Differences in two repeating words in the Homily on the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, part of the collection of the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Fund 39, 21.4.4 (New 928)

The report presents an analysis of differences in two Homilies on the Exaltation of the Holy Cross by St. Andrew of Crete in handwritten menology, part of the collection of the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Fund 21.4.4, that was written in late 16th century (most of the works) and book-bound in the 19th century. The repeating works Homily 5 and Homily 6 attracted the compiler by dissimilarity: different size and a large number of discrepancies. Homily 6 is bigger than Homily 5: 18 pages and 6 pages respectively. Homily 5 has common features with homilies on the Exaltation in Great Menology, the Russian State Library Fund 304. I/ 1897 and the Russian State Library Fund 304. I/ 404. Homily 6 has common features with the Russian State Library Fund 304. I/1656. Homily 5 and Homily 6 are different copies of two editions of one manuscript. Two editions of A Homily on the Exaltation of the Holy Cross by St. Andrew of Crete existed in medieval Church Slavonic tradition. Homily 5, the Russian State Library Fund 304. I/ 1897 (p. 58-61) and the Russian State Library Fund 304. I/ 404 (p. 267-269) are copies of the short edition. Homily 6 and the Russian State Library Fund 304. I/1656 (p. 198-208) are copies of the long edition. Accordingly, Homily 5 and Homily 6 are copies of two different editions of one work. This explains the large number of discrepancies in common places. They comprise 80% of the text. Archetypes of the editions were independent translations from the Greek source or its copies. Homily 5 and Homily 6 are the Russian recension of the Church Slavonic language. The found discrepancies reflect the graphics of the protographs rather than a particular dialect of a scriber. The morphological and derivational varieties emerged independently of each other. Lexical discrepancies account for most differences. The editor or the translator was guided by the motive to create more vivid images when creating A Homily on the Exaltation of the Holy Cross by St. Andrew of Crete. The analysis of the discrepancies allowed concluding that the editions appeared independently.

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