Some of the following articles originate from a panel, ‘Evagrius Ponticus and Ascetic Miscellanea in Byzantium’s Neighbours’, to be presented at the 25th International Congress of Byzantine Studies (Vienna, 24–29 August 2026). The thematic session aims to examine the reception of Evagrius Ponticus – one of the most prominent authors and a founding father of ascetic doctrine and literature – and of the miscellanies that contain his works. Although his role in establishing the theoretical foundations of monasticism is undisputed, and although his legacy, translated into several languages of the Christian East, has received considerable scholarly attention in recent years, many gaps remain in our knowledge of that legacy, its reception, and the trajectory of his works. In this round table, scholars specialising in the various literary traditions neighbouring Byzantium will examine and discuss questions concerning the translation of Evagrius from Greek, together with related topics such as the movement of texts and manuscripts, the establishment of a monastic language through the translation of Greek ascetic works, and the relationships between the translated works and other native works and traditions. Furthermore, the panel seeks to combine approaches from different disciplines – linguistics, textual criticism, patristics, cultural studies and, not least, late antique philosophy – without which any scholarly approach to ascetic miscellanies would prove fruitless. Finally, it will illuminate how the Byzantine legacy was projected onto the multilingual paradigm of the early Christian world. A holistic approach thus seeks to clarify these questions by opening an interdisciplinary perspective for discussion. Evagrius’ influence is examined further in the works of other authors, such as Symeon the New Theologian and Mark the Hermit, thereby extending the scope of inquiry into deeper intellectual and linguistic entanglement.

This article examines the Syriac reception of Evagrius Ponticus with particular attention to the earliest Syriac translation (S1) of the Kephalaia gnostica. It argues that this translation was not a neutral linguistic transfer but a theologically informed reinterpretation shaped by the doctrinal concerns of the fifth century. Building on the studies of Antoine Guillaumont and John W. Watt, the article analyses several modifications affecting central aspects of Evagrian theology, including protology, anthropology, resurrection, and the doctrine of prayer. The analysis shows that the translator reworked elements of Evagrius’ Alexandrian-Origenist framework in order to bring them closer to theological positions associated with Theodore of Mopsuestia and the wider Antiochene tradition. The article therefore proposes that the S1 translation reflects a coherent theological project that reshapes Evagrius’ thought within a Syriac intellectual milieu, possibly connected with the scholarly environment of Edessa during the bishopric of Ibas.

The writings of Evagrius Ponticus, one of the most influential theologians of the late 4th century, exerted significant influence on subsequent generations of Christian monasticism, even though his writings were excommunicated. This became possible because parts of his writings were included in compilations and florilegia, anonymously or under other names. Evagrius treatise De Oratione, attributed to Nilus of Ancyra, reached the Slavs within various collections, such as the Apophthegmata Patrum. The text of the treatise almost in complete is found within the systematic type of an AP-collection. The present study has identified eight fragments from the Evagrian work preserved in the alphabetic- anonymous collection of AP. Using earlier research of the Slavic translations and the recent text critical study of the Greek tradition of the treatise as a starting point, the study endorses previous results on two main translation branches A (9th–10th c.) and B (14th c.). At the same time the study reveals elements that indicate another translation or redaction within the translation B. Also the translation A displays features of lexical preferences distributed in a recurrent pattern, which sparks assumptions on two translators involved in the translation of the treatise. Further research is needed either to confirm or reject these preliminary suggestions.

This article offers the first edition of the South Slavic translation of Evagrius Ponticus’ De octo spiritibus malitiae (CPG 2451), preserved in Old-Redaction South Slavic Triodion Panegyrika. The study examines the relationship of the translation to the Greek textual tradition and analyses its own manuscript history. Comparison with the Greek textual tradition demonstrates that the translation represents a complete rendering of the long recension B and shares its principal textual features. At the present stage of research, however, it is not possible to identify a particular Greek exemplar or a more narrowly defined group of manuscript witnesses that may have served as its source. The collation of the Slavonic manuscripts reveals a rich and complex textual history characterized by numerous secondary readings and the absence of stable manuscript groupings. On the basis of the available evidence, the study suggests the existence of an earlier Slavonic translation of De octo spiritibus malitiae, which by the middle of the fourteenth century had already become established in the South Slavic manuscript tradition and is also attested in a revised version.

The present paper depicts the Slavonic tradition of the Practical, Gnostic and Theological Chapters of St. Symeon the New Theologian. The research focuses on the oldest Slavic manuscripts (14th c. and the beginning of the 15th c.), their composition, structure, translation, diffusion and sources. Two major groups were identified (A and B), connected to the Alphabeticae ascribed to St. Symeon (A), and to a corpus of less than 100 capita (B). Both of them were most surely translated in Paroria, the scriptorium of Gregory of Sinai, in the first part of the 14th century. A preserves some lines of the Symeonian Catechesis mixed with contents which could be authored by condemned mystics such as Constantine Chrysomallos. At the same time, B contains three clusters (B I, B II, B III) corresponding to the Greek kephalaia of St. Symeon and to one of Niketas Stethatos’. The analysis shed light on the structure and the standardisation of the collection known as the 24 Slova of Symeon the New Theologian, preserved today in East Slavic witnesses. The translation (B) was revised and then reworked in the second part of the 14th century. New data were revealed about the Greek source, hinting at a third-family manuscript (according to J. Darrouzès’s classification), which probably underwent revision by Niketas or one of his apprentices from the Monastery of Studious.

The article examines the Slavonic translations of the ascetic works of Mark the Hermit (first half of the 5th century), which have not been studied yet within the context of monastic literature. It establishes that the work On the Spiritual Law has two translations: one predating the 14th century and a second, made during the Tărnovo Literary School together with the sermons of Abba Dorotheus (6th century). The same text, in a third translation, is distributed as excerpts, again with a linguistic characteristic of the Tărnovo manuscripts. The work is composed in the form of chapters containing wise sayings, instructions for the spiritual improvement of the monks and biblical quotations. It follows the tradition founded by the works of Evagrius Ponticus, with many of the ideas for monastic discipline similar. The miscellanies containing the works of Mark the Hermit differ in composition across Bulgarian, Serbian, Moldavian-Wallachian, and Russian literature. An attempt is made to trace their composition by making assumptions about their sources and composition in the 14th – 18th centuries.

The article examines the relationship between the Interpretation of the Apocalypse of John the Theologian by Andrew of Caesarea in the Slavic tradition (translated partially in the 10th century), an insufficiently studied short text for revealing the content of the canonical Apocalypse in Slavic manuscripts (‘Revealing the Unspoken in John the Theologian’s Revelation about the End Times’) and translated works by Hippolytus of Rome. Primary sources for the history of the short text are cited (copies from the end of the 13th to the end of the 17th century), and their content and place in the manuscripts are compared. Based on a contrastive analysis of Greek texts, the origin of the short text, which parallels the Interpretation of Andrew of Caesarea, is discussed, and assumptions are made about its author: Hippolytus of Rome or Hippolytus of Thebes. Its reception and use, its place in apocalyptic literature are analyzed.

Four separate texts, three in Slavonic and one in Greek, describe a thirteenth- century sack of Mount Athos perpetrated either by ‘Franks’ (Roman Catholics) or by a Greek emperor of Constantinople who had pledged allegiance to the Pope. The manuscript tradition of these stories cannot be traced back further than the mid-fifteenth century. They contain inconsistencies and imprecisions which cast doubt on their veracity. All four evidently record a legend developed in response to the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438), whose act of union was initially endorsed by representatives of two Athonite monasteries: Lavra and Vatopedi.

The recent discovery of new manuscript witnesses to the Life of Nephon of Constantiane necessitates a reconsideration of the text’s transmission history. The Old Bulgarian translation is preserved in a substantially more complete state in the mid-fourteenth-century Serbian manuscript Hilandar 472 than in the early thirteenth-century Old Russian Rostov manuscript. A comparative analysis of the Life across these codices reveals that the Old Russian recension exhibits a high degree of textual abbreviation. This study argues that such abridgments were implemented in late eleventh-century Kyiv by the circle of translators responsible for the Life of Basil the New

The article analyzes and publishes the text of the Life of St. John Climacus based on the manuscript of the collection Q.I.572 of the National Library of Russia. The manuscript was created in Middle Bulgarian by the Moldavian scribe Anastasius in 1539. The main source of the compilation was the text of the Tarnovo translation of the Life of St. John, an additional source was the text of the Athonite translation. Textual signs of the new version of the Life are revealed. Linguistic analysis of the text is carried out, scribal errors are analyzed. Lexemes that have not yet been recorded in the historical lexicography of the Bulgarian and Russian languages are noted: испытаньнѣ, неизнемогыи, несъвѣдѣтельно, обръщениѥ, обѹрениѥ, оскѹжданиѥ, прѣждеѹморити, себѣвѣровавыи, себѣготовыи, съпротивобожьныи. Lexemes that testify to the editorial activity of the Molda­vian scribe are revealed: книжьныи (instead of окрѹгънии), се же (instead of таже) and гръдость (instead of гръдыни). Observations on the text of the Ladder and the Life of St. John Climacus in Q.I.572 have shown that in the Slavonic-Moldavian writing of the sixteenth century, compilation as a method of the scribe’s work took place not only in the compilation of ascetic collections, but also in the copying of one literary monument.

The article discusses the medieval Slavonic translations of the description of Sancta sanctorum in the Epistle to Hebrews (9:2–5). It focuses on the basic Slavonic terminology connected with the Jewish temple, and its development over time at different locations. A comparison between several different Slavonic translations from Greek and Latin is provided: the first translation of the Holy brothers Cyrill and Methodius and its redactions in Cyrillic manuscripts, as well as in the Gennadian Bible and the Ostrog Bible; the translations in the Croato-Glagolitic Missals; the Czech translation in the Kutnahorská Bible from 1479; the translation of Francisk Skoryna from 1525. Further, the paper provides parallels with other Biblical passages in the Slavonic translations describing Sancta sanctorum (Exodus 25–27; 1Macabees 1:21–22).

The object of study in this article is the so-called Gostinopol’e Service Book, which is housed in the Manuscript Department of the Russian National Library, Sofia’s Collection No. 531. This Service Book is well known for its miniature of St Basil the Great, as well as polychrome headpieces made in the Balkan style. Two more miniatures have now been lost. In scholarly literature, there is some variation in the dating of this manuscript. Our codicological analysis demonstrated that the manuscript consists of two parts, with the first part being copied in Tver around 1430 by a deacon named Elijah. Codicological examination of the manuscript also reveals certain techniques used by the scribe, and suggests that the second part was added in the second half of 1460 or early 1470. Circa 1475, the Novgorod tysyacky donated this service book to the Gostinopol’e Monastery. This article also examines other manuscripts from the same monastery: a Menaion and an Apostolos, copied during the time of Novgorod Archbishop Theophilus. All these manuscripts, including the Service Book, became the basis for the book collection of the Nikolsky-Gostinopol’e monastery, which was consecrated around 1475.

The Old Bulgarian translation of Athanasius of Alexandria’s Orations Against the Arians has survived in ten Russian copies, dating between the 15ht–18th cc. All of them preserve the colophon of Tudor Doksov, according to which the translation was made by Constantine of Preslav in 906. On the one hand, this article presents a framework for the development of a Dictionary and Index of the Three Orations Against the Arians and the so-called Fourth Oration (actually, Athanasius’ Epistle to the Bishops of Egypt and Libya). Each dictionary entry includes: 1) a headword in its lemma form with normalized etymological Old Bulgarian spelling; 2) grammatical characteristics; 3) defined meaning(s) in the text in Modern Bulgarian and English; 4) the corresponding Ancient Greek parallel(s); 5) all occurring word forms with grammatical characteristics and signatures (indication of their location in the text). On the other hand, the article examines the transformation of this lexicographical reference book from a traditional paper-based format into a dynamic online environment, the digitalization of the Dictionary, the use of a specialized software converter, and the data integration into the Histdict platform. The study analyzes the advantages of the XML format, the role of interdisciplinary collaboration between philologists and IT experts, and the specific challenges involved in the automated recognition of complex linguistic structures.

This paper is dedicated to the Romanian adaptation and translation of Meletius Smotrytsky’s Slavonic Grammar, conserved in two 17th-century bilingual manuscripts from the Library of the Romanian Academy. The earlier copy, known as Staico’s Grammar, to date, the oldest grammatical text in Romanian. The main focus is on the manner in which the chapter on pronouns is rendered, as the terms for “pronoun” (мѣстоимение) and “quality” (качество) turn out to have been troublesome for the Romanian translator. Furthermore, the terminological choices of this grammatical text are compared with those of the first grammars of the Romanian language, namely the manuscript written by Dimitrie Eustatievici in 1757, the manuscript penned by the hieromonk Macarie in Sihla Monastery in 1772 and the one published by Ianake Văcărescu in 1787, all of which were at least partially influenced by Smotrytsky’s treatise.

This article reclaims Ivan Martinov’s (1821–1894) contribution to the study of Latin sources concerning Sts Cyril and Methodius, thereby restoring his place in Cyrillo-Methodian historiography. Several of these Latin testimonies were first brought into scholarly circulation by Martinov himself. A critical reading of his publications between 1863 and 1894 traces a sustained analytical project that treated the Latin texts as an autonomous tradition embedded within their own Roman institutional context, rather than as mere derivatives of the Slavonic vitae. The article recovers and reassesses Martinov’s principal arguments: his reconstruction of papal policy towards the Slavs from the letters of John VIII and Stephen V; his attribution of the Italian Legend to Gauderic of Velletri; and his demonstration that the Legenda aurea draws upon the Italian Legend rather than the reverse. Furthermore, the study highlights his 9th-century dating of the Italian Legend against the late-compilation theses of Voronov and Lavrovskij, as well as his critical classification of the Slavonic vitae. Martinov was among the first to synthesise Latin, Slavonic, and Greek evidence into a coherent reconstruction of the early Roman perspective on the mission of Sts Cyril and Methodius. The 1894 publication of the Anastasius letter to Gauderic provides the missing link that completes this reconstruction. Ultimately, the article argues that Martinov’s framework conceptually anticipated the textual conclusions of P. Devos and P. Meyvaert (1955) and supplied the methodological foundation for modern scholarship on the Italian Legend. Yet, despite this implicit continuity, Martinov’s contribution has remained largely unacknowledged in post-1950s historiography. This neglect has allowed certain distortions to persist in current scholarship – most strikingly the recurrent presentationits publication by Muratori in 1726 and its analysis by Martinov in 1884. Restoring Martinov to the historiographical narrative is therefore offered not as a retrospective corrective but as an essential step towards reclaiming the methodological depth required to interpret the Latin Cyrillo-Methodian tradition accurately. of the elogium of Constantine in the Chronicon Casauriense as a discovery, despite

the definition of apocrypha in Orthodoxy has been traditionally understood as related to the correct understanding and practice of religion. This approach allowed for the study of apocrypha as related to cultural practices and could have a more or less modulated ethnographic dimension. In the west, the definition of the Biblical canon was understood differently. These two different understandings of what is a Biblical canon have contributed to a dis-encounter in the critical study of the textual tradition that, for reasons often unknown to western biblical scholars, provided Slavonic with one of the richest textual traditions of apocrypha and pseudo-epigrapha. The present article proposes new forms of collaboration in the future study of Slavonic apocrypha.

The study reviews the history of the publication of Ancient Greek and Latin inscriptions from the territory of modern Bulgaria and presents the factors that led to the creation of the Tituli Project: A Digital Edition of the Latin Inscriptions from Bulgaria. The paper explains the technical methodology used in the creation of the database and the standards underlying the production of the XML files. Since the publication of inscriptions in this database is based on autopsy by an epigraphist on site, the paper also outlines the methodology used by the team during in situ documentation. In the final section, the study focuses on the preparation of the publications, with particular attention to the writing of the commentaries accompanying the documents.