Forty Gospel Homilies of Gregory the Great in the Czech Church Slavonic Translation

The Paleoslovenic Department of the Institute of Slavonic Studies of the ASCR conducts scientific research in the field of the Old Old Slavonic and Church Slavonic languages and writings. The current research focuses mainly on manuscripts of the Great Moravian period and on texts written in Church Slavonic of the Czech recension which appeared on the territory of the Czech State in the 10th and 11th centuries, and later on, during the reign of Charles IV and the pre-Hussite period.

In March 2006, the first volume was published of the edition of the Church Slavonic manuscript, Besědy na evangelia Řehoře Velikého (Forty Gospel Homilies of Gregory the Great in a Czech Church Slavonic Translation). Volume I. Homilies I-XXIV. Václav Konzal prepared for the publication. Sancti Gregorii Magni Romani pontificis XL homiliarum in evangelia in versione bohemo-slavonica. Pars prima. Homiliae I-XXIV. Ad editionem praeparavit Václav Konzal. Institute of Slavonic Studies of the ASCR, Euroslavica, aPraha 2005, LVI + 684 pp.).

This is the first volume of a collection of the most voluminous Church Slavonic relic (328 folia) in the Czech recension on the Czech territory translated in the second half of the 11th century into Old Church Slavonic from a Latin copy. The translation was most probably made at the Sazava monastery. The edition includes a copy of the oldest preserved text according to the Russian Church Slavonic transcript from the 13th century which is deposited in the Russian National Library at St. Petersburg under the autograph of Pogod 70. Part of the edition also contains variant readings of nine other parallel Slavonic manuscripts, a paracritical apparatus to the base manuscript and the text of the Latin original. An introductory study in Czech and English versions presents a description of how the edition was elaborated, and also provides an extensive bibliography of works devoted to analysis of this relic of the past.

Currently, a second volume is under preparation which will complete the edition (homilies XXV-XL) and will also include mainly synoptic tables and other aids designated to assist the user of the edition.

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CONTACT PERSON:

Mgr. Václav Čermák, Ph.D.
phone: 224 800 258
fax: 224 800 252
e-mail: cermakva@slu.cas.cz