The Catena Commentaries on the Book of Prophet Isaiah by St. Cyril of Alexandria: The Preslavian Heritage in Middle Bulgarian and Russian Manuscript Tradition

Authors:

Pages: 119-139
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/VCIV9223

Abstract:

The article discusses some scholia by St. Cyril of Alexandria from the Greek Catena on the Book of Prophet Isaiah in comparison with the Preslav translation according to several representatives of the two Slavonic manuscript traditions – the Middle Bulgarian (F.I. 461 from the Russian National Library in Saint Petersburg) and the Russian ones (Mss. Chudovski 182, 183 and 184 from the State Historical Museum in Moskow and Ms. 89 and Ms. 90 from the Collection of the Troitse-Sergieva Laura). The parallels between the Greek and Slavonic manuscript traditions make it possible to draw the following conclusions. The complex Slavonic tradition should be explored because the Middle Bulgarian manuscript tradition is incomplete and represents only a part of the Preslav translation, and the conclusions made on its basis are incomplete. The parallel study of the Slavonic translation with samples from the Greek Catеnae shows that it is insufficient to work only with the full text of the commentary in Patrologia Graeca, as some translation decisions in Slavonic can be explained only by the Greek source used. The study of the scholia by St. Cyril of Alexandria in Slavonic translation, as well as the study of the scholia by Theodulus and John Chrysostom, point to the possibility that the Slavonic translation represents unknown or today unpreserved abbreviated version of the Greek catena.

Keywords:

Cyril of Alexandria, Slavonic translation, Greek catena, Book of Isaiah, scholia.

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