An introduction to Old Slavonic literature?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I have spent a couple of hours online attempting to locate some evidence of an introductory work to Old Slavonic literature.  This has been in vain, although guides to the language are common enough.  The only text I have found is an 1883 SPCK publication here.

Does anyone know of such a guide to what exists in Old Slavonic; like a patrology in organisation?

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3 thoughts on “An introduction to Old Slavonic literature?”

  1. I guess the closest thing we have to a Church Slavonic patrology is these two works by Father Gerhard Podskalsky:
    1)Christentum und theologische Literatur in der Kiever Rus’ (988-1240), München, 1982 (cf. http://books.google.fr/books?as_q=&num=10&btnG=Recherche+Google&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES&lr=&as_vt=christentum&as_auth=Podskalsky&as_pub=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_isbn=&as_issn= , sorry for so long a link; cf. a French review here: http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/cmr_0008-0160_1983_num_24_4_1995 ), and
    2) Theologische Literatur des Mittelalters in Bulgarien und Serbien (865-1459), München, 2000 (http://books.google.fr/books?id=NSfj4RhIMFkC&pg=PP1&dq=inauthor:Podskalsky&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&as_brr=0&cd=4# )
    This is really good German scholarship, much like Graf’s book on Christian Arabic literature (albeit not exactly built on the same principles). Unfortunately none of these two works are online; I have seen on the web pirate pdfs of the Russian translation of the first one (Xristianstvo i bogoslovskaja literatura v Kievskoj Rusi, Sankt-Peterburg, 1996), but it is, of course, still under copyright.
    Useful information may also be found in the “Dictionary of Old Russian Scribes and Literacy” (Slovar’ knizhnikov i knizhnosti drevney Rusi), available here: http://lib.pushkinskijdom.ru/Default.aspx?tabid=2048, but it is entirely in Russian, and covers only the East Slavic area.

  2. I only know of a book on Old Slavonic apocryphs*, but that does not mean that there does not exist one. I’ve looked in my grammar on Old Slavonic, but I can’t seem to find a mention of any handbooks…

    *A. De Santos Otero, Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der altslavischen Apokryphen (Patristische Texte und Studien ; 20, 23)

  3. adshkute, Thank you so much for these. Yes, it is annoying that they are offline (and in German!) but at least they exist. I will see if I can get access to copies, and see what I can learn!

    It is odd that there is so much interest in Old Slavonic apocrypha, when the whole literature receives so little.

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