4.40 FC – The Anthological Habit in Slavonic Translation (Session 1)

These two thematic sessions are devoted to the Slavonic reception of what in Byzantine studies is known as the Byzantine ‘culture du recueil’ (cultura della syllogè) or florilegic/anthological habit. In the centuries of doctrinal disputes that led to the Triumph of orthodoxy (843) collections of proof texts from Scripture and the Fathers were used on both sides of the doctrinal divide to prop the argument, and from the 10th century onwards compilations of selected texts from the past played a pivotal role in knowledge transfer and instruction, as voices with authority and prescriptive power. Within an orthodox culture, compendia of useful knowledge lent themselves well to demonstrate, defend, and impose orthodoxy – e.g. in compilations as the Melissa or the Soterios, in questions-and-answers as those by Anastasius Sinaita, in synthetic works as John Damascene’s, in chronicles as that of George the Monk etc. The sessions explore how this anthological attitude was received in Orthodox Slavonic translation literature of the 9th to the 15th century, which has the sbornik – that is, the syllogè or collection – as its most typical carrier. We aim to examine the role of Byzantine collections both as translation models and as paradigms of textual reuse and renewal; levels of authorship in the original Slavonic compilation of translated texts; the way in which the circulation and transmission of individual texts was influenced by their inclusion in the larger structure of a (thematically marked or more casual mixed-content) collection (sbornik). On a more general level, the papers focus on the question how the influx of Byzantine Greek texts and related modes of textual production played a role in the construction of textual authority, and hence in the conversion of the Slavs and the consolidation of Slav Christianity.