On Some Unknown Copies of the Prologue Lives from the Turnovo Cycle in Romanian Manuscripts

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to trace the spread of the Prologue texts from the Turnovo cycle in six Romanian manuscripts from 15th–17th centuries containing Prologue in Verse. Four of them are from the collection of Dragomirna Monastery and two are kept in the library of the Romanian Academy of Sciences. Brief archeographical data on these manuscripts are given. Finally, the texts of the Prologue lives of St Petka Tarnovska, St Ivan Rilski, St Hilarion Maglenski and St Michael the Warrior are published. The comparison of the text of Prologue lives in the studied Romanian manuscripts with the text of the Turnovo manuscripts shows that they are very close to each other. The spread of Prologue texts from the Turnovo cycle in the Romanian literary tradition after the end of the 14th century is an important proof of the close spiritual and literary relations between the Bulgarian literary centers and the Romanian principalities.