Papers by Anissava Miltenova
The Enigma of the Night: Dream Interpretations in Medieval Slavonic Apocrypha, 2024
From the revelation of the future to the miraculous cure and the conceptualization of history, dr... more From the revelation of the future to the miraculous cure and the conceptualization of history, dreams occupy a special place in medieval cultures. Regardless of the genre in which they are presented (biblical texts, apocrypha, divinatory manuals, chronicles, hagiographic narratives), their appearance always indicates an enigma, a hidden meaning, a challenge to the cognitive process. Medieval Slavonic cultures present an important case in this respect as many of the dream interpretations attested in them were either translations from Byzantine sources or followed Byzantine models. This article focuses on a number of apocryphal texts, such as dream books, The Story of Sibylla, The Account of the Prophet Samuel, the Twelve Dreams of the Persian King, and The Dream of King Joash, all of which were disseminated to the Slavic medieval cultures from Byzantium. The paper explores how these texts were reshaped in the Slavic milieu, contrasting them to dream visions from the original Slavonic hagiography.
Ohio State University. Resource Center for Medieval Slavic Studies, Jun 1, 2012
Biannual newsletter of the Hilandar Research Library (HRL) and the Resource Center for Medieval S... more Biannual newsletter of the Hilandar Research Library (HRL) and the Resource Center for Medieval Slavic Studies (RCMSS), The Ohio State University. Includes features by guest contributors as well as regularly published columns, such as: "Director's Desk" by the Director of RCMSS; "HRL Journal" – where Cyrillic Manuscript Heritage asks researchers who have used the resources of the HRL in the past year to describe their experience and work; "RCMSS & HRL New Notes" reports on recent visitors, research, events, projects, updates, etc.; contributors to both the Hilandar Endowment Fund and Hilandar’s Friends of the Library Fund are listed, as are donors of "Gifts in Kind.""OSU Libraries Appoints Associate Curator for HRL," p. 1; "Sixth International Hilandar Conference, The Ohio State University, 19-21 July 2013," p. 1; Director's Desk, pp. 2 and 10; "A New Digital Edition of the Codex Suprasliensis" by Anissava Miltenova, pp. 3, 9; HRL Journal, pp. 4, 5, 10: "Researching the Sermons of Ioan Exarch" by Svetlina Nikolova, pp. 4, 10, and "Run of the Mill? Hardly!" by William R. Veder, p. 5; RCMSS & HRL News Notes, pp. 6, 7, 8; "Guide to Upcoming Medieval and Slavic Workshops, Conferences and Exhibits," p. 8; "RCMSS Advisory Council Meets," p. 8; "† In Memoriam: Predrag Dragić Kijuk. Witness of Historical Memory" by Miroljub Joković, p. 10; Gifts in Kind, Donors, p. 11; Announcement of the launch of the HRL/RCMSS blog “ScriptoriaSlavica,” back cover
Routledge eBooks, Oct 4, 2021
Старобългарска литература, 1982
Scripta & e-Scripta, 2015
Старобългарска литература, 1982
This paper presents an overview of principles and problems connected with the preparation of an e... more This paper presents an overview of principles and problems connected with the preparation of an electronic edition of the largest Old Church Slavonic manuscript, the Codex Suprasliensis, in the context of a project funded by UNESCO. Specifications of the manuscript, its history, and previous paper-based and electronic editions are discussed, together with a strategy for the preparation of a complete digital edition, including newly acquired digital images, electronic text, analysis and commentaries, parallel Greek text, and updated bibliography. In particular, our paper sheds light on automating the morphosyntactic annotation of the text and the difficulties that had to be resolved in this part of the project.
Slovene, 2015
Институт за литература, Българска академия на науките (София) Поздние отзвуки так называемого Кня... more Институт за литература, Българска академия на науките (София) Поздние отзвуки так называемого Княжьего Изборника в славянских литературах Анисава Милтенова Институт литературы Болгарской академии наук (София) Резюме В палеославистиката е изказано мнение, че прототип на Изборника от 1076 г. представлява реконструиран състав, означен като Княжески изборник, който въз хожда към времето на българския цар Петър (927-969). Статията представя обзор на съдържанието на три ръкописа, в които се намират преписи на съчинения от т. нар. Княжески изборник: № 162 от сбирката на Московската духовна академия, от ХV в., руски по произход; сборник-конволют от Хи лен дарския манастир № 189, съставен от две части-част І от началото на ХVІІ в., вероятно писана от молдавски книжовник и част ІІ-1684 г., руска по про изход; № 280 (333) от сбирката на Св. Синод на Румънската православна църк ва, ХV-ХVІ в., мол давски по произход. Изказват се предположения за из точ ниците на тези ръ кописи и пътя, по който са проникнали текстовете, иден тични с Княжеския изборник. Ключови думи Изборник от 1076 г., паренетична литература, компилативни състави, въпроси и отговори, поучителни глави Резюме В палеославистике высказывалось мнение, что прототипом Изборника 1076 года является так называемый реконструируемый Княжий Изборник, со ставленный при болгарском царе Петре (927-969). Настоящая статья дает обзор содержания трех рукописей, в которых содержатся списки произведений из этого Княжье го Изборника: № 162 из собрания Московской духовной ака де мии | 279
During the late Middle Ages interest in historical-apocalyptic works did not decline, on the cont... more During the late Middle Ages interest in historical-apocalyptic works did not decline, on the contrary, such texts continued to be copied in miscellanies. Most surviving copies come from this period. These works remained topical for men of letters as well as readers, as new redactions and variants of earlier translations appeared, and the series of eschatological and apocalyptic texts continued to be of constant interest. Functioning within the wide borders of "low" literature, the apocryphal prophecies reveal the interaction of biblical apocalypses and eschatology with folklore and mythological thought. As part of the Bulgarian and the Balkan written traditions, they show and prove the continuity between the First and Second Bulgarian Kingdoms. The Bulgarian tradition was formed not only through the reception of Byzantine texts, but also by the transformation of such texts, and more importantly, by the creation of an impressive number of original works. Keywords: apocalyptic literature; Balkan written traditions; Bulgarian written tradition; Byzantine texts; mythological thought
The Account of the Twelve Fridays has long been attracting the interest of medievalists and anthr... more The Account of the Twelve Fridays has long been attracting the interest of medievalists and anthropologists. No definite conclusion has been reached so far on the questions of its origins and the transmission in the Eastern Mediterranean. The paper discusses some of the challenges which the editors of the Slavonic versions face to their variability.
Старобългарска литература, 1981
Routledge eBooks, Oct 16, 2019
Tlie paper is concerned with the development and exploitation of computer corpora of data from th... more Tlie paper is concerned with the development and exploitation of computer corpora of data from the Medieval Slavic manuscripts. The paper stresses on the ways how different information on manuscript studies could be encoded, how that encoding should be represented for interchange, and what kind of methods of searching are used. The further development of the Sofia Computerized Manuscript Corpus of Data is related with the integration of different aspects of language, text and paleography research of medieval Slavic manuscripts. The paper presents some results from the ongoing work and proposes new ideas for the further development of such a projects with Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) in the framework of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI). The paper will focus also on standardization problems, copyright questions, teamwork organization and methodological difficulties in the development of electronic resources and their implementation in the university education.
BRILL eBooks, 2010
Byzantine chronography provides the most authoritative source on the formation of the Christian v... more Byzantine chronography provides the most authoritative source on the formation of the Christian view of world history. Paratextual historical-apocalyptic works linked to the name of the Prophet Daniel were widespread in the literature of the Middle East and the Mediterranean: we know of Greek, Jewish-Arabic, Syrian, Persian and Armenian examples. The popularity of the Prophet Isaiah in Bulgarian lands is explained by scholars in different ways. Some connect it with the early translation into Old Bulgarian of Ascensio Isaiae , which was disseminated widely, others with the legend that the relics of the prophet are in the Osogovo monastery. Historical apocalypses with the names of Daniel and Isaiah are usually included by scholars among the Slavonic pesudepigrapha and apocrypha. We can determine four stages in the translation and dissemination of this paratextual literature with no absolute limits between them. Keywords: Byzantine rule; historical apocalypses; Old Bulgarian literature; paratextual literature; Prophet Daniel; Prophet Isaiah
Studia Ceranea, Dec 30, 2014
The non-canonical Acts of Andrew the Apostle are among the earliest and most valuable sources for... more The non-canonical Acts of Andrew the Apostle are among the earliest and most valuable sources for the history of translated literature in medieval Bulgaria. It is a widely accepted view that the archetypal Greek text of Acta Andreae originated in the 2 nd century in Alexandria 1. There are several works that have reached our time in Coptic, Armenian, Syrian, Arabic, Ethiopic, Latin, Greek and Slavic copies in various versions, often in fragments 2. It is a well-known fact that Eusebius of Caesarea (ca. 263-339) mentions the text in his Ecclesiastical History (ІІІ, 25) with reference to Origen (ca. 184-254). The Greek, Oriental and Latin traditions have been described in detail 3 , investigated and published to a certain degree 4. A. de Santos Otero published a list of the copies known in Slavic manuscripts 5. According to F. Thomson (in his analysis of the archaeographical data of A. de Santos Otero) 6 at least seven or eight different texts that can be attributed to the acts of Apostle Andrew were in circulation in the Slavic tradition: Acta et marti
Scrinium, Sep 20, 2018
The mixed-content miscellanies could be defined as a unifying genre of the 'readable' type of uns... more The mixed-content miscellanies could be defined as a unifying genre of the 'readable' type of unstable makeup and varied content. Manuscripts that reflect the nucleus of characteristic works in expanded or reduced form, providing they feature sufficient textological proof of common origin or typological similarity, could be classified with a certain type. The present study on the Dispute between Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Antichrist and on the The Story about beautiful Joseph has two objectives: 1) to introduce several so far unstudied South Slavonic manuscripts that contain mainly apocrypha, and 2) to reveal how the differences between initial translations and secondary editing of Slavonic apocrypha are indicative of the intervention of the Slavic writer.
Biannual newsletter of the Hilandar Research Library (HRL) and the Resource Center for Medieval S... more Biannual newsletter of the Hilandar Research Library (HRL) and the Resource Center for Medieval Slavic Studies (RCMSS), The Ohio State University. Includes features by guest contributors as well as regularly published columns, such as: "Director's Desk" by the Director of RCMSS; "HRL Journal" – where Cyrillic Manuscript Heritage asks researchers who have used the resources of the HRL in the past year to describe their experience and work; "RCMSS & HRL New Notes" reports on recent visitors, research, events, projects, updates, etc.; contributors to both the Hilandar Endowment Fund and Hilandar’s Friends of the Library Fund are listed, as are donors of "Gifts in Kind.""OSU Libraries Appoints Associate Curator for HRL," p. 1; "Sixth International Hilandar Conference, The Ohio State University, 19-21 July 2013," p. 1; Director's Desk, pp. 2 and 10; "A New Digital Edition of the Codex Suprasliensis" by Anissava Miltenova, pp. 3, 9; HRL Journal, pp. 4, 5, 10: "Researching the Sermons of Ioan Exarch" by Svetlina Nikolova, pp. 4, 10, and "Run of the Mill? Hardly!" by William R. Veder, p. 5; RCMSS & HRL News Notes, pp. 6, 7, 8; "Guide to Upcoming Medieval and Slavic Workshops, Conferences and Exhibits," p. 8; "RCMSS Advisory Council Meets," p. 8; "† In Memoriam: Predrag Dragić Kijuk. Witness of Historical Memory" by Miroljub Joković, p. 10; Gifts in Kind, Donors, p. 11; Announcement of the launch of the HRL/RCMSS blog “ScriptoriaSlavica,” back cover
BRILL eBooks, 2012
This chapter observes some points in the textological tradition of the apocryphal series about th... more This chapter observes some points in the textological tradition of the apocryphal series about the Holy Tree attributed to St. Gregory the Theologian and the Slavonic version of the Vita Adae et Evae . The two works are frequently part of South Slavic manuscripts of an identical type in which there is a peculiar consistency: In some cases they are featured separately and independently of one another, while in others they constitute a stable entity, complimenting each other. The legend of the Holy Tree is connected with the myth about the universal tree. In Genesis, there is only one tree around which the stories revolve: the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It is also called the tree of life. In the Slavonic Vita Adae et Evae , three trees are mentioned: a cedar, a pine, and a cypress which have been combined with the sacred tree. Keywords:adamic tradition; apocryphal; Genesis; holy tree; slavonic manuscripts; St. Gregory; textological tradition; tree of life; Vita Adae et Evae
Journal for the study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman period, 2012
Uploads
Papers by Anissava Miltenova
The research work on ‘miscellanies of mixed content’ is needed both in the field of contemporary palaeoslavic studies and of history of Byzantine Slavonic literary contacts. Not less important are relations with Eastern Slavonic (Russian, Ukrainian and Carpathian) and Romanian literature. There are also resonances of Judaic, Early Christian and Middle East tradition.
In the first chapter I tried to make a survey of the essence and scope of the concept of ‘mixed-content miscellany’ as a type of edifying and instructive books, its audience and specific features. Objectives of the study in the next chapter are twofold: to observe almost 50 manuscript with a complete archaeographic and content data and to make a typology of the miscellanies. A few are not mentioned in reference books, and another part has no analytical descriptions. Every miscellany includes 35-40 texts (self-dependent or in series) which are coherent and interweave one with another in the context of all composition. It is very important view to transmission of the texts and their filiation through the history of literature 13th–17th c. The third chapter if the research is constituted of seven parts: 1. Apocryphal Series about the Holy Tree Attributed to St Gregory the Theologian and the Story about Adam and Eve; 2. The Apocryphal Series about Abraham; 3. The Apocryphal Series about David and Solomon; 4. Story about Prophet Samuel; 5. Story about Handsome Joseph
6. Story about Incest; 7. Series of Stories about Evil Women. All these series are based on the typology of the miscellanies.
The scope of the study is to introduce into scientific circulation these series and texts which fill in the gap in the translation and the reception of Slavonic apocrypha. In many cases I hope the research will through new light on the sources of the translation as well as the compilative work of Slavonic writers, which reproduced a new version of texts.
Methodology of the research is descriptive (in the part with description of manuscripts) and analytical (in the part for typology of manuscripts and texts). The actual methods of text critic are applied in the study of series and separate texts. Different styles and characteristic of versions are given. In the supplement an unpublished copies of Slavonic text are published after each part. A typology of manuscripts is supported by plectograms produced in the project Repertorium of Old Bulgarian literature and letters (http://repertorium.obdurodon.org/). A thorough bibliography is enclosed to the book as well as index of subjects and of names of modern authors.