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Elena N. Boeck , Imagining the Byzantine Past: the Perception of History in the Illustrated Manuscripts of Skylitzes and Manasses. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015. Pp. xviii, 314.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2016

Georgi R. Parpulov*
Affiliation:
Plovdiv

Abstract

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Type
Reviews
Copyright
Copyright © Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham, 2016 

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References

1 Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, Vitr. 26-2, on-line in the Biblioteca Digital Hispánica (bdh.bne.es).

2 Moscow, Российская Государственная библиотека, ф. 173.I, № 100, on-line in the digital library of St. Sergius's Holy Trinity Monastery (old.stsl.ru/manuscripts).

3 Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. slav. 2. On the manuscript's dating: Andreev, J., България през втората четвърт на XIV век (Veliko Turnovo 1993) 206-11Google Scholar, 273-85.

4 These additions have been translated into English: Petkov, K., The Voices of Medieval Bulgaria, Seventh-Fifteenth Century: The Records of a Bygone Culture (Leiden 2008) 450-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar. They are based on the Greek Historical Epitome by John Zonaras: J. Trifonov, 'Бележки върху среднобългарския превод на Манасиевата хроника', Известия на Българския археологически институт 2 (1923-4) 137-73, esp. 141-8.

5 On the latter, most recently: Alberti, A., Ivan Aleksandar (1331-1371): splendore e tramonto del secondo impero bulgaro (Florence 2010)Google Scholar. The Vatican manuscript may have been made for his son Ivan Asen: Heisenberg, A., ‘Über den Ursprung der illustrierten Chronik des Konstantinos Manasses’, Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst N.F. 5 (1928) 291-310 Google Scholar, esp. 296-9. – A possible patron for the Madrid Skylitzes is George of Antioch: Lucà, S., 'Dalle collezioni manoscritte di Spagna: libri originari o provenienti dall' Italia greca medievale', RSBN n.s. 44 (2007) 39-96 Google Scholar, esp. 81.

6 The Bulgarian translation of Manasses is so literal that it is sometimes hard to understand without recourse to the Greek original. Take, for instance, the first paragraph on f. 155r of Vat. slav. 2 (Boeck, pl. 6): Прѣити же хотѧ рѣкѫ тлѣннааго сѫщьства, иже вьсѣкомy ѡбложенy тльстотоѫ мрътъвныѫ пльти немощно есть не прѣити (нападает бѡ естьство скорое раздрyшенїе дльгь просѧщи); cf. Περᾶν δὲ μέλλων ποταμὸν τὸν τῆς ῥευστῆς οὐσίας, / ὃν πάντα περικείμενον πάχος θνητοῦ σαρκίου / ἀμήχανον μὴ διελθεῖν (ἐπείγει γὰρ ἡ φύσις, / ἡ ταχουργὸς πορθμεύτρια, τὸ χρέος ἀπαιτοῦσα), ed. O. Lampsides, Constantini Manassis Breviarium Chronicum (Athens 1996) vv. 4881-4.

7 E.g. Cavallo, G., 'La cultura italo-greca nella produzione libraria', in I bizantini in Italia (Milan 1982) 495612 Google Scholar, esp. 559; Tsamakda, V., The Illustrated Chronicle of Ioannes Skylitzes in Madrid (Leiden 2002) 260–1Google Scholar; Heisenberg, 'Über den Ursprung', 303-10; Belting, H., Das illuminierte Buch in der spätbyzantinischen Gesellschaft (Heidelberg 1970) 21 Google Scholar.