Fragments of Knyazhy Izbornik in the Serbian Miscellanea of the 16 th Century Slav. 125 from the Collection of the Austrian National Library

Abstract

This work studies the Questions and Answers to Antiochus the Duke (QAD) by Pseudo-Athanasius of Alexandria in the 16 th century Serbian miscellanea Slav. 125 from the collection of the Austrian National Library. The authors show that the selection of 13 QAs in this codex represents a fragment of the early medieval Slavic miscellanea Knyazhy Izbornik, which genetically preceded Izbornik 1076. With this selection, the authors have added one more manuscript of QAD to the previously known 17 witnesses. The article provides the incipits and parallels to the QAD in the Serbian miscellanea, as well as explains the relationship between the QAs in Slav. 125 and those in Knyazhy Izbornik, known before. The authors methodically expose the presence or lack of innovations within each of the stages in which Knyazhy Izbornik was shaped. More speci cally, they analyze the selection of 13 QAs and reveal their individual characteristics that are not found in the known manuscripts of Knyazhy Izbornik. Based on the fact that Slav. 125 contains no speci c features of Izbornik 1076, it is argued that the Serbian text of QAD belongs to the stage of Knyazhy Izbornik that preceded Izbornik 1076. The study concludes that Slav. 125 represents an important piece of evidence of how this early medieval Slavic miscellanea evolved over time, enriching our understanding of the ways in which it circulated and developed, as well as how it was used and perceived in the Old Slavonic tradition.

Keywords

• athanasius of alexandria
• pseudo-athanasius
• questions and answers
• knyazhy izbornik
• izbornik 1076