MONUMENTA BULGARICA A BILINGUAL ANTHOLOGY OF BULGARIAN TEXTS FROM THE 9th TO THE 19th CENTURIES Thomas Butler MICHIGAN SLAVIC PUBLICATIONS THE MONK HRABtJR'S TREATISE ON LETTERS The monk "Hrabur" ("Brave")1 is an unidentified writer, whose single known work is a poetic and emotional treatise on the invention of the first Slavonic alphabet (glagolitic) by Constantine-Cyril. Hrabur also provides detailed information on the various stages in the development of the Greek alphabet, in order to support his contention that Cyril's invention of the Slavonic was divinely inspired. We don't know when Hrabur wrote his exposition, but some scholars believe it dates from as early as the tenth century,2 perhaps from the reign of Tsar Symeon (893-927). The aggressive, prideful tone of the piece led Zlatarski to see in it the hallmark of Symeon himself, as evinced in his correspondence with the Byzantine Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos.3 If Zlatarski is correct, then Symeon's choice of nom de plume may indicate how the ruler saw his role in the contest with Byzantium. Whether or not Symeon was its author, this polemical work must have been composed during a period when Bulgarian fortunes were on the rise and it was less dangerous to take a belligerent stance vis a vis Byzantium. Thus it would have been written before the collapse of the eastern half of the First Bulgarian Kingdom in 970-71 A.D. In a real sense Hrabur is a direct follower of the Cyrillo-Methodian doctrine of the equality of all languages. He expands Constantine-Cyril's argument to include the ideas of Byzantine theorists whom he doesn't name,4 such as Pseudo Theodosius, Theodoret of Cyrrhus and the historian George Hamartolus. Hrabur claims that Syriac was the first language, spoken by Adam and Eve and their descendants until the time of the tower of Babel. He thus rejects the notion of the primacy of Hebrew as "God's language." Hrabur renews Constantine-Cyril's assault on the "trilingual heresy." He also contends that the Slavonic alphabet is superior to the Greek, because it was created by a single holy man, in a few years, whereas the Greek letters were devised by a group of pagans over a period of centuries. 143 It was the genius of Tsar Symeon to have understood the challenge of Byzantine Greek cultural hegemony, and to have adopted the weapons forged in Great Moravia during the Cyrillo-Methodian mission, using them against his Byzantine opponents. But at the same time Symeon and his collaborators — some of whom had been educated in Constantinople — took what they considered the important works of Byzantine culture and assimilated them into Slavonic, as demonstrated by Hrabur's use of Greek sources. This would also indicate that he was writing from a vital cultural center, with a good library, such as would be found in the capital of Preslav. Although he is not an original scholar, Hrabur is an accomplished polemicist, who marshals his facts, presenting them cogently and with a simplicity and directness that sometimes approaches folk narrative in style. His Skazanie o pismenShii has survived in some eighty manuscripts, the majority of which are from the seventeenth century. The oldest dated text is to be found in the "Laurentian Compendium" of 1348, copied by the scribe Laurence for Tsar John Alexander (1331-1371).5 This is the only fourteenth-century copy, and although there are a few fifteenth and sixteenth-century manuscripts, it isn't until the following century that one finds a large number, mainly from Old Believer areas.6 Kul'bakin believed that certain features of the 1348 copy — for example, the presence of the dative Zesomu and the aorist third plural rese — indicate that the original was written in early Old Church Slavonic. He also surmised, on the basis of certain phonological features, that its author was from Northeast Bulgaria, perhaps from the area of Preslav. There are other, non-linguistic clues to its age — for example, the fervor with which Hrabur rebuts Greek claims to language supremacy may show that he was writing during a period of struggle between pro-Byzantine and pro-Slavonic elements in Bulgaria, such as would have existed in the late ninth and early tenth century. Finally, his mention of Greek criticism that the Slavonic alphabet had not yet been stabilized and was still being modified would indicate one of two closely-related possibilities: either O pismenghu was written not long after the disciples of Methodius had come to 144 Preslav and were in the process of adapting their Moravian-influenced orthography to the Bulgaro-Macedonian dialects — or *™ this was precisely the period when the Bulgaro-Macedonian Slavs, under the leadership of Clement of Ohrid and Naum, were shifting from glagolitic to the new "cyrillic" alphabet promoted by Clement. The "Treatise on Letters" of the monk Hrabur has been venerated by Orthodox Slavs, from the monasteries of Mount Athos to the Dalmatian Coast (Savina Monastery), to the Arctic Sea (Soloveckij Monastery). It also directly influenced other medieval Slavic works, for example Epiphanius the Most Wise's "Life of Saint Stephen of Perm." In describing Stephen's creation of a new alphabet for the Zyrians (Komi) of the Far North, the Russian Epiphanius makes nearly literal borrowings from Hrabur on the equality of languages and on Cyril's divinely-inspired invention of the Slavonic alphabet. The reverence with which Hrabur's text was held by Orthodox Slavs is also reflected by its appearance in some of the earliest East Slavic printed books, for example as introductory matter in the Belorussian primers H§jl4- printed in Vilnius in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. O pismenShii was also included as front matter in the seventeenth-century Russian azbukovniki, which were encyclopaedic compendia of grammatical, literary and historical materials. Such publications helped keep the Cyrillo-Methodian tradition alive in the East Slavic lands. Kujo Kuev's study (1967) gives valuable information on the manuscript tradition, plus the full texts of some seventy five mss. Kuev's remarks on the history of individual mss. are interesting — •**- - for example, he tells how the Russian scholar Sreznevskij copied the Dalmatian "Savina MS.," but published it in "corrected" form. Later the manuscript disappeared, so that we may never know how old "Savina" was or how close to the Old Bulgarian prototype. Besides Kuev, specialists will want to consult A. Giambelluca-Kossova's critical edition of the Laurentian text,7 as well as R. Piccio's "On the Textual Criticism of Xrabr's Treatise" (1969). The Slavonic version below is from Lavrov's Materialy. mk i 145 O niiCMíNtyt Hp-kiiopi'i3U,d Xp&apa. Hp-fc^A6 *yEW Gaor^ne ne ha\4;\-;r Kimrk, hs Hp-kTdAUl ii p"C3dA\h skT+,\-^ iT rdTddY*! norami cxijií. Kp-kCTin.uie híe ca, phaÍckúmh ii rp*KMk- CKklAUl HHCAUHkl H*>KA, BCA h"k pd30yAlO^ HpHEOAA " cňcíHHW, nOAAHAOBdBk pOA*k CAOK-Klici.klH. HOCAd iiA\k CTTO KwCTdHTHHd ^HAOCOif.d, HdpHU,dEAtdrO KUpHAd, A\JR>Kd npdKEAUd « HCTIIHIId. H CkTBOpH HAVk, A. HHCAÍÉNd H OCMk. WBd sbu' no HHiioy rp-kMkCKki\-k micAtEN'k, vwsd /KE no caob'Ehct'Eh p'kiii. ď np*kEdro JKE HdlEH'k no rpTiMkCKOy*. WHH CyCO dAijid, d C-k d3k. W d3d HdHATk VVG06. II 0KO-/KE VVHH, ÍIOAOBAkUJECA /KHAOBkCKklA\k nHCAtENE A\k, CkTEOpHHJ*, TdKO II CK rprkMkCKklA\T». iKllAOP.e BO npTvEOE ni'lCAtA HA\ATk dAE^ik. é>KE CA CKÍ-3d6Tk OysEIIHE C'KRp*kUJdXl|je. ETiEOAIIAXOy" A't™1^0^* 11 f AAIJ1E'. ŠSHCA, ext écTk dAE^k. H Pp^U", nOAOBAUJECA TOAlOy dAijid ptlUX. 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"(>AAMHWAVk rp/iAldTHKHA, pHTO-pHKHA, ^HAOCO^H*. np-fe/KE CEro "6AAHHH HE IIAlf.y* CKOHA\"k *3klK0Mk I1HCAVEH. N£ liHH'lkCKklA\H IIIICAUHkl IIHCd\"Si CRO^i CH p+.Hk. 11 TdKO BSIU* A\HOrd a+.Td. IldHdAlHAk 5KE IIOCA+.JKAE npHUJEA'k, Nd'lEN'k CD dA^ikl II KIITkl, iH. IIHCAlEHk TTvKAlO "BaAIIMUM^ WBp'ETE. np-BA02Klf /K£ HAW KdAkAlTv /HhAHCTh nHCAt£HA,r' T-k/U >K£ AtHOrd A"ETd,"£l. HSICAUHkj nilCddyX.; f| nOTOA\"k GHAlOHHA"k VVBp'BT'k, npilAOHJH AB^ HHCAtEHH, 'BnH\'dplH Xt CKd3dT£dk, 7. nHCMEHA vOEp+,TE. l'l CkBpdCA fl^k, KA- no AlHO^'EY )K£ A'ferkyk 4,H0HHC"k rpdA\dTHKT», S. ABOrAdCHkl\'k IVBpliTE. IIOTOAA >K£ ApO\"rT»l", " ApCyrklH r. MHCAUNIITdd. H TdKO A\NO?M A\HOTklA\H A"BTkJ 6A^d CkEpdUUK, All. nHCAtEHI.. nOTOAl »,'£ AtllOrOAATi A'BTU'AA'k A\HN^iBUJEA\Tv, E>»lCAA'k nOKEA*BNIIE Mk aiBp+,T£CA, 0. AAX5KT», H/KE np-BAOJKHUJX CD JKHAOKTkCKdd Hd rp*kMk(KU I ^3klirk. Now others say: "Of what use are Slavonic books? Neither God has created them, nor the angels. They are not from time immemorial, like the Hebrew and Roman and Greek, which are from the beginning and were instituted by God." While others think that God himself created letters for us, and they don't know what they are saying, the poor wretches! And /they say/ that God commanded that books be written in three languages, as it is written in the gospel: "And die sign /on the cross/ was written in Hebrew and Latin and Greek," but Slavonic was not there. Therefore the Slavonic letters are not from God.10 What can we say to these things? Or what shall we say to such stupidities? Shall we say that we learned from the scriptures that everything in its turn comes from God and nowhere else? For God did not create the Hebrew language first, nor Latin, nor Greek — but Syrian, which Adam talked, and from Adam to the Flood, and from the Flood until God divided the nations at the creation of the Tower of Babel. As it is written: "And the languages were confounded." And just as the languages were confounded, so were the ways and customs and regulations and laws and skills among nations: surveying to the Egyptians, astronomy to the Persians, Chaldeans and Assyrians, as well as sorcery, medicine, magic and all the arts of man. To the Jews /He gave/ the sacred books in which it is written how God created heaven and earth and all that is in it, and man, and everything in its turn, as it is written. To the Greeks he gave grammar, rhetoric and philosophy; but before that the Hellenes did not have letters in their language. Instead they wrote their language in Phoenician letters, and it was that way for many years. Finally Panamid came along: beginning with alfa and vita he invented just sixteen letters for the Greeks. After that Caedmon of Miletus added three, and thus they wrote for many years with nineteen letters. And then Simonides invented and added two letters, and Epicharmus the writer invented three, and these added up to twenty-four. After many years Dionysius the Grammarian invented six diphthongs, and then another man five, and yet another three — for numbers — and so after many years had passed they barely put together thirty-eight letters. And then - many years having passed - by God's command seventy men were found who translated from Hebrew into Greek.11 'ň CAOK'BHCK-kl* KHHrU €A"H1» CTfclH KwCTdHTHiTk, HdpHlV»£A\fclH KHpHA-k, H IlHCMÍHd CTEÓpH H KHHrkl fip-KAOXH. E*k AUA-fe^k AfrrBX^- * IVHH MHOJJM iMHOnü A^BTkl h£k IlHCAlíHd OyCTpOH. d •"©• np*AO*í- Hllfi. rfeAA Hí£ CAOB'ENCKdd ílHCMEHd CÍHlHUld CX. h MkCTH'BHliJd. CTk BW AU>/KTx CTKOpHA-k B K, d ľpTkMkCKdd GaAHHH nOľdHH- iipl AH KTO píHfTk, BKO h% OyCTpOHATk ^OBp^, IIOHEXE CA nOCTpdHKTk H 1l|lt, (Dß-BTTi píMIAlk CHUk- h rp-kMkCKkl TdKOXC. MHOrdXC^h C*Tk flOCTpdBAH f[KHAAd h GHMAtd^k, h llOTOAVk hhh MHO?H. OyAOB'fcC BO fecTk nOCAÍiJKÍ ROTROpHTH, HtXt np"VKOt CTBOpHTH. äl|lí B* B"knpÓCHUJH KHHľkMHA rp-kHkCKklA rAA° KTO Bkl €CTk (IHCAUNd CTE*pHA"k, HAH KHHPkl fip'BAOýKHA'k, HAH Kk KOI Bp-UlA, TO p"fcÁUTH CD hh]p> B*EAATk. 'ňl\it AH BtnpOCHllJH CAOR-fcAcKUA BOyKdpA TA*' KTO BU ilHCAMHd CTBOpMA-k €CTk, HAH KHHrkl ílp'BAOJKHA'k, TO KkCH k*AATk. h it'lrfi-lUdEUJt, píKXTk* CŤÍuH KwCTdHTHIľk ^HAOCO^, NdpHUdíMklH KÚp'kA'k. t-w HAAAk IlHCMÍHd CTROpH H KHHrkl llp-BAOXH. H Mífl,0A,H6 BfaTW kro. H iiyt B-knpÓCHUIH, B-k KOÍ Bp-BAAA, TO K^ATk H piKXTk, HKO K"k Bp-feAUH4 AlHX-AHAd tyj-t rp-kskCKdro, ií EopHCd kha?a BA-krapcKdro, h PdCTHii,* kha^d AtOpdBkCKd, h KoU,ÍA-fe KNA^d BAdTÍHCKd. B*k aItA *i CT^A*" HHd B-kCErO AAHpd T%f: C*Tk pd30yAľk, BpdTH€, E^k 6CTk A4^ GAOlTEMWAVk. é«oy*t cAdBd h ikCTk h Ap™'«" " noKAAH-kHHe, hhh*b h npiicHo 11 k-k BfCKOHiMHUA B-sku, AMHÍV. Now, for Slavonic writing Saint Constantine-Cyril alone created the letters and translated the books1'* in a few years, while those many men — seven of them — created their letters over many years, and seventy did the translation. Therefore the Slavonic letters are more holy and more venerable, because a holy man created them, whereas pagan Hellenes created the Greek. And moreover, if someone says that he didn't create them well, because they are still being modified, we shall answer them: "It's the same with the Greek letters: many times Akil and Symmachus worked at modifying them, and many others after that. For it is easier to change things later on than it is to create for the first time. And if you ask Greek scholars: "Who created your letters for you, or translated your scriptures, or at what time?" — rare is the person who will know. But if you ask a Slavic primary school pupil: "Who created your letters for you or translated your books?" — everyone will know. And they will answer you: "Saint Constantine the Philosopher, called Cyril. He created our letters and translated our books, and Methodius his brother."13 And if you ask: "At what time?" they will know and will say: "It was in the tíme of Michael the Greek Emperor, and Boris the Bulgarian Prince, and Rastislav14 the Moravian Prince, and Kocel the Prince of Balaton /Pannonia/, in the year 6363."15 There are other answers, which I shall tell you at another time, but now there is no time. So, brothers, God gave understanding to the Slavs. To Him be the glory and honor and power and homage, now and forever, and in the infinite ages to come. Amen. ■IBB Notes 1. There is no way of knowing whether Hrabür is a proper name or a nom de plume. Ivan Dujcev was convinced that it was the Bulgarian equivalent of the Greek An dreios, which also means "brave" (Dujcev 1974, 260), while Zlatarski (Dujcev's teacher) believed that the author was Tsar Symeon, who had once been a monk. K. Kuev, on the other hand, accepts Hrabür as a bona fide proper name. 150 151 2. On the dating of "On Letters," Vatroslav Jagid states in his Rassuzdenija: "From the content and tendency of the article it is evident that he lived during the first flowering of Slavic writing among the Bulgarian Slavs, approximately in the tenth century." Roman Jakobson also perceives him as a representative of Bulgaria's Golden Age. He mentions Hrabur in several places in his "Selected Writings," VI, 1 — for example, in "The Kernel of Comparative Slavic Literature" (48), as well as in "Slavism as a Topic of Comparative Studies" (72), in "The Byzantine Mission to the Slavs" (110), and "The Czech Part in Slavonic Culture" (125), where he places Hrabur in the tenth century and refers to him as "a prominent Bulgarian writer of Moravian tradition." 3. For examples of the arrogant and taunting letters of Symeon to the Byzantine Patriarch Nicholas, see Dujcev's Iz sta.ra.ta. bulgarska kniznina (1943-44). For an English translation of Nicholas's letters to Symeon, see R. Jenkins and L. Westerlink: "Letters of Nicholas I, Patriarch of Constantinople," Dumbarton Oaks Texts, 2 (1973). 4. V. Jagid {op. cit.) was the first to trace Hrabiir's sources. In more recent times Ivan Dujcev (1944) has also checked them, corroborating that he was writing from a vital cultural center. 5. During this same period the Bulgarian version of Manasses' "Chronicle" and the "London Gospels" of 1355-56 were also copied. The illuminations of the "London Gospels" have been published by E. Dimitrova (the British Museum, 1994). 6. K. Kuev traces many copies to monasteries such as Soloveckij, where the Old Believers were strong (Kuev, 1967, 181-2). 7. A. Dzambeluka-Kossova (1980). 8. The form ozyku for Late Common Slavic jgzykii represents a typical development in the history of the Northeast Bulgarian dialects. This confusion of the front and back nasals is reflected in the Middle Bulgarian manuscripts, of which the Laurentian Compendium is an example. 9. The present gerund form strqjg instead of strqjg is another example of the confusion of the nasals (see note 8). 10. Hrabur repeats the essence of the "three-language heresy," confronted by Cyril in Moravia and Venice. In doing so, he is following a favored rhetorical device: he gives the opponent's position first and then refutes it. 11. The seventy men referred to by Hrabur (there were actually seventy-two) translated the O.T. "Septuagint" (Seventy) from Hebrew into Greek. 12. When Hrabur implies that Cyril translated all the books he is exaggerating, for as he himself admits further on, Cyril was aided by his brother Methodius. 13. Lavrov omits here a very interesting line, believing it to be a later scribal intercalation: Sgt' bo este zivi ize sgt' viddli ihu ("And those who saw them are still alive"). If authentic, this statement would help date the composition as late ninth or early tenth century. 14. Hrabur uses the Old Czech hypocoristic Rastic for Rastislav (Rostislav), which may indicate that he was either a member of the Moravian Mission or a contemporary 'of someone who was. His mention of Kocel, who faded into oblivion along with his state, also helps place the author as a contemporary or near contemporary of the ruler. 15. According to a common method of dating used in the Orthodox world (the "Constantinople system"), Christ was born 5508 years after the Creation. So the date 6363 would indicate that Constantine-Cyril invented the alphabet in 855 A.D. But according to the "Alexandrian" system, also used at the time, the world was created 5500 years before Christ's birth, which would set the invention of the alphabet in 863 A.D., the commonly accepted date. 152 153