ALPHABET AND HISTORY

Aа Бб Вв Гг Дд Ее Жж Зз Ии Йй Кк Лл Мм Нн Оо Пп Рр Сс Тт Уу Фф Хх Цц Чч Шш Щщ Ъъ Ьь Юю Яя

Alphabet and History

The Cyrillic Alphabet in the European Union

State Institute for Culture Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria

Centre for Slavo-Byzantine Studies “Prof. Ivan Dujčev”

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Map of the dissemination of the Glagolitic alphabet during the Morava Mission (863) and after the death of Methodius in 885 – Great Moravia, The First Bulgarian Empire and probably Croatia.

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Map of the dissemination of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets in the second half of the 10th century.

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Map of the dissemination of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets in the 14th century.

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Abecedarium with Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabet from the 12th century kept in the National Library of Munich.

Territory of the Glagolitic script.

Territory of the Cyrillic script.

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ALPHABET AND

HISTORY Author Vassy a Velinov a

Catalogue of Exhibition with the support of the State Institute for Culture Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria

ALPHABET AND HISTORY

Two inscriptions of names and images of Crosses from the village of Ravna â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 10th century.

taining mostly mythological stories about the creation of the world and the divine origin of their power. The writing system used for secular and everyday needs was sometimes visually different from the religious system (e.g. in ancient Egypt). The situation, which was characteristic of the antique and late Hellenistic era, changed when Christianity appeared on the historic stage of Europe. With its deepest respect for written texts and striving for universalism, Christianity keenly raised the issue of the language of God inspired books and divine services, as well as of literature as an instrument not only of ethnic identity, but of confessional canon too. Only a cursory glance is sufficient at the monuments of the late Hellenistic and the early medieval ages that have reached our times to outline the changes brought about by Christianity as far as writing and the concepts of an alphabet and its significance are concerned.

Writing is one of the greatest inventions in the history of human culture. As a graphic system of recording the sounds of human speech, it has existed in the form of various according to their delineation and structure alphabets, but, in many cases they have also been assigned social functions, in addition to their purely linguistic ones. This is due to their specific nature. An alphabet is an enigma for those unenlightened, an instrument of influence in the hands of those enlightened, as well as ways and means of preservation of the historic memory of a community. It might be for this reason that in the most ancient recorded history of mankind that has reached to our time the study of an alphabet was sacralized and conferred the same status as a religious sacrament. Letters were perceived as the material expression of mystic forces and even as building elements of the universe. Because of these concepts literacy was most often monopoly of the class of priests. Even kings and queens were granted restricted access to written monuments conAlphabet and Đ?istory

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Christianity and its emblem: The Book After the Milan edict/decree of Constantine the Great in 313, Christianity gradually developed the stereotypes which replaced the antique scrolls in favour of a new form of books, i.e. the Codex. On its part the Book – Codex – became a unique emblem of the Christian doctrine. Gradually and by means of stylization it combined in itself all the necessary elements of luxury and representation which had been monopoly of architecture, epigraphy, mosaic decoration, stone sculpture, and fabrics during the pagan ages. The Book of books, i.e. the Gospel, designed as the body of the Logos and containing texts inspired by the Lord, was in the center of a complex and continuous process which resulted in a lasting harmony between content, aesthetic design, and liturgical function. Like the Gospel, every book pertaining to the liturgical space of a temple became the object of canonic requirements to the content and the graphic system, because the unity of language, writing and textual versions was one of the prerequisites of religious unity. On its part, the Gospel turned into a unique legitimization of

the Christian sovereign who had commissioned its publication. The political and theological idea of the Pantokrator (God Almighty) in heavens and his earthly projection in the person of an Autokrator (Basileus or King) at the head of his kingdom on earth required from the latter to devote special care to the Logos, to the Logos Incarnate and his House. Among the first manifestations of this type of attitude to writing as a graphic system and to the written text as content we could mention the luxurious manuscripts of the time of Emperor Justinian (Ruler of the Eastern Roman Empire in the period 527–565), which were written in gold and silver ink in stately biblical majuscule on stained in purple parchment. In addition, some manuscripts, such as the Gospel of Rossano (Codex purpureus Rossanensis) from 6th c., the Gospel of Sinope from 6th c. (Codex Sinopensis, Suppl. Gr. 1286, Bibliotheque Nationale a Paris), the Vienna Genesis (Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, cod. theol. gr. 31) form the first half of the 6th c., the Gospel of Berat (Codex Beratinus No1) from

Alphabet and Нistory

the 6th c., etc., are lavishly illustrated and represent the first attempts to present the written book in its full brilliance of unity of the holy text and the lavish decoration as a special object of admiration and inspired by God reading at the same time. The Greek biblical majuscule, used for the writing of the purple codices, originated as early as in the end of the 3rd century and it was styled under the influence of the more rounded and official at the time Roman letters. The use of purple and gold in manuscripts, as well as the stately liturgical Greek writing, are an expression of the imperial universalism of Byzantium. However, in the royal courts of the West European rulers the production of similar codices was also a political act, a claim for influential presence on the geopolitical stage. Although it is not illustrated, the Codex Argenteus from 6th c., kept in the library of the University

in Uppsala, Sweden (Silver Codex), containing a Gothic translation of the Gospel and dated to the time of Emperor Theoderic the Great (493 –526), impresses with the fineness of its execution. Bede the Venerable mentions a purple gospel written in gold in the Anglo-Saxon court in the 8th century and the Gospel of Godescalc (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale France. lat.1203) was produced in 781–783 on the orders of Charles the Great. The practice of writing the so-called purple codices continued in Byzantium by the end of the 9th century and its decline coincided chronologically with the end of the iconoclastic epoch although we can also find isolated examples in the following centuries, literally to the beginning of the 19th century. In West Europe purple codices were created by the end of the Medieval Period.

Simeon’s Florilegium in a copy of 1073, made for the Russian prince Svyatoslav (the so called Svyatoslav’s Florilegium), The State Museum of History, Moscow, Sinod. 1043. Miniature from the Ostromir Gospel from 1056–1057, kept in the Russian National Library, Sankt Petersburg, № F.n.I.5.

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Slavic Literature The Slavic peoples obtained their alphabet and literature in the second half of the 9th century – a time of serious changes in the Byzantine Empire and in the entire territory of Central and Western Europe. According to its initial design the Slavic Alphabet was conceived as an instrument of political influence and cultural hegemony on the part of Byzantium. The Empire reached to the idea because the tribes (Slavs among them) coming to Europe as a result of the continuous migration wave, known as the Great Migration, used to practice pagan customs and rituals, which was not favourable for active interference in the traditional popular culture relying mostly on oral communication of the information of significance for the community and the religious practices did not require reading of written texts to be performed.

This might explain to a certain extent the free use of the Greek language in the epigraphy of the First Bulgarian Kingdom from its formation in 681 to the Christianization of the Bulgarians in 863–864. The foreign alphabet and language were not perceived as a threat to the ethnic identity as far as it was also ‘safe’ due to the religious differences between pagan Bulgaria and Christian Byzantium. At the time the Greek language, and probably the Latin language as well, were used in the secular sphere, i.e. the sovereign’s correspondence, the fiscal pracprac tices, various memorial inscriptions of secular events. The sacred area of the pagan religious practices and the mythological past remained untouched by the foreign influence and it was preserved and handed over from generation to generation orally.

Alphabet and Нistory

The grandeur of stone sculpture and its durability as a material to write on were an impressive expression of the authority and monocractic power of the Bulgarian Khans. A monument, such as the rock relief near the village of Madara, Shumen Region – the famous Madara Rider of the time of Khan Tervel (700–721), the columns with inscriptions commissioned by Khan Krum (c. 800–814), Khan Omurtag (814–831), Khan Malamir (831–836), and Khan Presian (836–852) are an expressive proof of this – both because of their representativeness and due to the ideas expressed in the inscriptions. As far as the Slavic people are concerned, the situation changed with their mass conversion to Christianity in the second half of the 9th century. Regardless of the diocese of the church they were affiliated to (Rome or Constantinople) they were involved in a new type of religious relations and practices relying on the knowledge of a number of holy texts and sermons on their content. In addition, by means of the private sacraments, i.e. christening, communion, marriage, confession, etc., the Church also acquired control over the personal spiritual and emotional space of the believers in order to affiliate them with the congregation (ecclesia). The monarchs of the newly converted states – Duke Rostislav of Moravia and Prince Boris-Mikhail of Bulgaria soon became aware of these consequences of the conversion and the official spread of Christianity among their peoples.

According to the medieval sources available to us today, namely the letter of Prince Rostislav to Emperor Michael III of 863 in which the Slavic ruler asked the emperor for educated men who would be able to explain Christianity in the language of his people and this was the reason for the invention of the Slavic alphabet. This act was presented as an inspired by the Lord miracle, performed by God chosen men: Constantine called for his profound erudition Cyril the Philosopher and his brother, the educated monk Methodius. Certainly, through the curtain of the cultural language of the texts of the 9th century we can see the political ambitions of the circle of the then Constantinople Patriarch Photius (858–867 and 877–886) and Emperor Michael III (842–867) to intensify the influence of the empire on the European continent. After the loss of a serious part of the provinces of Byzantium in Asia Minor the ruling elite looked for compensation via expansion of their influence to the West and Patriarch Photius proposed a policy of a hidden behind the letters and the Cross hegemony. In this sense, the invention of an alphabet for the Slavs was a serious Byzantine project to provide a cover for their political imperialistic and universalistic ambitions.

The Tarnovo inscription of Khan Omurtag. building inscription in Greek carved before 822 in a column found in the St. 40 Martyrs Church in Tarnovo in 1858.

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Invention of the Slavic alphabet and its fate in the Principality of Great Moravia – a struggle for recognition The first Slavic alphabet, created by Constantine the Philosopher and Methodius, was officially presented in 863, although an earlier date of its completion is also presumed. At first sight the first alphabet, i.e. the Glagolitic alphabet, was of somewhat unusual graphics. In certain aspects it resembled slightly the Byzantine minuscule (new for the 9th century Greek writing, where certain letters were written linked together and their graphics resembled the old clerical handwriting) which was gaining reputation in Constantinople at the time. Parallel with this it rather preserved the uncial character of the graphics, because every letter was written separately. In a sense, the Glagolitic alphabet visually resembled the alphabets in the periphery of Byzantium – the Ethiopian, the Armenian, and the Georgian alphabets. The alphabet designed by Cyril and Methodius took into consideration in detail the specifics of the Slavic speech. In spite of this the Glagolitic alphabet, as well as the translations of the holy Christian books written in it, had to fight a heavy battle in order to prove the right to existence not in

the linguistic field, but rather in the geopolitical field, where various interests of the strong of the day were interwoven. A short chronology of the events can convince us: the Byzantine emissaries to Moravia were received with honors by Duke Rostislav and with distrust and animosity by the German clergy. This was because the state of Rostislav was under the jurisdiction of the Salzburg Archdiocese. Very soon (probably by 867) Constantine the Philosopher and his brother were summoned to Rome to provide explanations concerning their activities on the background of the aggravated relations between the two big European churches – the Roman and the Constantinople – and their fight for supremacy on the continent. The mission of Cyril and Methodius started for Rome well prepared. The Slavic Apostles were at the head of the mission and their disciples and followers had a precious gift for the Pope – parts of the relics of Saint Clement of Rome, which they had found in 861 during their previous mission to Chersonesus in Byzantium. St.

Alphabet and Нistory

Clemente of Rome is one of the seven apostles and third pope of the Roman Catholic Church. He was regarded as a patron of the papal institution and Rome was well informed about the discovery of his relics. Probably only the diplomatic intuition of Constantine the Philosopher, the casket with the parts of the relics of Saint Clement of Rome, as well as the pragmatism of Pope Adrian II (867– 872) brought this meeting to a successful end. Because right before the meeting in Venice the two brothers had to repudiate the accusations of the adherents of the ‘trilingual dogma’ that they preached the word of the Lord in a language which was not one of the sacred languages according to the Holy Scripture, i.e. Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. This concept was first formulated by Saint Isidore of Seville (560– 636) and it was in the foundations of the unity of the Roman Catholic Church professing the maxim “one church – one language’. The break through the status quo achieved at the dispute in Venice was of a great significance for the further development of the Slavic cause. In 868 Pope Adrian II received with honours the two brothers and their disciples in Rome, sanctified the Slavic alphabet and the translations of the holy books, ordained Constantine and Methodius as priests and enthroned Methodius as Archbishop of Moravia. Thus, the first Slavic church administrative entity was established where Christianity was preached in a language that the local population could understand. The unexpected death of Constantine the Philosopher, who in his last days became a monk and adopted the name Cyril, in Rome in 869, left Methodius to fight alone in the battle for the Slavic cause.

The following years were years of trial. The opponents to the idea to use the Slavic language for liturgical services (although it was restricted to reading the Gospel in the language of the local population during mass after having read it in Latin first) could not put up with the presence of Methodius as Archbishop of the lands considered theirs by right. The open animosity developed into accusations in violation of the canon and in professing of heretic ideas only to come to a second interference on the part of Pope John VIII who reconfirmed and supported the position of Methodius. But after the abdication of Duke Rostislav from the throne and the ascension of Svatopluk the cause of the Slavic alphabet was foredoomed. The death of Methodius in 885 was the chance for a final retribution with his disciples and the total elimination of the Slavic alphabet and language from the liturgical services in Moravia. The disciples of Cyril and Methodius set off for Bulgaria where they hoped to be received cordially by Prince Boris (852–889). He also felt the need of an alphabet, writing and translation of the inspired by the Lord books into the native language of the population of his kingdom, as after the conversion of the Bulgarians to Christianity in 863 the Greek clergy was all over the country. He was fully aware that without an alphabet and liturgical services in the native language the new religion could facilitate the cultural and spiritual hegemony of Byzantium over Bulgaria. For this reason, he started his fight for the alphabet and the holy books. of April 885 a number of his disciples set off for Bulgaria. According to the preserved sources they were received with honours in the then capital of the First Bulgarian Kingdom, Pliska;

Ordination of Archbishop Methodius of Moravia and Pannonia – a miniature from the Radzivilovski Chronicle, a Russian manuscript of the 15th century. Kept in the Library of the Academy of Science in Sankt Petersburg, № 34.5.30.

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The fate of the Slavic alphabet after the arrival of the disciples of Cyril and Methodius in Bulgaria they were accommodated in the houses of the most eminent boyars and provided with everything necessary for their literary activities. The books they brought with them were written in the Glagolitic alphabet – the alphabet created by Constantine Cyril the Philosopher for the Moravian mission. From the moment the alphabet was brought to Bulgaria a new stage of its development commenced and this new stage was the beginning of a series of significant cultural and historic processes which had their impact on the Bulgarian and generally the Slavic literary culture in the course of many centuries. There is evidence that in the last decades of the 9th century bilingualism was observed in the First Bulgarian Kingdom (Slavic – Greek, Slavic – Latin according to the records of the Proto Bulgarian writer Chernorizets Hrabar), as well as a variety of the known and used graphic systems: Greek uncial, Latin, and rune letters and combinations of language and graphic systems, e.g. proto-Bulgarian inscriptions in Greek letters. In

this non-homogeneous environment after the adoption of the Christianity as an official state religion and the affiliation of the diocese to the Constantinople Church, the Greek language was the official liturgical language and it had an ever-growing influence on the writing practices of the educated circles of the local population. Under the influence of the epigraphic skills and liturgical practices in the Bulgarian literary environment the stereotypes of the Greek uncial script were formed especially as it was always associated with the luxurious codices designated for liturgical services. Usually the educated men of letters knew equally well both Greek and Bulgarian. As Professor Krasimir Stanchev noted in 2000, “It seems that digraphia and bilingualism are genetically encoded in the Slavonic literary culture.” Wall Painting with the Images of the The Holy Septarithmoi (The Holy seven Saints Cyril, Methodius and their disciples Clement, Naum, Sabas, Angelarius and Gorazd) – in the St. Archangels Monastery near the Ohrid lake, founded by St. Naum in the beginning of the 10th century.

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Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets in Bulgaria The alphabet brought to Bulgaria by the disciples of Cyril and Methodius graphically differed from the familiar practically acquired writing skills. It had the sacral aura of its author Constantine Cyril the Philosopher as noted by Chernorizets Hrabar, a Proto-Bulgarian writer of the 10th century, in his work ‘On the Letters’ and it was used as an official alphabet in the Bulgarian Kingdom. In addition, it was also recognized by the two great European churches: invented in Constantinople on the instructions of the emperor and solemnly consecrated in Rome. Possibly, it was perceived as a graphic system providing ethnic identity of Christianity in Bulgaria and marking it off from the ever-growing Greek cultural influence. This would motivate its use mainly in the liturgical and theological fields. The textual and linguistic studies unambiguously prove that a number of translations, as well as original works of the so-called Golden Age of the rule of Tsar Simeon, have a Glagolitic prototype.

The rivalry between the Glagolitic and the Cyrillic alphabets ended with the victory of the latter. Notwithstanding its perfection, the Glagolitic alphabet remained somewhat alien as far as the writing skills of the Bulgarian men of letters, who were educated in the traditions of the Greek uncial script, were concerned. The old Greek uncial alphabet, supplemented with new signs and adapted to the Slavic phonetic system, gradually replaced the authentic Slavic alphabet. According to a number of authors, e.g. Academician Emil Georgiev, an initial form of the Cyrillic alphabet had existed even before the arrival of the disciples of Cyril and Methodius. In his opinion, the reason for Chernorizets Hrabar to say that the Slavs used Greek letters, but with no adjustment, i.e. without their final adaption to the specifics of the native speech and without graphic signs for the specific sounds, such as ч, ц, дз, щ, дж (ʧ, ʦ, ʣ, ʃt, ʤ).

Alphabet and Нistory

The complete version of the Cyrillic alphabet was formed as an imitation of the Greek liturgical uncial, which was already of elegant graphics with its elongated and pointed forms. Following the structure and the appearance of the Greek manuscripts, the Cyrillic alphabet was stylized to a geometrically regular symmetric uncial script and it remained the same to the end of the medieval ages. Like its prototype, i.e. the Greek uncial, it is described in the earliest available monuments, e.g. the Enina Apostle (beginning of 11th c.), the Zograf sheets (11th c.), etc., as a straight script with a slight inclination to the right. In this connection we would like to note that the example of the white-clay ceramic tile from Preslav, containing a liturgical text written in the Cyrillic script resembling the Greek rounded majuscule, is rather an exception. Most probably it was a part of the complex decorative system comprising images and text and yet it is evidence, although isolated, that this type of uncial Greek script was also known and used in Bulgaria in the beginning of the 10th century. In the light of the new epigraphic discoveries both the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets were probably used simultaneously in Preslav and in Ohrid – the two big literary centers of the First Bulgarian State. Besides, the Glagolitic alphabet was used in Preslav almost to the end of its existence and this use was not limited only in the area of Ohrid, as it was considered in older studies. In current works the Cyrillic alphabet is also considered to have been introduced somewhat earlier. The rock Cyrillic inscription, discovered by Professor Kazimir Popconstantinov in the village of Krepcha, Targovishte Region, speaks of a developed graphic system and it was dated to 921. This means that the Cyrillic alphabet was already a fact only three decades after the dissemination of its rival – the Glagolitic al-

phabet in the Bulgarian lands. The delimitation between the two alphabets along the semantic differential ‘monastery (Glagolitic)’ – secular (Cyrillic)’ is not of much help either to clarify the process, as the above-mentioned inscription of 921 comes from a rock monastery. On the grounds of circumstantial data, it can be assumed that the Cyrillic alphabet was in use at least from 889 on, i.e. the year of the second consecration of the monastery church in the village of Ravna according to the preserved dated Greek inscription there. Dozens of inscriptions in Cyrillic and Glagolitic alphabet were found in this big monastery complex (including abecedaries) and they are evidence of intensive educational process/literacy courses organized by mixed groups of Bulgarian and Greek men of letters. The Ravna inscriptions remind us of yet another circumstance – development and refinement of the Cyrillic script into a full-value Slavic alphabet would have been impossible without the Glagolitic script. The Cyrillic alphabet, stylized based on the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet, was gradually supplemented with the signs necessary to express the specific sounds of the Slavic speech, such as ч, ц, дз, щ, дж (ʧ, ʦ, ʣ, ʃt, ʤ, etc.) which were borrowed from the Glagolitic alphabet – with or without graphic changes. This process of development and refinement can be partially reconstructed based on the recently discovered lead amulets with short texts written both in Glagolitic and in Cyrillic script, which is evidence of the long period during which the two alphabets were used parallel – the Glagolitic script was in active use at least by the middle of the 11th century. Amulets were also found with parallel inscription in the two scripts, as well as amulets, a mixed graphic system was used – Cyrillic letters, supplemented by Glagolitic signs for the specific sounds.

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Glagolitic alphabet replaced by the Cyrillic script With this state of the source base the replacement of the Glagolitic alphabet by the Cyrillic script is no longer an enigmatic process and it was determined by two main factors – pragmatic and political. Among the elements of the pragmatic factor we could list the already acquired skills of work with the Greek uncial script during the preceding decades, even centuries. This is also evidentiated by the epigraphy which was assigned representative functions, as we have already mentioned above. The Cyrillic alphabet was more familiar, simpler to use, and more economic. The research work of a number of scholars, e.g. Peter Schreiner, Axinia Djurova, K. Popkonstantinov underline the continuity of the process of imposing the Cyrillic alphabet as the basic Slavic script as opposed to the esoteric and more difficult to use Glagolitic script. To these considerations we could probably also add the political will of the Bulgarian monarch – Tsar Simeon. His ambition to transform the Christian capital city of his state – Preslav – into a second Constantinople might have added priority to a type of script, which would bring closer the Bulgarian liturgical manuscripts and the Greek ones. Having been educated in Constantinople and called ‘half-Roman’ by his contemporaries, he was clearly aware of the significance of the representative luxuriously produced Gospel Codex in the process of legitimatization of the ruler and he preferred the script to visually resemble the Greek letters. At the same time, he also encouraged the process of replacement of the liturgical services in Greek with services in Bulgarian and consecrated one of the disciples of Cyril and Methodius as the first Bulgarian Bishop in 893/4. If in the first several years after

the arrival of the disciples of Cyril and Methodius to Bulgaria the Glagolitic alphabet was the means to differ from the Greek books used by the Greek clergymen residing in the country, as well as a resistance against the cultural assimilation and fight for national Christian identity, after the adoption of the Bulgarian language for liturgical services, this problem was solved. Under the new circumstances the Cyrillic alphabet could already demonstrate the grandeur of the Bulgarian sovereign similar to the Greek manuscripts designed for the Byzantine Basileus (Emperor). Very little of this grandeur has reached to our times, but the preserved early Russian codices, i.e. the Mstislav (1117) and the Ostromir (1057) Gospels, the Svyatoslav Lectionary of 1073 – copies of the Old Bulgarian gospels from Preslav, are a convincing proof of this. Developed and established in Bulgaria, the Cyrillic alphabet became the commonly used script by the Slavs from the Orthodox world. In addition, the unity of Slavia Orthodoxa (according to the terminology of the great Italian Slav scholar, Riccardo Picchio) on confessional, language and liturgical level, was also consolidated by the unity of the script. Probably this historic fact is the most convincing evidence of the “eternal significance of the Cyrillic alphabet” (A. E. Tahiaos), which makes it not just a graphic phenomenon, but also a premise for the existence of medieval cultural unity of Byzantium and the Slavic world. If we could speak about the historic message of the Cyrillic script as graphics, this is the idea of cultural equality of the Slavic nations and of the tolerant attitude to the “other”.

Codex Zographensis – Glagolitic Gospel manuscript dated to the beginning of 11th century. Kept in the Russian National Library, Sankt Petersburg, Глаг. 1. Apostolos from the village of Enina, XI c., National Library in Sofia, № 1144.

Alphabet and Нistory

Follow-up fate of the Glagolitic alphabet

On its part the Glagolitic script did not definitely exit the historic stage – in Bulgaria it sporadically appears to the end of the 14th century. However, its true longevity is in Dalmatia of old times and the territory of modern Croatia. One of the most ancient local monuments of the Glagolitic script was found on the Island of Krk, i.e the Bašćanska Glagolitic Tablet of the end of the 11th – the beginning of the 12th century, on which a donation to the local monastery “St. Lucia” was documented. In the 12th century in Croatia and under the influence of the Gothic script the Glagolitic alphabet acquired angular form which lastingly defined it name as Angular or Croatian Glagolitic script. In the course of centuries, the Glagolitic alphabet served the Croatian medieval state as an instrument for preservation of the national identity and neutralization of the Latin influence on the part of the Roman Catholic Church. The choice of a graphic system is again an illustration of the specific function of letters which due to their visualized material nature, are capable Alphabet and Нistory

to objectivize ideas different from their specific function of phonetic signs. And what is more, the Croatian Glagolitic script was ‘usurped’ by Rome thanks to the legend about its authorship. In the middle of the 13th century the Roman Curia officially acknowledged that author of the Croatian Glagolitic alphabet was Blessed Hieronymus of Stridon himself. Thanks to this mystification the Croatians were in fact the only nation allowed by the Catholic Church to not use Latin liturgical books, but Slavonic books written in the Glagolitic script and in spoken language. In practice the Glagolitic script also acquired the status of a sacred alphabet along the Dalmatian coastline. There it remained in active use by the 19th century and Glagolitic book printing began in 1483 began which continued with certain interruptions to the end of the 19th century (1890). The memory of the Glagolitic alphabet did not leave forever the lands of Moravians and Pannonians, where Cyril and Methodius had preached. There the use of the Glagolitic alphabet came finally to an end by 1096. But in 1347 Emperor Charles II founded the Emmaus Monastery in Prague and invited there a number of monks from the Benedictine Order from Croatia and thanks to their activities the monastery became a secondary center of the Glagolitic written culture in Czechia. Another patron of the Glagolitic alphabet in Central Europe is considered King Wladyslaw II Jagiello. His interest in the history of the Slavic script was ascribed to the Russian roots on his mother’s side and the Croatian background of his wife – Jadwiga. In 1380 on the orders of Wladyslaw II a monastery was founded in the Silesian town of Olesnica where Glagolitic liturgical books were used.

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Manuscript with Croatian Glagolitic script.

Development of the Cyrillic alphabet as an all-Slavic script The development of the Cyrillic alphabet continued in the context of transfer and exchange of cultural ideas among the South and East Slavs. Its gradual adoption by the Serbs and the Russians after their conversion between 867 and 874 and in 988 respectively made it an emblem of the Slavic unity. Manuscripts such as the Miroslavljevo Gospel of 1180, the Ostromir Gospel of 1057, the Mstislav Gospel of 1117 marked the advance of the Cyrillic alphabet as the third liturgical script in medieval Europe. In the beginning of the 11th century the Cyrillic alphabet was modified into yet another script type, i.e. the so-called Bosanchitsa (Bosnia Cyrillic alphabet). This Cyrillic script was stylized under the influence of the Croatian Glagolitic graphic design and it was in use in Bosnia, Her-

zegovina and Dalmatia by the Catholic Christians and later by the Muslims (Bosnians), and in the 17th and the 18th centuries it was also used by Franciscan monks in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This alphabet lacks graphic signs for nasal and Jotun vowels, as well as for ‘Ъ’ and it reflects the specifics of the local dialects. The Bosanchitsa is an alphabet which delineates the local Christian population both from the Serbs and the Croatians. The earliest known monuments are: the famous Humac Tablet of the 11th century (it contains also a number of graphic signs of the Croatian Glagolitic alphabet), Charter of Ban Kulin of 1189 and other diplomatic papers of this epoch. The Bosnian Cyrillic alphabet was also used for printing books of the protestant missions in Croatia in the 19th century.

Hvalov Miscellany from the XIV c. (1404), kept in the Library of Bologna University. Bosnian Cyrillic alphabet. An Initial Letter from the Ostromir Gospel from 1056–1057, kept in the Russian National Library, Sankt Petersburg, № F.n.I.5.

The Baptizing of the Preslav’s Court – a miniature from the Radzivilovski Chronicle, a Russian manuscript of the 15th century. Kept in the Library of the Academy of Science in Sankt Petersburg, № 34.5.30. The Baptizing of Prince Vladimir – a miniature from the Radzivilovski Chronicle, a Russian manuscript of the 15th century. Kept in the Library of the Academy of Science in Sankt Petersburg, № 34.5.30. Christianization of the regiment of Prince Vladimir – a miniature from the Radzivilovski Chronicle, a Russian manuscript of the 15th century. Kept in the Library of the Academy of Science in Sankt Petersburg, № 34.5.30.

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The Cyrillic alphabet in the period of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom At the time the Cyrillic alphabet was already the only official script on the territory of Bulgaria. The use of the so-called business uncial script of the preceding century, preserved in manuscripts like the Enina Apostle of the 11th century and the Undolski Sheets of the 11th century, began to expand and more and more codices were written in this freer and not so sophisticated form of the Cyrillic alphabet, e.g. the Slepchenski Apostle, Grigorovichev Lectionary of the 12th century, etc. They are manuscripts produced in an epoch without autonomous paleographic schools or big scriptoria. A new stage of the history of the Cyrillic alphabet is observed in the 13th century – the time of restoration and consolidation of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom. A new literary center was

established in Tarnovo and the influence of monasteries on Mount Athos was expanding. In the course of several decades after the fall of Constantinople in 1204 Bulgaria remained the only East Orthodox kingdom on the Balkans. The Cyrillic script was gradually “opening up” for Greek influence. Most probably the places where this process was developing were the scriptoria at the monasteries on the Mount of Athos, where scribes of various ethnic origins worked. According to the church concept the unity of the Orthodox Christianity developed as a main principle structuring the monastery environment. Probably this unity had to find its exact, visible and material expression. In the 13th century the Cyrillic alphabet preserved its uncial appearance via the develop-

Bitola Triodion from XIII c, Bulgarian Academy of Science, № 38. Cyrillic and Glagolitic writing. London Gospel of 1356. Kept in the British Library, Add. Ms. 39627.

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ment of the so-called quadratic module, e.g. the Tarnovo Gospel of 1273 (Zagreb, Library at the Academy of Science and Arts, III.a.30). Parallel with this conservative trend, the Cyrillic tradition was influenced by the Greek minuscule, although it still preserved its uncial characteristics. Individual manuscript monuments adopted elements of writing mannerisms, which had appeared in the Greek codices as early as in the 12th century. For instance, in a very representative Bulgarian monument, such as the Draganov Menaion of the 13th century, kept in the Bulgarian Zograf monastery on Mount Athos, written in exquisite uncial and demonstrating certain tendencies of semi-uncial script, elongation of the vertical elements of the letters, especially in the last lines or the last characters in a line are observed. These handwriting specifics have exact parallels in a number of Greek manuscripts, for instance in D. gr. 370 of the end of 12th century

preserved in the collection of the Center for Slavo-Byzantine Studies “Professor Ivan Dujcev” in Sofia. They suggest willingness to replicate the Greek representative codices, which on its part resulted in disarray of the symmetry and the geometric neatness of the uncial Slavic script. The tendency to convergence with the Greek minuscule manuscripts is even more clearly expressed in the 14th century. It developed on several levels: writing of Cyrillic letters resembling the mannered letters, typical of the Fettaugen style – in the so-called Terter Gospel of 1322 and in the illustrated copy of the Constantine Manasses Chronicle of 1344–45 (Vat. Slav. 2). Another aspect of imitation of the Greek script is the adoption of the so-called Alexandrian minuscule and its adaptation to the Slavic script – the so-called Pop Gerasim script – see the part of the collection of Pop Fillip (Sin. 38 of 1344–45, kept in the State Historical Museum in Moscow).

London Gospel of 1356. Kept in the British Library, Add. Ms. 39627. The Tomic Psalter dated at the 60s of the 14th century from the collection of the State Historical museum in Moscow, № Муз 2752.

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As a result of the created by Patriarch Euthymius model this was the second time in the history of the Cyrillic alphabet of the Slavs when the Bulgarian Cyrillic model of writing and graphic arrangement of the text became a paradigm of the South and the East Slavs. In the last decades of the 14th century and the first half of the 15th century to the north of the Danube, at the Moldavian and later at the South Russian scriptoria the works of the Tarnovo scriptoria were taught as standard models carrying the authority of the last Bulgarian Patriarch of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom, conquered by the Ottoman invaders in 1393. According to the great connoisseur of the Slavic literary tradition, Vladimir Moshin, this was a revolution of the Slavic art of writing. Developing further Moshin’s thesis Anatoly Turilov underlined that the Cyrillic script, used by the Moldavian and, later, by the South Russian scriptoria during the whole 15th century, remains as an original replica of the South Slavic and more The two tendencies resulted from the closer and closer collaboration between Bulgarian and Greek scribes, as well as to the striving for visual resemblance with the Greek prototype. At the same time the tradition of luxurious manuscripts preserved the Tarnovo liturgical uncial script, which was a mark of a high order and of prestige of the sovereign’s power – manuscripts of the type of the London Gospel of 1355–1356 (kept in the British Libraryр Add. Mss. 39627) and the Tomić Psalter of the 60s of the 14th century (Муз. 2752, kept in the State Historical Museum in Moscow) are evidence of such a conservative line, bearer of the continuity are the earliest Cyrillic books from the time of the First Bulgarian Kingdom. The conceptual base of the convergence of the Bulgarian and the Greek script in the second half of the 14th century was probably Hesychasm, which became the common ideological platform of a considerable part of the clergy in the re-

gion. As a result of this big multi-ethnic monastery complexes were established in addition to the monasteries on Mount Athos, for instance the Paroria monastery, some of the monasteries near Tarnovo, etc. The men of letters working there knew equally well the two languages: Greek and Bulgarian. They were in search of ways to achieve maximum resemblance of the Bulgarian manuscripts with the Greek works, especially after Bulgarian Patriarch Euthymius introduced spelling changes. His name is also associated with the so-called Tarnovo edition of the liturgical books. In addition to the level of the textual content, it also concerned the graphic aspects of the codices. The use was started of above-the-line letters resembling the Greek script, which was aimed at visual unification of the Bulgarian and the Greek manuscripts. This can be easily observed in the manuscripts designated for monastery services, which contained content related to Hesychasm.

Alphabet and Нistory

precisely Middle Bulgarian models of the time of Patriarch Euthymius. Most certainly processes are also observed of specific Russian handwriting models related to the new centers of the 17th and the 18th centuries – Moscow semi-uncial, Pomorski semi-uncial, which remained in active use mainly among the Old Believers’ followers. Even its calligraphic versions were developed there. During the whole period of the Middle Ages the Cyrillic alphabet was perceived as an emblem of the Orthodox Slavic world. Tracing back its development a conscientious researcher could study the complex network of cultural interactions within Slavia Orthodoxa, and sometimes even among Catholic Slavs. The alphabet delineates the spheres of the cultural influence of the literary models created in Preslav in the 9th century and in Tarnovo in the 14th century and makes it possible to study their modifications even to the invention of book printing.

The Slepche Apostolos from the XII c, kept in four different libraries – Sankt Petersburg, Plovdiv, Kiev and Moscow. The first Bulgarian old printed book – the Kiriakodromion (a miscellany with sermons for the Sundays) was published in 1806.

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The Cyrillic Alphabet in Modern Times If in the Middle Ages the Cyrillic alphabet symbolized the unity of the Slavonic peoples, in the modern epoch it has become an instrument to manifest differences. When in 1707–1710 Emperor Peter I introduced the civil Cyrillic font in Russia, he presented this act as a part of his reforms aimed at modernization of Russia and integration of the country with Europe. For the first time the Russian civil Cyrillic alphabet used Latin models and approximated the Baroque typography of its age especially with the introduction of lower case (minuscule) letters. For the first time the uncial character of the Cyrillic alphabet was changed and this was done following the model of the Latin typographic fonts. The clerical and the secular graphic systems were clearly delineated. Similar process was also going on in Serbia when in 1818 Vuk Stefanović Karadžić reformed the old graphic system and designed a new modern Serbian Cyrillic alphabet with special graphic elements for the specific sounds and introduced the Latin letter ‘j’, which was called Kopitaritsa for a very long time. In Bulgaria this process was related with the Revival and of modern Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet we can speak after 1830. In contrast to the Russian and Serbian modernized Cyrillic systems, the Bulgarian version preserved the signs for yat vowels and the big yus, as well as the use of ‘ъ’ at the end of a word. The situation changed after 09.09.1944 when these letters were also removed from the graphic system and in this way the alphabet visually reflected the new realities and the changes were motivated by an effort to provide simplicity and convenience. An alphabet is an image and a sign materializing the ephemeral sounds of our speech. It is a resistance against oblivion and transience of history. But an alphabet is also something much more – it is a unique message of cultural Alphabet and Нistory

presence, of sovereign national identity. In our modern world an alphabet is devoid of mysticism, but namely it is in this pragmatic attitude to it that we can perceive the spirit of the new relations on the Old Continent. Today the Cyrillic alphabet is an emissary of the spirit of tolerance and cultural diversity bequeathed to us since the disputes of Constantine Cyril. And if in that remote epoch more than a millennium ago people had the wisdom and the strength to change the cultural map of the continent, today our responsibility before the ‘small’ signs of the Slavic spirituality is even greater and expressed in the mission to present it as the third official alphabet of the European Union, as the witness of dramatic moments of fight for spiritual survival and a triumph in the course of reclaiming cultural territories.

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Samples with the Modern typography script in Russia, Serbia and Bulgaria.

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ALPHABET AND

HISTORY Catalogue of Exhibition with the support of the State Institute for Culture Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria Vassya Velinova – Author Atanaska Miteva – Translation into English Kiril Gogov – Graphic designer Photos from the Archive of the Research Centre for Slavic and Byzantine Studies “Ivan Dujcev”, Sofia and from the Archive of Prof. Kazimir Popkonstantinov. ISBN