Српска књижевна реч у својим првим столећима

Abstract

The book deals with the beginnings of the Serbian written culture, tracing it back to its earliest instances (ninth – 11th (?), 11th–13th centuries). It offers answers to some long-standing questions, but it also raises some issues for the first time in Serbian scholarship. The introductory chapter, entitled "Early Centuries of Serbian Literacy", offers a panoramic overview of the topic and outlines methodological guidelines for the revision of the known corpus of written monuments, the greatest part of which has so far been strictly perceived as Old Church Slavonic. Chapter Two, entitled "Early Old Church Slavonic Language and the Serbian Recension" discusses the possible existence of two Serbian recensions of the Old Church Slavonic language. The first recension could have taken shape in the northern areas of the Serbian domain under the Vlastimirović family, after 873 (885; associated with Sirmium in terms of ecclesiastical organization and geographical position). The second recension, which would remain the only Serbian recension shortly after it had emerged, could have arisen in Metohija, to reach a stable form in Raška, under a strong influence of the Eastern South Slavonic variant of the Old Church Slavonic language, coming from the Slavonic south, during the 10th or in the early 11th century, and especially after 1020, within the Archdiocese of Ohrid. The third chapter, "Recension Traits of the First Folio of the Kiev Missal", examines the linguistic identity of a scribe whose earlier works are also known to us – "sinful Dimitrije", who worked in the Holy Land. Dimitrije's manuscripts have been preserved at Sinai. The analysis of the first folio of the Kiev Missal does not focus on the status of dialecticism because the manuscript contains two compositions in the Old Church Slavonic language (a passage from the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans and a special prayer to the Holy Virgin Mary), and not compositions in the vernacular language. It is demonstrated that this written monument belongs to the Serbian recension, i.e. it is not an Old Church Slavonic manuscript that merely bears Serbian dialect traits. It is argued that Dimitrije most probably arrived in the Holy Land during the First Crusade (1096–1099). The language and the orthographic features of his notes correspond to the proto-forms of the second Serbian recension, and his education can be brought into relationship with the ecclesiastical routes along which the influences of the Eastern South Slavonic variant of the Old Church Slavonic language were spreading from the south to the Serb-populated regions. Based on cultural and historical indicators, he presumably originated from or worked in the territory of the Archdiocese of Dubrovnik, which had jurisdiction over Doclea since the second half of the 11th century. Hence the prevailing belief that the scribe came from Doclea. It our opinion, we should rely on more solid, linguistic evidence, which significantly diminishes the probability of this hypothesis. Dimitrije must have been educated in an area where the influences from the south were considerably strong and continuous even after the mid-11th century. He could have also been educated somewhere in the Rascian region or, in a broad sense, in the other Serbian regions under direct Byzantine rule. Furthermore, one cannot deny the possibility that he was educated in an area where diverse influences intertwined. At that time, this was the Lim River valley. The following chapter presents the text of the notes presumably written by Dimitrije, which have so far been studied by Prof. Heinz Miklas and his associates. These are the earliest surviving more or less original notes belonging to the [second] Serbian recension of the Old Church Slavonic language (the key written monument presenting this type of the Serbian literary language dating from about the same period – namely, somewhat earlier– is the Codex Marianus). Chapter Five, entitled "Serbian Language in Doclea under Prince Jovan Vladimir", analyzes the linguistic situation in the southern Serbian coastal principality at the time when, according to major sources in other languages, the Serbian vernacular language was taking shape. The sixth, the most extensive chapter, entitled "Serbian Recension of the Old Church Slavonic Language: from Saint Clement, Bishop of the Slavs, to Saint Sava, Serbian Archbishop", presents a systematic analysis of the "second line" of literacy within the framework of the Serbian recension. It reconstructs the spiritual and cultural-historical context for the reception of the Eastern South Slavonic version of the Old Church Slavonic literacy in Serbian lands. Namely, at the beginning of the second quarter of the 10th century, a part of the Serbian cultural space belonged to the same Eastern Church into which the Diocese of Saint Clement of Velica (Ohrid), where new Slavonic liturgical books took shape, had been included in 893. In the Diocese of Raška, the existing liturgical corpus, which belonged to the tradition of Cyril and Methodius and was aligned with the Western Rite ("the first Serbian literary line"), was replaced with the new one. Nevertheless, it was only after 1019/1020, when the Diocese of Raška had become part of the newly established Byzantine Archdiocese of Bulgaria (the so-called Archdiocese of Ohrid), that church life in the area gaining a special status among Serbian lands, took a distinct shape that would persist until the establishment of the Serbian Archdiocese in 1219. It is not very probable that Saint Sava was aware of the importance of Clement's activities and the overall scope of his literary work, although his own literary work was partly inspired by Clement's compositions. The study analyzes major written monuments related to Clement’s legacy. Earlier, Old Church Slavonic, and later traits typical of individual recensions are identified and an attempt is made to define their chronological and, where possible, territorial context. A relative chronology of the sources for some Serbian written monuments – Old Church Slavonic archetypes and local or Old Church Slavonic protographs – is thereby established, as well as the time and place of origin of Serbian written monuments, such as Codex Marianus, Miroslav's Gospel, the Mihanović Fragment of the Apostolos, the Gršković Fragment of the Apostolos, Bratko’s Menaion, the Jerusalem Palimpsest, the Belgrade Prophetologion and the Serbian Prophetologion. Detailed explanations supporting the presented hypotheses regarding the time and place of origin of the Codex Marianus (the third quarter of the 11th century) and Miroslav’s Gospel (1161–1170, ca. 1165) are provided. The phonetic markers that shed light on the early history of the Serbian literary language and many Serbian written monuments drawing on prototypes created before the establishment of Sava’s Serbian Archbishopric (1200s) are identified based on the linguistic material provided in Miroslav’s Gospel. Chapter Seven, entitled " Unity of the Serbian Recension of the Old Church Slavonic Language in the Age of Stefan Nemanja", offers an overview of the situation in Serbian literacy in the 12th century, before the major divergence of dialects that could have been reflected in the literary language in different environments. Special attention is paid to the "diagonal" comparison of Rascian and Bosnian written monuments (i.e. eastern and western). It has been necessary to resort to this method due to the lack of surviving western Serbian written monuments from the 12th century. The compared materials originate from a later period (late 13th – mid-15th century), but despite later dialect deposits they retain the rare antique textological and linguistic traits, passively transmitted from prototype manuscripts. The linguistic evidence that their literary pivots transversed the Prizren – South Morava areal is indicated. Particular attention is also paid to the Svrljig Gospel Fragments, originating from beyond the borders of the Serbian state, i.e. from the region where Serbian vernacular speeches prevailed (1279). Written in the peripheral area, they captured the linguistic situation of the early 12th century. Finally, the conclusion is made that the "second", and final, Serbian recension evidenced before the end of the 12th century would remain common to the entire Serbian cultural space.