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Book Review

The essay proposes an interpretation of the eulogy of Symeon’s Miscellany considering not only the cultural context of the First Bulgarian Empire at the beginning of the tenth century, but also the historical situation and the literary production of the seventies and eighties of the previous century when the Greek original of the Miscellany known by the name of the Soterios was conceived in Constantinople. This eulogy helps us to better understand the reasons that led to the creation of the Slavic version of this anthology at the time of Symeon. In the Constantinopolitan environment, this anthology was conceived as an adequate tool of the kind required by monks and priests engaged in the education of the laity, with particular focus on the foundations of orthodox doctrine. In the new environment the initiative was taken by Tsar Symeon, who – on the strength of his theological training – assumed a decisive role while occupying the throne by taking responsibility for directly instructing the Bulgarian aristocracy, fully exploiting a tool in the Slavic language that would have been very useful.

Brief introduction to the Thematic Block Lexicon of the Slavic Bible and Its Meaning for the History of Slavic Manuscript Tradition

The authors present some of the most important writings of the well-known professor emeritus of Bonn University, Hans Rothe (1928-2021), offering an overview of the main ideas he developed and the methods he applied in his research. Due attention is given to his indefatigable activity as an editor of important, mostly unduly forgotten medieval and early modern texts. His commentary to the first translations of the Bible for many Slavic peoples remains a milestone of Slavic studies. He was a pioneer in fostering research about Slavo-Byzantine liturgical and religious texts, devotional songs, and baroque literature in Russia and Ukraine. No less remarkable are his articles about the Enlightenment and such giants of literature as Lesja Ukrajinka, Deržavin, Puškin and Tolstoj.

Almost a quarter of a century has passed since the publication of our volume on the history of Slavic gospel studies: Die altslavische Version der Evangelien. Forschungsgeschichte und zeitgenössische Forschung (Köln, Weimar, Wien 2001). In anticipation of a new, revised, and updated edition, we have continued to collect the new bibliography, reflecting on the ongoing changes. The spread of computer technology and the process of digitisation have certainly produced profound changes in the study of the manuscript tradition of the gospels. Not only are many old editions of the gospels and most of the studies available on the web, but also dozens of codices are now accessible in the digital archives of major libraries, not to mention the possibility of consulting dictionaries, Paleo-Slavonic and Church Slavonic lexicons or databases in which the gospels are included. This is not only a facilitation in our research work, but a different approach to research that allows us to analyse a larger quantity of manuscripts with targeted searches and to have an overview more easily. Looking at the main avenues of research over the last quarter of a century, on the one hand one can observe an advancement in the traditional themes, from the structure of the book to the memoirs of the feasts in the menology, from the description of the manuscripts to their ornamentation, not to mention linguistic analysis at all levels. On the other hand, one can observe the multiplication of studies relating to specific areas, starting with the written production of Bosnia, Galicia and Volynia up to Moldavia, with the publication of research and editions of individual codices that contribute to creating a broader and more detailed panorama of the complex history of the book of the Gospels from the first generations following the mission of Cyril and Methodius up to the advent of printing, which led to the gradual decline of the manuscript tradition. It should be noted more generally that the study of the manuscript tradition of the Gospels remains a key theme of Slavic studies in the fields of Slavic palaeography, textual criticism and linguistic analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Book Review

Este texto tiene como objetivo generar las condiciones de discusión en torno a las escenas que vivimos en el marco del aislamiento social obligatorio a causa del Covid-19. Nuestro principal interés reside en habilitar, desde los estudios de género y disidentes (en diálogo con la filosofía, las ciencias sociales y la comunicación), un debate con respecto a la [re]precarización que el colectivo LGBT+ atraviesa en el contexto de la pandemia. Para ello, nos centramos, a la luz de los debates candentes que se promueven desde las voces intelectuales con reconocimiento internacional, en ejes como (1) las vidas precarias y las vidas susceptibles de dañabilidad en un sistema capitalista, colonial-moderno y cis-hetero; (2) la tensión, en el plano jurídico-político, entre redistribución y reconocimiento, señalando el derecho a la salud como eje central de disputa en el contexto pandémico; y (3) la bio[hetero]politización de nuestras existencias disidentes. El fin último de este material es colaborar en la formulación de modos de inteligibilidad que permitan la emergencia de nuevos interrogantes para la habilitación, conformación y reconfiguración de estrategias de intervención colectiva.

This work by Maximus the Greek, probably written in the middle of the century, has as its protagonist an allegorical personification, a woman named Vasilija, crying, dressed in widowhood and surrounded by wild beasts, in dialogue with a wayfarer. Her long lamentation contains constant references to the severe vaticins of the Old Testament prophets and aims to illustrate the situation of disorder of the present epoch. The character recalls the image of the ‘virgin caste’ of Pauline origin (2 Cor.11, 1-2), present in the canzone of Savonarola De ruina ecclesiae with references to the Old Testament writings and the Apocalypse. Maksimus elaborates this Savonarolian model, also taking into account the canzone De ruina mundi and on the basis of a complex and well constructed biblical exegesis illustrates the allegory not only in relation to the Russian empire, but more generally in the universal horizon of history. By interpreting the relationship between earthly power and the ‘kingdom of heaven’ in an eschatological key, Maksimus gives a fundamental role to the prophetic figures of both the Old Testament and the history of the church in which the author, the wayfarer’s alter ego in dialogue with Vasilija, recognizes himself.