Palaeoslavica. International Journal for the Study of Slavic Medieval Literature, History, Language and Ethnology

Volume XXIV of Palaeoslavica for 2016 consists of two issues (284 pp., 303 pp.)  

No. 1 of Palaeoslavica XXIV consists of four sections. The Articles section contains a study by V. Kalugin on the use of the Glagolitic alphabet as a decorative element of rubrics in late (end of the 15th-17th centuries) copies of Prophets with Commentaries (the so-called Special Redaction); a study by A. Strakhov on the image of Mother-Earth in medieval South and East Slavic literature and folklore; an article by I. Lemeshkin on the Prague fire of 1541 and its connection to the life of Franciscus Scorina (Francysk Skaryna or Francisk Skorina, ca. 1490—before 29 January 1552), a Belarusian humanist, physician, translator and one of the first book printers in Eastern Europe. The Publications section presents 414 Belorussian magic spells in modern records by G. Lopatin and stories about «scary places» and meetings with their inhabitants in the woods surrounding the basin of the Pechora River (west side of the Ural Mountains) collected by T. Kaneva and others. The Speculum section presents studies by E. Bourbuhakis and M. Mavrodi on Professor Ihor Sevcenko's (1922-2009) legacy and his impact on Byzantine and medieval Slavic history. The Miscellanea section presents a note by G. Parpulov that sheds light on a previously obscure period in the history of two Athonite monasteries and their relations to the famous Maximos the Greek.

No. 2 of Palaeoslavica XXIV presents a reconstruction and publication of a 12th-century manuscript of the Menaion for May (RNB, Sof. 203) that had been partially eaten by mice. The study contains a preface (pp. 1-23), a publication of the manuscript (pp. 24-288), graphical and orthographic commentary to the text (pp. 289-297), and five facsimiles presenting five scribes working with the manuscript (pp. 298-302). The reconstruction of the text (especially of its damaged pieces) was done on the basis of Greek and early Slavonic parallel witnesses (manuscript and printed). The study of the manuscript and its Greek and Slavonic parallels shows that the main scribe of the Menaion did not have access to any other copy of the Menaion. Some of the Canons for Saints that he copied did not have parallels in the early Slavonic Menaion for May and/or were of a different translation not extant in other manuscripts. The orthography of the Menaion contains typical East Slavonic features with no specific regional ones. The text further contains some rare and hitherto unattested lexemes.