Odessa Damaskin № 39 (65) in the Bulgarian Linguistic and Literary Tradition

Abstract

The article presents the results of the de visu study on the Odessa Modern Bulgarian damaskin №. 39 (65), dating from the 18th century. The manuscript is part of a collection of manuscripts gathered by the slavist Viktor Grigorovich. So far, this manuscript has not been the object of investigation, being currently stored in a book depository outside Bulgaria, which further complicates its research. The present work aims to present in detail the paleographical, codicological and some lexical features of this little-studied manuscript. The manuscript was assigned by E. I. Deminа to the IV Early Modern Bulgarian type: this type is particularly important because it actually represents the link between the damaskins of the 17th and the 18th century. It also presents new translations of texts by Greek authors and different textual versions of some homilies which were independently derived from the archaic Sredna-Gora translation. The analysis of the specific linguistic characteristics proves that this manuscript was written in the Eastern Bulgarian area.