Service Menaion of the Jerusalem type in the South Slavic manuscripts of the 14th-15th centuries

Abstract

Serbian manuscripts played a major role in the development of South Slavic Service Menaion based on the Typikon of Jerusalem, which had been introduced in Byzantium in the second half of the 13th century. The oldest Church Slavic Menaia of the Jerusalem type appeared on Mount Athos in the second or third decade of the 14th century. They are all of Serbian origin. In the 1330?s and 1340?s, the Menaion reached Macedonian lands, which were part of the Kingdom of Serbia. It spread further across Bulgarian lands by the mid-14th c., and was to become the only type of hymnographic book in South Slavic lands by the end of the same century.