele (1924-1983), who was a painter, art critic and art dealer. The paper sheds light on his work as a Russian art dealer and on his relationships with Paul Sjeklocha, Ely Bielutin, Otari Kandaurov, Kazimierz Romanowicz, and George Costakis.

This paper explores the religious self-identification of historians based on their autobiographical writings. In particular, it dwells upon autobiographies of scholars of different generations who taught at the universities of the Russian Empire in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The paper provides an analysis of various strategies used by the authors of autobiographies to create a religious identity: the complete disregard for questions of faith; the description of rituals; the reflection on the state of the clergy of various confessions and religions; the desire to give a representation of their religious beliefs – deep religious feelings, religious doubts, atheistic views, which often led to reflections on the influence of these beliefs on their scholarly activity. This approach allows us to identify some features of the worldview of the educated part of Russian society in this period generally and distinguish markers of identity that determined the writers’ strategies: family, professional community (places of service, positions, status etc.) and socio-historical context.

The present paper argues for a view of gender agreement without either grammatical or natural gender being represented as syntactic features. Rather than deriving declension classes in terms of realisation, I postulate them as the only relevant feature that is lexically specified on the noun. Agreement copies the declension class and triggers presuppositions. When these presuppositions clash with those already active in the discourse, default agreement is realised. The paper moreover provides a quantitative analysis of semantic correlates of declension classes and a novel analysis of SC declension classes.

The paper focuses on the use of defamiliarization techniques in some works of Russian conceptualist poet Dmitrij Prigov and explores, in particular, how the canonical status of Aleksandr Pushkin and of his “sacred” texts has been challenged and modified by Prigov. He refers to Pushkin in a wide range of works, making use of ostranenie and causing therefore the audience to perceive these famous texts afresh: in one of his signature performance piece Prigov recites the first stanza of Eugene Onegin in various vocal styles; in his “Verses for George” protagonists from the opening lines of well-known Russian poems are replaced by the word dinozavr (dinosaur); and, finally, Prigov rewrites an entire section of Pushkin’s masterpiece in a special samizdat-style book. The paper aims to describe how defamiliarization and permanent distancing from any stereotypes become one of the most important tools of deconstruction and desecration in Prigov’s art.

During the last dеcade the history of the Synodikon of the Оrthodoxy in Medieval Bulgaria has been tackled upon from different points of view. The author of this paper provided substantial evidence proving that the Synodikon of Tsar Boril did not survive in its original form. By the end of the 14th c. the original translation was amended and edited in order to be installed in a canonical-liturgical compilation (archieratikon) that includes texts and services related to the Feast of Orthodoxy. The compilation is kept in the National Library in Palauzov’s collection No 289. Additional information about the different sources of some rubrics of the Synodikon, which do not correspond to its Greek version, was also provided. Recently we have discovered that the text, preserved in a collection of Damasckin type from the beginning of 16th c. (Drinov’s copy) represents indeed a compilation: its first part (the canonical one) contains the translation of the Palaeologan version of the Synodikon, which survived also in a triodion from the Library of the Romanian Academy of Sciences. The second part of the compilation however coincides with the text of the Synodikon of Tsar Boril with all amendments related to the Bulgarian history – rulers, patriarchs, bishops and nobles. This “Bulgarian” part of the Synodikon includes a series of anathemas against Bogomils, that do not have Greek correspondences and generally repeat the anti-Bogomils anathemas taken from the Letter of Patriarch Kosmas in a simpler language more understandable to the faithful. This paper is tracing the connection between these anathemas and the Anti-Bogomils anathemas in the Discourse of Kosmas the Presbyter against the Bogomils.

The paper investigates the establishment of the office of the epi ton kriseon during the Reign of emperor Constantine IX Monomachos (1042–1055), analysing the reasons behind its creation and its initial character. In addition, a list of all holders of this office is provided, based on all available sources – sphragistic, epistolary, rhetorical, documentary, etc. The list is divided into two parts – before and after the sack of the Byzantine capital by the Crusaders in 1204. Certain conclusions are reached at the end of the paper based on the data from the first part of the list. Different aspects of the problem are examined, including the honorific titles of the epi ton kriseon, their other offices, activities and social bonds. Individuals who held this position include prominent figures such as Konstantinos, nephew of patriarch Michael I Keroularios (1043–1058) and the addressee of many letters from Michael Psellos, as well as the 12th–13th century historian Niketas Choniates. In the 11th–12th century, these officials were an indelible part of the Byzantine bureaucratic elite and the Constantinopolitan society; they exerted their power not only in the capital, but also in the provinces.

The paper examines the clitic mu ‘it’, an inanimate non-core (3rd singular neuter) Dative pronominal in Serbian, which behaves as a typical expletive (‘dummy’) pronoun in not having an antecedent in the previous discourse or available for deictic reference, and whose main pragmatic contribution is ‘objectivization’ – it implies that the truth value of a given proposition is not to be seen as a subjective ‘judgment’ of the evaluator (the speaker by default). We argue that this ‘expletive’ Dative is a situation pronoun referring to an arbitrary situation different from both the Topic Situation of a given clause and the situation hosting the Speaker, generated in a point-of-view projection at the T–C edge. The analysis explains the ‘objectivization’ effect straightforwardly: by switching the evaluation domain from a Topic Situation, it is indicated that the proposition is not evaluated by any of the referents to whom the Topic Situation is relevant, most prominently the speaker as default evaluator and source of information. On a broader theoretical level, the analysis of the pronominal clitic mu ‘it’ provides support against treating (non-core) animacy/sentience as the core property of (non-core) Datives, as well as support for eliminating ‘expletiveness’ as a relevant concept in grammar.

The present paper gives a description of the forms and functions of the imperfect in Resian, a Slovene-based micro-language spoken in northern Italy, which has been in a situation of language contact with Romance varieties for centuries. The comparison between the imperfects found in the oldest documents (eighteenth and nineteenth century) and those used in modern Resian shows a significant shift of its functions. The imperfect, in fact, has lost its original aspect-temporal values, now expressing mainly counterfactuality and the future in the past. Our analysis includes a discussion on the possible role of foreign influence in these developments.

This paper is aimed at exploring the origins and mechanisms which have contributed to the creation of Ivan Dmitriev’s autobiographic ‘double identity’ – as a Russian ‘classic’ poet and as a high ranking state official. His biography is reconstructed in light of his literary and bureaucratic achievements (Dmitriev was one of the most famous and acknowledged poets at the beginning of the 19th century and also built a successful career as a civil servant, becoming the Russian minister of justice in 1810). A crucial point in his biography occurred when his two identities came into clash, in the course of a controversy with Mikhail Kachenovskii, critic and editor of an influential literary review, the «Vestnik Evropy». This paper analyses also Dmitriev’s defensive strategies against the attacks of literary critics who combined his two different identities, which seemed to him to be mutually exclusive. An explanation of his attitude can be found in the social conventions that regulated the Russian noblemen’s norms of behavior of the time.

In 1893 the prince Esper Esperovich Ukhtomsky published “Puteshestvie na Vostok”, the account of an extended trip undertaken in 1890-91 by the young Nikolay Alekseyevich, the future Nicholas II, who was then heir to the Russian throne. Greece was the first stopover on a trail that subsequently wound through India, Ceylon, Java, Siam, Japan and China. Ukhtomsky's account of this venture, in which he participated, underlines a connection between Greece and Asia that is the subject of this paper. In Ukhtomsky's view, Ancient Greece had a profound link to the East and therefore, through a connection between the Hellenic and Orthodox Slavic worlds, Ancient Greece was also linked to Russia. Specifically, he argues that Russia's future lies in the East. This paper argues that Ukhtomsky's travelogue contributed to a general repositioning of Greece within the Russian cultural imaginary at the turn of the 19th century.

Judging by the diaries, letters, reports and other material associated with the theme of travel, Tuscany is one of the favorite subjects in Serbian Hodoeporics of the XIX and XX century. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore the image of Tuscany in some of these texts, even the ones considered minor and not given enough credit. The paper takes a comparative approach: discussing the itineraries of Serbians travelers in Tuscany, we will focus briefly on the world of other foreign travelers who have written about it. As traveling in Tuscany for some of the travelers was more than just an opportunity to describe its history and culture, on this occasion we will deal with the image of Italian literature that emerges mostly from Love in Tuscany (Ljubav u Toskani, 1930) by Miloš Crnjanski, who was an admirer of Italian literature as well as its critic.

The figure of the first Roman emperor in many ways had an impact on the Polish culture, especially in historiography and literature. In my paper I focus on some issues connected with the subject. I discuss the ideas presented by Tadeusz Zieliński, one of the most eminent researchers of the ancient world in Europe in the first part of 20th century. He devoted a significant part of his opus to present his own vision of Augustus seen as a reformer of the Roman state religion. Zieliński built the emperor’s image as the saviour of the Roman world in the face of „the end of times”. This term played significant role in Zieliński’s thinking about Roman history at the end of the Republic. For the Polish scholar celebration of the secular game in 17 BC was the final task done by Augustus. This task Zieliński defined as the sacred mission and connected with the figure of Sibyl and the impact of the Etruscan theory of saeculum. For Zieliński, Augustus belonged to the most important men of providence in Roman history. In the same way I discuss the ideas presented by Ludwik Piotrowicz and Mieczysław St. Popławski. Both scholars analised the question of imperial cult in depth. Popławski expressed original view on Augustus apotheosis seen as the development of imperial cult in transcendental perspective. Piotrowicz instead saw this problem as a purely political phenomenon. Last part of my paper is devoted to short resentation of the echos of Augustus’ bimillenium in Polish scholar activity.

The paper discusses a group of monumental crucifixes from the 13th-century East Adriatic and Italy, pained or executed in low relief, that display a verse inscriptions on the transverse limb of the cross. The main scope of the paper is to examine the provenance of the text inscribed in order to yield clearer insight into their function, use and original location in the church interiors. The paper specifically aims at analyzing three monumental crucifixes from the East-Adriatic city of Zadar which, although have already been the subject of a respectable number of studies, have not attracted attention as objects of devotion. My interest, therefore, is turned towards verse inscription as their distinctive feature and, as I shall argue, a key aspect in understanding their function. Examining the nature of the text displayed, iconography and materiality of these crucifixes, my main argument is to demonstrate how these objects provoked a multi-faced response from their audience, since were experienced by seeing, hearing and touching respectively.

In the second half of the 19th century, the rising interest in the partition of Africa translated into a growth in the number of essays, articles and travel diaries on the ‘dark continent’ published in Russia. This paper examines how black Africa was represented in the popular illustrated journal “Vsemirnaia illiustratsiia”, intended as educational material for a newly-formed middle-class readership. Through written texts and pictures, the journal constructed an image of black Africa quite dependent on Western colonial stereotypes, using colonial-consolidated rhetoric techniques and European sources. While the Tsarist Empire’s politics used to meddle in European colonial enterprises, the present analysis highlights how the literary and visual construction of black Africa as backward, savage, and ahistorical may have served to justify Russia’s long-debated belonging among Western nations.

The paper studies terms describing cooks and cooking activities that are preserved in Byzantine literature and draw their origins from the ancient Greek literature as well as from biblical and theological texts. Despite some development regarding the preference to the term opsopoios and opsartytēs without ceasing to use the term mageiros for the male cook, as well as the term demiourgos, only the latter is used for women to signal solely the preparation of pastries. It is proved that the conceptualization and connotations of the term mageiros, which are presented in detail, prevented its attribution to women. Further proof on the use of feminised masculine nouns for female professions or occupations in literature and the more concrete evidence on the services recorded in the typika of nunneries display the absolute abiding of the conscious avoidance of the term for women’s involvement in cooking.

The paper provides the addenda to A. Kompa, Gnesioi filoi: the search for George Syncellus’ and Theophanes the Confessor’s own words, and the authorship of their oeuvre, Studia Ceranea 5, 2015, p. 155–230. All the expressions crucial to the stylistic and stylometric argument on the authorship of the Chronography of Theophanes have been updated after 7 years and verified in the expanded TLG database. The updated results are presented below. The conclusions confirm the previous opinions on the individual, singular authorship of the chronicle of Theophanes with differences in style from the first part of the universal history, written by George Syncellus. At the same time, both works should be treated as a single project, and the prooimion to Theophanes’ part as a sound base faor the reconstruction of the writing process. The clauses ὡς προέφην, καθὼς καὶ προέφην, ὡς προέφημεν, and καθὼς προέφημεν are specific to the Chronography of Theophanes in their frequency and diversity, but they seem to be known and used by the circles from which Theophanes acquired his literary skills.

After 476, Flavius Gundobadus, King of the Burgundians (473–516), sought ways and means to consolidate and strengthen his power, including through legal regulation of the relations between the Burgundians themselves, on the one hand, and between the Burgundians and the Gallo-Romans, on the other. Thus, Liber Constitutionum sive Lex Gundobada was issued, the main purpose of which is the legal regulation of the complex relations in the kingdom, through a codification of the preserved customary law – an embodiment of tribal traditions, practices, and customs, with reasonable use of Roman legal ideas, notions, and norms. The translation and analysis of selected provisions from Lex Gundobada in this paper show the extent to which the Burgundians perceived, received, adopted, and adapted some of the most valuable Roman legal and moral rules and principles, especially the Roman concepts of iustitia and corruptio, and how the rights of both the Burgundians and the Romans were regulated and protected through them. Lex Burgundionum is part of a series of legal Barbarian codes, compiled, adapted, published, and applied in the Barbarian regna between the 5th and 9th centuries. These codes are one of the significant and true sources for the historical reconstruction of the socio-political, socio-cultural, and legal-administrative transition from the late Roman Empire to the German kingdoms and early medieval Europe. They manifest how historically the arena of clashes, confrontations, and wars between Romanitas and Barbaritas gradually became a contact zone of legal reception, of cultural, legal, and socio-political influences, from which a new world will be born, a successor to the old ones, and a new legal system – the Romano-Germanic one.

The phenomenon of “fat shaming” (in particular with its aspect of the especially harsh criticism of the corpulence in young adult women) seems nearly non-existent in the ancient Classical literature. The extant satirical depictions of fatness are uncommon and aimed, almost exclusively, at overweight men. The author of the paper analyses this satirical description, its background in the ancient moral philosophy, as well as comments on plumpness and gluttony in the context of assessments of the female physical beauty. He also attempts to explain how some ancient ideas may have evolved in the attitudes of today, showing some examples from the 19th-century prose as a step in the reshaping of the ancient ideas. Eventually, the author makes an attempt to offer a better understanding of this contemporary phenomenon, which only in some of its elements may be seen as rooted in Antiquity.

The Chronicon Bruxellense does not simply provide useful information on the date of the date (year, month, and day) of the Rus’ attack on the Constantinople (18 June 860), but is crucial for a deeper understanding of nature of this chronicle and his sources. The article reveals important details about the date and structure of the Chronicon Bruxellense. It also offers his sources of description of Rus’ raid and identifies George Monachus Continuatus’s chronicle as the principal model. By seeking to construction the victory over the Rus’, his anonymous author presents as a skilled compiler. This paper engages with recent discussion on the first attack of Rus’ on the Constantinople, while also contributing to the renewed interest in the reception of the Chronicon Bruxellense in the late Byzantine literature.

Byzantine incubation literature is the term used in research to denote early Byzantine collections of healing miracles (5th–7th century) in which the saint’s miraculous intervention is related to the incubation experience. Despite the centrality of the concepts of disease and healing in such literature, the relationship between medicine and Christian religion needs to be further explored. Based on the Egyptian collection of Miracles of Cosmas and Damian contained in manuscript Lond. Add. 37534 (BHG 373b) as a case study, this paper intends to: (1) present those miraculous accounts where food is treated as medicament, starting from a close reading of the relevant passages; (2) looking at the (Byzantine) medical knowledge integrated in these narratives.

The paper is devoted to a detailed analysis of direct and indirect references to Tărnovo, the capital of the so-called Second Bulgarian Tsardom (12th–14th centuries) in Roman history of Nikephoros Gregoras, an outstanding Byzantine scholar of the first half of the fourteenth century. An analysis of the passages devoted to this city leads to a conclusion that the status of the city was fully obvious to the Byzantine historian – this was the main, capital city of the Bulgarian state, in which its rulers permanently resided, without holding which one could not be a fully legitimate tsar of the Bulgarians and exercise real power of the northern neighbours of Byzantium. Thus the conflicts over power in contemporary Bulgaria focused primarily on taking Tărnovo. The Bulgarian tsar departed with military expeditions most often from this city, having gathered in its vicinity armed forces, and to this city Byzantines and rulers of other neighbouring countries sent their envoys to meet with the Bulgarian autocrat.

The multiple similarities between the Greek and Syriac eucharistic liturgies of Antioch and its hinterland on the one hand and the Jerusalem Liturgy of Saint James on the other hand situate Jerusalem within a single cultural area as regards liturgical life. Compared with Antioch, however, we have much more early evidence for the Liturgy of the Hours in Jerusalem. Main sources, which are briefly presented in the paper, are a) the Itinerary of Egeria, who in the 380s produced extensive liturgical notes on celebrations in the Anastasis cathedral and the related stational sites; b) the Armenian Lectionary, 5thcentury, which gives more specific detail of the services held in Jerusalem; c) the Georgian Lectionary, 6thcentury, which gives a slightly later stage of the material described in the Armenian Lectionary; d) the Old Iadgari, or first Jerusalem Tropologion, entirely preserved in Georgian. It is clear from these documents that the Anastasis Cathedral was officiated by monastic communities of different ethnic origins who used their own languages for their liturgical offices. We also have considerable evidence for this period for the Lavra of Saint Sabbas in the Judaean desert, where several ethnic communities prayed separately in their own languages, coming together only for the Eucharistic synaxis (in Greek). This multi-ethnic situation continues today on Mount Athos and continued throughout the Middle Ages on Sinai. The vast library of manuscripts at Saint Catherine’s monastery is well known. It contains manuscripts in a very wide variety of Christian languages, including numerous liturgical texts. The Manuscript Sinai Arabic 232 (13th century) contains a complete Psalter, a complete Horologion and other texts. It can be shown to be of Alexandrian Melkite origin, used by Arabic-speaking monks who were part of the Sinai community. There are archaic and specifically Egyptian, and even Coptic, elements that are of special interest.

The paper examines the terminology used by the Byzantine authors of the 10th and 11th century as regards the Samuel’s State, which was largely shaped by the Byzantine ideology and momentary aim of the political propaganda. The analysis of the Byzantine sources shows that by the end of the 10th century Basil II became known as “Scythicus”, because of his military achievements against Samuel’s State. The same context derives from Basil II’s verse Epitaph which contains ideological message about the accomplished mission given to Basil II by Christ himself in defeating the “Scythians”. Hence, Basil II was known and wanted to be remembered, among other, as the victor over the Scythians, thus designating the enemies coming from the Samuel’s State. Following this notion, in his narrative Michael Psellos portrayed Basil II as the vanquisher of the Scythians. Psellos even provided ideological context of the subjugation of the Samuel’s State, remarking that by this Basil II actually converted these people and turned them towards God.

The article refers to some aspects of the history of today’s Bulgarian and Romanian territories, going back to the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century. First, the author emphasizes the impact of the Teutonic Order in Burzenland on Bulgarian-Cuman relations in the period under question. The article provides a different alternative viewpoint on the events of the second decade of the 13th century. Contrary to researchers who focus on the South and the Bulgarian-Latin conflict, the author seeks a solution to the problem by analyzing events in the North, reaching the lands of Burzenland region in Eastern Transylvania. He analyses the Teutonic-Cuman conflict of 1211–1222 and the success of the Teutons in Cumania after 1215. The author concludes that the dramatic change in the Bulgarian-Cuman relations could be explained by a new source of military and political influence that emerged in the second decade of the 13th century – the Teutonic Order. Next, the paper is aimed at the highly discussed and controversial issue of Bulgarian-Vlach relations during the rule of the Assenid dynasty. Based on the written sources, the author explains the mass presence of Vlachs in the actions of the first Assenids with specific social, economic and political factors in the last two decades of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century.

The issue of the Bosnian church – or more precisely the dualist heresy in Bosnia – has caused serious controversies among scholars since the 19th century. The main aim of this paper is to shed new light on this controversial issue, through the analysis of the doctrine of Slavonic dualism (ordo Sclavoniae) based on Western sources. The subject of the analysis will be the sources concerning the contacts of the Cathars from France and Italy with the heretics from Sclavonia and especially the sources containing information on the doctrine, such as the 13th-century Italian sources presenting the doctrines of the Cathars belonging to ordo Sclavoniae (Cathar churches of Bagnolo and March de Treviso) and later, 14th and 15th-century sources presenting the teachings of the heretics from Bosnia. The aim of the analysis will be to reconstruct the doctrines of Slavonic dualism (ordo Sclavoniae) in order to find its distinctive features (especially comparing with two main forms of Bogomil-Cathar dualism – Bulgarian and Drugunthian) and to answer the following question: which doctrinal conceptions had the most significant influence on its formation? Knowledge concerning the sources of inspiration for the dualist doctrine of the ordo Sclavoniae will enable us to draw conclusions concerning the origins of Slavonic dualism, its evolution and to assume an attitude towards scholars’ conceptions concerning the character of the Bosnian heresy.

Historiography about the medieval Bosnian Church is a vast and complicated labyrinth, with many different sections and subsections regarding its teachings, where authors are least likely to find a compromise, or some common ground. Very often, the ruling ideologies have intertwined their interests and influences in this field of medieval study, causing the emergence of very intense emotions in wider circles of population. One remarkable episode in history of research and study of the Bosnian Church is the occurrence of medievalist from United States of America, John V. A. Fine Jr., who arrived in Bosnia and Yugoslavia at the peak of the Cold War. Fine proved to be a very meticulous researcher, who produced a book under the title: The Bosnian Church: A New Interpretation. A Study of the Bosnian Church and its Place in State and Society from the 13th to the 15th Centuries which immediately caused disturbance and wide range of reactions. With his aligning with the historiographical stream which doesn’t see the Bosnian Church as a dualistic heretical institution, rather a monastic community independent from both of the big churches of the time, Fine gave additional fuel to this theory, a theory somewhat weakened in that period as its main protagonist Jaroslav Šidak had a change of mind. The main goal of this paper is to study the immediate reactions on Fine’s thesis, in forms of reviews of his book, as well its influence in the subsequent decades of the historiographical studies of the Bosnian Church.

This text supplements another, a paper presented a decade ago on the portrayal of Umayyad rulers in Chronography of Theophanes the Confessor (B. Cecota, Islam, the Arabs and Umayyad Rulers according to Theophanes the Confessor’s Chronography, “Studia Ceranea” 2, 2012, p. 97–111). I am limiting myself here to discussing only those source remarks which directly concern one of the Abbasid Caliphs, or alternatively, to narratives structured in such a manner that they implied certain traits of a ruler. General remarks concerning the portrayal of the entire dynasty have been included, both in the main text and in the footnotes, only where this was necessary for the understanding of the context in which the Caliphs’ descriptions appear.

The paper discusses the differences between Eastern and Western Christians during the Middle Ages through the prism of the lists of ritual deviations and bad habits of the ‘Latin heretics’, which were circulated in Byzantium in the second half of the 12th century (following the Great Schism of 1054). The translations and revisions of these lists remained popular among the Orthodox Christians in the Balkans and Eastern Europe up until the end of the 17th century. Special attention has been given to the reception among the Slavs of two Byzantine accusations levelled on the westerners – (1) that their priests shave; (2) that they eat various ‘unclean’ animals and creatures. The examples of the peculiar mundanity of the religious dialogue and polemics analysed in the paper suggest that this was a trend resulting from the ambition of the Orthodox societies in the Balkans and Eastern Europe to strengthen through various means their ethnic and religious identity in the context of the fierce political and confessional confrontation with the Catholic world of Western Europe. Also highlighted is the need for the research of medieval polemical texts to embrace the archaeological, ethnological and folkloristic evidence, which would allow us to clarify the sources and trends in the development and transformation of the key features of the identity of Slavic Orthodox societies during the Middle Ages and Modernity.

This paper demonstrates the applicability of a cognitive lexical semantic analysis to some of the meanings of the highly polysemous Bulgarian preposition na. It proposes an account of the various senses of na as a radial (conceptual) category with a prototypical sense and various extensions referred to as lexical concepts in the Principled Polysemy Approach developed by Tyler and Evans. Similarly, it is argued that, in addition to the spatio-geometric parameters, the core spatial lexical concept of the Bulgarian na includes also functional information from which non-spatial meanings such as ‘active state’ derive.

An in-depth analysis of two distinct linguistic elements (lexical and toponymic) of Latin origin in the modern Ukrainian language adds some important elements to the study of the direct contacts of proto-Slavic populations and cultures with Roman civilisation in the early centuries of the first millennium. The paper examines ancient Latin loanwords in modern Ukrainian, in comparison with other Slavic languages and focuses on the question of Roman influences on the toponymy of Ukraine. Considering the difficulties linked to the temporal distance and the genetic diversity between late Latin and modern Ukrainian, these linguistic phenomena are correlated with historical, archaeological, numismatic data (as materially attested), in order to frame the linguistic question in the respective historical context, and at the same time to highlight the lexical connections and cultural continuity with the late Latin period.

This paper explores the process of building a new literary community of the younger Russian-language writers in Kazakhstan starting from the 2000s. As a response to the shortcomings of previous literary infrastructure, writers created new ways of writing and literary interactions that can be called a new literary economy. The concept of literary economy refers to the act of a new literature creating its own infrastructure and literary space, with the objective of joining the world literary space. The younger Kazakhstani authors produce a new type of literature by (re-)writing language, time and space, and in doing so they produce new bilingual, historical and spatial imagination that results in a new identity. In this process of rewriting, authors create surplus value for their works and capitalize on their particular literary and cultural identities. By ‘value’ I mean new meanings and new ways of being Russophone.

This article examines the post-Soviet as a category of analysis in the study of historical memory and nation-building in the former Soviet Union. Post-soviet memory suggests a continuum in space and time that will be critically addressed through the lens of a local case study, the borderland city of Lviv. Two questions structure the analysis: how we shape our surroundings and how they shape us. Following postcolonial theories derived from urban and memory studies, Lviv is presented as a palimpsest made of temporal, spatial or even imaginary layers from which it could be possible to recount the multiple narrations at play in the historical memory of the city. Finally, the paper questions whether the category of cultural hybridity may be instrumental in conceptualizing the multilayered structure of identification processes in the post-Soviet space, moving beyond cultural and national essentialism.

The physician Krateuas lived in the first part of the 1st century BC, worked at the court of Mithridates and wrote a Rhizotomikon (Herbal) of which only a few fragments remain. More than a century ago, Max Wellmann studied this physician (1897; 1898) and collected his Testimonies (T) and Fragments (F) as an appendix of his edition of Dioscorides De materia medica (1914). After Wellmann, only short studies (mostly encyclopedia entries) have been carried on Krateuas, whose work influenced Dioscorides. This paper is a first step towards a monograph on this physician and a new edition of T and F with translation and historical commentary.

The outbreak and Balkan and Anatolian trajectories of the rebellions of Borkluce Mustafa and Sheikh Bedreddin in 1416 still pose a series of religio-historic problems which still do not allow a satisfactory and detailed reconstruction of their chronology. Widening the investigation of the source base for these uprisings and their following remains a crucial desideratum for a better understanding of the turbulent period of the Ottoman interregnum and the Ottoman-Byzantine transition in eastern Anatolia in the early fifteenth century. Apart from the social and political features of the rebellions (which have been treated in a variety of contrasting ideological and methodological frameworks, their striking religious dimension has been also increasingly attracting scholarly and general attention. Earlier and recent research on the Ottoman interregnum period have occasionally advanced arguments for the active participation of Christian heretical groups, whether Christian dualist (Bogomil or Paulician) or radical apocalyptic insurgents of Eastern or Western Christian provenance. Drawing on new advances in research on religious trends in the late Byzantine and Balkan Orthodox and early Ottoman religious life and inter-religious contacts, the paper will offer an reassessment of the evidence of such proposed Christian heretical presence in the uprisings, while also exploring other venues for the provenance of their religious and trans-confessional underpinnings.

The reign of the Doukas dynasty in 1059–1078 was a time when new threats to the Byzantine Empire emerge in Europe and Asia. One of them was the increased activity of Turkmen who were penetrating the lands belonging to the Byzantines. A manifestation of these threats was visible during the rule of Constantine X Doukas (1059–1067) in 1064. We have there an invasion of the tribe of Uzes, who crossed the Danube. They ventured so far, as the vicinity of Thessalonica and the province of Hellas, plundering everything in their path. Their actions surprised the defense of the Byzantines. This attack on the empire was related to their crossing of the Danube, about which Michael Attaliates and Skylitzes Continuatus provides us with interesting information. The main aim of this paper therefore will be related to issues linked to the types of vessels used by Uzes to cross this river, as well as an attempt to assess their boatbuilding skills.

The paper analyses the actions of Ivanko, a Bulgarian nobleman, possibly a member of the ruling family of the Asenides, who in 1196 killed the ruling tsar, Asen, and escaped to Constantinople once his plan to take control of the country failed. Owing to the benevolence of Alexios III Angelos, he joined the Byzantine military and very quickly rose through its ranks until he became the military commander of the region of Philippopolis. In 1198 or 1999 he defected and created an independent dominion on the slopes of the Stara Planina massif, precariously balanced between Bulgaria and the empire, exploiting to his own advantage the constant state of warfare between the two polities. His adventure was short-lived: in 1200 he was captured through deception by the Byzantines, taken prisoner, and presumably executed. While his political career was very short, his importance for the history of medieval Bulgaria is not to be underestimated. It is a testimony of the fluidity of the political situation at the Bulgaro-Byzantine border, whose instability often allowed ambitious and cunning local commanders to carve up autonomous dominions, and of the difficulties experienced by the central power in keeping control of the peripheral areas of the state. It is also proof of the constantly shifting ethnic and cultural allegiances of the citizens of those polities, entangled between different and often conflicting identities, usually regarded as irreconcilable but that were actually the object of a continuous negotiation and adjusting. Ivanko is an interesting case study in regard to all of those factors, especially when considered within the larger phenomenon of provincial separatism in the imperial (and Bulgarian) lands between the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century.

The paper is devoted to Lilingis – one of the leaders in the Isaurian uprising against emperor Anastasius I. He was Illus’ half-brother. Illus was an Isaurian who, aside from Zeno, played the most important role in the life of the Byzantine state in the 470s and 480s. It is possible that from 484, Lilingis held the position of the Isaurian comes and was so successful at it that he probably retained it until the end of Zeno’s reign and gained authority among his tribesmen, which resulted in his participation as one of the leaders in the Isaurian uprising. Lilingis was co-commander in the first rebel clash with the emperor’s forces at Kotyaeum (492). He met his death in the battle.

The oral biblical exegesis and oral transmission, or the unwritten tradition, represent pillars in the circulation of texts and ideas since the very dawn of Christianity, both in orthodox and heterodox circles. Namely, this vast topic encompasses the concepts related to the concepts of the written sources and the spoken word, and their interrelation, and, furthermore, to the symbolism of the ear, Logos, and secret teachings (arcana). The role and impact of the oral transmission will be examined on the example of the Bogomils, and this paper will re-assess the importance and function of the oral transmission of the Bogomil doctrine. Therefore, the Biblical exegesis will also be analyzed in that key, and the question of the Bogomil preachers will be addressed. More broadly, the oral transmission of the Bogomil teachings can be observed as one of the modi operandi that the Bogomils resorted to in the aim of propagating their ideas, as well as possibly their interpretative manner to approach the Scriptural material and parables.

The focus of the present paper is the terms θεωρία and ὀπτασία presented in the Greek text of Life of St Anthony the Great by St Athanasius of Alexandria and their translation representation in the Old Church Slavonic versions of the text. The terms are approached diachronically, i.e. in through history of Classical and post-classical Greek literature, thus providing the necessary cultural background for their usage and context. Each term, then, is commented in its exact attestation in the Life, providing also the corresponding translations and their wider context. The translation renderings are further analyzed in perspective of the lexical material in the classical Old Church Slavonic corpus as well as with material from texts and sources, thus aiming at contextualizing them in wider lexicological perspective.

The epithet ‘first witnesses’, conferred on the three saints in the title, is but a conventional designation; it seems fitting as common for the figures of saints, who gave proof of their devotion to Christ. Otherwise, although they make no simultaneous appearance in any of the canonical texts, there are – interestingly – far more interconnections between the three characters in pseudo-canonical and legendary literature than could be surmised from the lack thereof in the Bible. The aim of the paper is to present a literary picture of three New Testament heroes, as commemorated in different literary texts representing diverse cultural registers, even from the Ancient Christian Times until the close of the Middle Ages. Among them there are short and extended lives and passions of saints, liturgical poetry, as well as specific, more popular texts, such as ‘tales’ and legends. The material under discussion largely includes texts that form a part of the Slavic Orthodox tradition, depicting them on the background of fairly wellknown works belonging to the Western Christian tradition. It turns out that the legends are inspired by the canonical text on the one hand, while on the other hand they themselves infiltrate official texts – they become officially sanctioned as soon as their popularity is taken over and adopted by liturgical practice. It should be borne in mind that those legends – part of which is known both in the Eastern and in the Western Christianity – confirm one further crucial characteristic of texts constituting the canonical and pseudo-canonical tradition: the commonness of themes and motifs which can without exaggeration be called ‘wandering’. They determine the fact that there is hardly any originality in the formation of the characters of patron saints; moreover, on the level of creating the notion of sainthood and its reception, there seem to be far more common points than differences between both of the Early Christian traditions – the East and the West. The paper is an attempt to point out how the Christian tradition exemplifies various manifestations of holiness, what means it has for annotating, elucidating and embellishing the Biblical hypertext, and how it adapts pseudo-canonical legends for the purposes of liturgical use.