Polovragi Monastery, Akathistos Hymn, photo by Oana Iacubovschi

The interdisciplinary team involved in this project intends to study a most influential liturgical piece dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the Akathistos Hymn, from a philological and historical perspective. They will focus on the multilingual textual tradition (Greek,
Slavonic and Romanian) of the Akathistos Hymn which develops simultaneously in the Romanian-speaking regions in the 17th century, and on the flourishing iconography of the Akathistos cycle, present in mural representations and in illuminations.
The first Romanian versions of the Akathistos Hymn appear as manuscripts and printed texts in the 17th century. These important documents for the history of old Romanian and for the history of liturgy in Romanian remained unstudied, although two metropolitans, key-figures of the old Romanian literature, Dosoftei and Antim, printed the Akathistos Hymn in 1673 and 1698 respectively. The relation of the Romanian tradition with the contemporary Slavonic texts, from which it originates, has never been
studied, nor have been its connections with the Greek illuminated manuscripts of the Akathistos Hymn which high Greek clergymen executed in Wallachia in the first half of the 17th century. The present project attempts to evaluate the dynamics of this multilingual 17th-century tradition of the Akathistos Hymn, to edit the oldest manuscript and printed Romanian versions, and to assess the relation between the textual and the iconographic traditions.

Events:

International conference:
The Akathistos Hymn in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Tradition. The History of a Liturgical Masterpiece between Text and Image, conveners Emanuela Timotin and AKATHYMN team, New Europe College, Bucharest, October 13-15, 2022
Program of the conference (Day 1 & Day 2)

International workshop:
Manuscript Tradition and Visual Culture. Circulating Models and their Reception in South-Eastern Europe, 14th-18th c., conveners Vlad Bedros and Emanuela Timotin, New Europe College, Bucharest, November 26, 2021

Conferences:

Emanuela Timotin, Mihail-George Hâncu, “Grammatical Changes in the Seventeenth-Century Romanian Translation of the Slavonic Akathistos Hymn”, Workshop Written language contact vs direct language contact as a source for grammatical change, Institute of Linguistics of the Romanian Academy “Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, October 27, 2023

Cristina-Ioana Dima, “Cartea de rugăciuni a mitropolitului Dosoftei între traducere și interpretare”, Simpozionul Veteres libri, vetera manuscripta: restituiri patrimoniale bibliofile, “Carol I” Central University Library – Library of the Holy Sinod, September 21, 2023

Cristina-Ioana Dima, „“Cartea de rugăciuni a mitropolitului Dosoftei”, National Conferrence Bibliology and Cultural National Heritage, “1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia – MMuzeul Național al Unirii, June 15-16, 2023

Emanuela Timotin, “The Dream of the Virgin: A Medieval Development of the Protevangelium of James”, Jesus’ Birth and Childhood. Noncanonical Traditions about Jesus’ Birth and Childhood in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Ateneu Universitari Sant Pacià Barcelona, April 20-22, 2023

Lidia Cotovanu, “En visite chez un résident grec de Venise: l’environnement domestique de Panos Hiéromnimon (†1691), l’ami des Cantacuzène valaques”, XI Convegno internazionale “Venezia e il suo Stato da mar: Uomini e donne dello Stato da mar” / XIth International Congress “Men and women of the Stato da Mar”, Venice, February 23-25, 2023 (with C. Luca)

Mihail-George Hâncu, “Acatistul Maicii Domnului într-un manuscris bilingv din 1683: probleme ale traducerii din slavonă în română”, Slavistica românească și dialogul culturilor – ediția a X-a, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Bucharest / Department of Russian and Slavonic Philology / Association of Slavists in Romania, October 21, 2022

Emanuela Timotin, “Standardization of the First Romanian Translation of the Akathistos Hymn. The Double Readings in Ms. 170”, The Akathistos Hymn in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Tradition. The History of a Liturgical Masterpiece between Text and Image, New Europe College, Bucharest, October 13-15, 2022

Lidia Cotovanu, „Les destinataires de l’œuvre manuscrite de Matthieu de Myres. Nouvelles constatations”, The Akathistos Hymn in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Tradition. The History of a Liturgical Masterpiece between Text and Image, New Europe College, Bucharest, October 13-15, 2022

Cristina-Ioana Dima, “La première version de l’Hymne Acathiste imprimée en roumain. Réflexions sur un livre peu connu du métropolite Dosoftei”, The Akathistos Hymn in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Tradition. The History of a Liturgical Masterpiece between Text and Image, New Europe College, Bucharest, October 13-15, 2022

Mihail-George Hâncu, “One Side of the Coin: The Seventeenth-Century Slavonic Manuscripts of the Akathist from the Library of the Romanian Academy”, The Akathistos Hymn in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Tradition. The History of a Liturgical Masterpiece between Text and Image, New Europe College, Bucharest, October 13-15, 2022

Oana Iacubovschi, “Embroidered Epitrachelia with the Akathistos Hymn and their Commissioners (16th-17th Centuries)”, The Akathistos Hymn in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Tradition. The History of a Liturgical Masterpiece between Text and Image, New Europe College, Bucharest, October 13-15, 2022

Daniar Mutalâp, “Shapes, forms and uses of the Akathist Hymn in the 18^th century Romanian manuscripts and printed books”, The Akathistos Hymn in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Tradition. The History of a Liturgical Masterpiece between Text and Image, New Europe College, Bucharest, October 13-15, 2022

Ovidiu Olar, “From the Romanian Principalities to Mount Sinai: The Odyssey of Codex Sinaiticus græcus 203”, The Akathistos Hymn in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Tradition. The History of a Liturgical Masterpiece between Text and Image, New Europe College, Bucharest, October 13-15, 2022

Lidia Cotovanu, „Οι θεσσαλικές ρίζες των Μαυροκορδάτων” [Rădăcinile tesaliene ale Mavrocordaţilor], Αλέξανδρος ο Εξ Απορρήτων (1641-1709) και οι Ηγεμόνες Μολδοβλαχίας Νικόλαος (1680-1730) και Κωνσταντίνος (1711-1769). H αυγή της Νεοτερικότητας στην Νοτιοανατολική Ευρώπη [Alexandru Exaporitul (1641-1709) şi domnii Ţărilor Române Nicolae (1680-1730) şi Constantin (1711-1769). Zorii modernităţii în Europa de sud-est], Hios, July 15-17, 2022

Emanuela Timotin, “Deux manuscrits roumains du milieu du XVII^e siècle. Problèmes d’édition de l’Hymne acathiste”, 30^e Congrès International de Linguistique et Philologie Romanes, Universidad La Laguna (Tenerife), July 4–9, 2022

Oana Iacubovschi, “From liturgy to private piety. The Akathistos Hymn in Moldavia at the turn of the 16^th and 17^th centuries”, Sung, Written and Painted. The Akathistos Hymnos and Intermedial Compositional Processes in Later Byzantium, Georg-August Universität, Göttingen, June 2-3, 2022

Cristina-Ioana Dima, “Les noms de la Vierge dans l’Hymne Acathiste et dans une amulette”, Transizioni e variazioni mariane dal Medioevo ai giorni nostri, Università degli Studi di Torino, Dipartamento di Studi Umanistici, May 25-27, 2022

Emanuela Timotin, George-Mihail Hâncu, “Translating the Akathistos Hymn from Slavonic into Romanian. Ms 1348 of the Romanian Academy Library in Bucharest”, Manuscript Tradition and Visual Culture. Circulating Models and Their Reception in South-Eastern Europe, New Europe College, Bucharest, November 26, 2021

Lidia Cotovanu, “Le Ms. gr. Garrett 113 de l’Université de Princeton et les circonstances de sa production”, Manuscript Tradition and Visual Culture. Circulating Models and Their Reception in South-Eastern Europe, New Europe College, Bucharest, November 26, 2021

Ovidiu Olar, “Writings Full of Sweetness and Grace. The Hybrid Codex BAR MS Gr. 113”, Manuscript Tradition and Visual Culture. Circulating Models and Their Reception in South-Eastern Europe, New Europe College, Bucharest, November 26, 2021

Emanuela Timotin, “Un descântec inedit pe marginea unui Acatist tipărit în a doua jumătate a secolului al XVII-lea”, Atelier lingvistic online, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, Bucharest, September 29 – October 1, 2021

Daniar Mutalâp, “Când și de cine au fost realizate cele mai veche copii manuscrise românești ale Imnului acatist?”, Atelier lingvistic online, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Alexandru Rosetti”, Bucharest, September 29 – October 1, 2021

Emanuela Timotin, Ovidiu Olar, “The Unknown Romanian History of a Liturgical Masterpiece. The Oldest Romanian Manuscript and Printed Versions of the Akathistos Hymn (17^th century)”, Research Seminar, New Europe College, June 16, 2021

Publications:

Imnul Acatist în literatura română din veacul al XVII-lea, study, critical edition and glossary by Emanuela Timotin, Cristina-Ioana Dima, Mihail-George Hâncu și Daniar Mutalâp, Bucharest, Editura Universității București, in press

Dosoftei, Carte de rugăciuni, 1673, edition, introduction and glossary by Cristina-Ioana Dima, București, Editura Universității București, in press

The Akathistos Hymn in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Tradition. The History of a Liturgical Masterpiece between Text and Image, ed. by Emanuela Timotin, Lidia Cotovanu and Ovidiu-Victor Olar, Herlo Verlag, Heidelberg [Supplementa Études byzantines et post-byzantines 5]

Représentations de la Vierge Marie entre culte officiel et vénération locale. Textes et images, textes réunis par Cristina Bogdan, Cristina-Ioana Dima et Emanuela Timotin, Heidelberg, Herlo Verlag, 2022

Emanuela Timotin, Mihail-George Hâncu, Irina Paraschiv, “Grammatical Changes in the Seventeenth-Century Romanian Translation of the Slavonic Akathistos Hymn”, Revue roumaine de linguistique, 69, 2024, accepted for publication

Emanuela Timotin, “Can a Celestial Warrior Become a Healer? The Archangel Michael in the Manuscript and Oral Traditions of Romanian Charms”, in Alexandros Tsakos, Marie von der Lippe (ed.), The Archangel Michael Beyond Orthodoxy. History, Politics and Popular Culture, Bloomsbury Academic, 2024, in press

Emanuela Timotin, “Standardization of the First Romanian Translation of the Akathistos Hymn. The Double Readings in Rom MS 170 of the Romanian Academy Library in Bucharest”, in The Akathistos Hymn in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Tradition. The History of a Liturgical Masterpiece between Text and Image, ed. Emanuela Timotin, Lidia Cotovanu and Ovidiu-Victor Olar, Herlo Verlag, Heidelberg, in press

Lidia Cotovanu, “Les destinataires de l’œuvre manuscrite de Matthieu de Myres. Nouvelles constatations”, in The Akathistos Hymn in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Tradition. The History of a Liturgical Masterpiece between Text and Image, ed. Emanuela Timotin, Lidia Cotovanu and Ovidiu-Victor Olar, Herlo Verlag, Heidelberg, in press

Cristina-Ioana Dima, “La première version de l’Hymne Acathiste imprimée en roumain. Réflexions sur un livre peu connu du métropolite Dosoftei”, in The Akathistos Hymn in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Tradition. The History of a Liturgical Masterpiece between Text and Image, ed. Emanuela Timotin, Lidia Cotovanu and Ovidiu-Victor Olar, Herlo Verlag, Heidelberg, in press

Mihail-George Hâncu, “One Side of the Coin: The Seventeenth-Century Slavonic Manuscripts of the Akathist from the Library of the Romanian Academy”, in The Akathistos Hymn in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Tradition. The History of a Liturgical Masterpiece between Text and Image, ed. Emanuela Timotin, Lidia Cotovanu and Ovidiu-Victor Olar, Herlo Verlag, Heidelberg, in press

Oana Iacubovschi, “Iconographic Changes in Orthodox Liturgical Vesture in the Seventeenth Century: The Epitrachelion of Metropolitan Metrophanes of Cyzicus at the Walters Art Museum and its Embroidered Version of the Akathistos Hymn”, in The Akathistos Hymn in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Tradition. The History of a Liturgical Masterpiece between Text and Image, ed. Emanuela Timotin, Lidia Cotovanu and Ovidiu-Victor Olar, Herlo Verlag, Heidelberg, in press

Daniar Mutalâp, “Shapes, forms and uses of the Akathist Hymn in the 18th century Romanian manuscripts and printed books”, in The Akathistos Hymn in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Tradition. The History of a Liturgical Masterpiece between Text and Image, ed. Emanuela Timotin, Lidia Cotovanu and Ovidiu-Victor Olar, Herlo Verlag, Heidelberg, in press

Ovidiu-Victor Olar, “A Post-Byzantine Calligrapher: Luke of Cyprus”, in The Akathistos Hymn in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Tradition. The History of a Liturgical Masterpiece between Text and Image, ed. Emanuela Timotin, Lidia Cotovanu and Ovidiu-Victor Olar, Herlo Verlag, Heidelberg, in press

Lidia Cotovanu, “En visite chez un résident grec de Venise : l’environnement domestique et humain de Panos Hiéromnimon (†1691), l’ami des Cantacuzène valaques”, in Bruno Crevato-Selvaggi (ed.), Venezia e il suo Stato da mar. Atti del XI Convegno internazionale “Uomini e donne dello Stato da mar » / XIth International Congress « Venice an dits Stato da Mar: Men and women of the Stato da Mar », (Venezia, 23-25 febbraio 2023), Rome, Società Dalmata di Storia Patria, 2024, in press (with Cristian Luca)

Oana Iacubovschi, “From Liturgy to Private Devotion: Reading and Viewing and Celebrating the Akathistos Hymn in Late Sixteenth-Century Moldavia”, in Sung, Written and Painted. The Akathistos Hymnos and Intermedial Compositional Processes in Later Byzantium, Palgrave Macmillan, New Approaches in Byzantine History and Culture, in press

Daniar Mutalâp, “O versiune românească necunoscută a Imnului Acatist de la finele secolului al XVII-lea”, Limba română, 72/3-4, 2023, accepted for publication

Ovidiu-Victor Olar, “Un manuscris necunoscut al ‘școlii’ Crimca păstrat la Sinai”, Analele Putnei, accepted for publication

Mihail-George Hâncu, “Acatistul Maicii Domnului într-un manuscris bilingv din 1683: probleme ale traducerii din slavonă în română”, Romanoslavica 58, 2022, p. 20-40

Emanuela Timotin, “Despre vechea tradiție românească a Imnului Acatist. Versiunea tipărită de Antim Ivireanul”, in Adina Dragomirescu et al. (eds.), Rodica Zafiu. Lingvista, profesoara, colega, prietena, Bucharest, EUB, p. 845-857

Emanuela Timotin, “Deux manuscrits roumains du milieu du XVII^e siècle. Problèmes d’édition de l’Hymne acathiste”, in Dolores Corbella, Josefa Dorta, Rafael Padrón (eds), Perspectives en linguistique et philologie romanes, 2 vol., Paris, Éditions de Linguistique et de Philologie, Bibliotèque de Linguistique Romane (BiLiRo), nº 18.2, 2023, p. 1079-1090

Cristina-Ioana Dima, “Les noms de la Vierge dans l’Hymne Acathiste et dans une amulette”, in E. Barale, A. Cicchella, M. Del Savio, C. G. Priolo (sous la direction de), Transitions et variations mariales du Moyen Âge, Paris, Garnier, 2023, p. 217-233

Emanuela Timotin, Ovidiu Olar, “The oldest Romanian manuscript and printed versions of the Akathistos Hymn (seventeenth century)”, Revue roumaine de linguistique, 67/1, 2022, p. 65-83.

Emanuela Timotin, “An Unknown Romanian Recension of the Dream of the Virgin”, in Représentations de la Vierge Marie entre culte officiel et vénération locale. Textes et images, Cristina Bogdan, Cristina-Ioana Dima et Emanuela Timotin (textes réunis par), Heidelberg, Herlo Verlag, 2022, p. 249–265

Lidia Cotovanu, “Les livres grecs anciens conservés dans la bibliothèque «Dumitru Staniloae» de la Métropole de Moldavie et de Bucovine”, Museikon. A Journal of Religious Art and Culture / Revue d’art et de culture religieuse 6 (2022), p. 227-262

Cristina-Ioana Dima, “La figure de la Vierge dans la Légende d’Aphroditien le Perse”, in Représentations de la Vierge Marie entre culte officiel et vénération locale. Textes et images,

Cristina Bogdan, Cristina-Ioana Dima et Emanuela Timotin (textes réunis par), Heidelberg, Herlo Verlag, 2022, p. 213–224

Cristina-Ioana Dima, “Elemente lexicale inedite din prima carte tipărită a mitropolitului Dosoftei”, Limba română, 71/1-2, 2022, p. 55-62

Daniar Mutalâp, “Când au fost realizate cele mai vechi versiuni manuscrise românești ale Imnului Acatist?”, Limba română, 70/3-4, 2021, p. 511-527

Lidia Cotovanu, “L’œuvre historiographique de Matthieu de Myre: étapes de conception, motivations, messages (début du XVII^e siècle)”, in O. Olar, K. Petrovszky (eds), Writing History in Ottoman Europe (15^th – 18^th c.), Brill, 2024, accepted for publication

Emanuela Timotin, “Două descântece românești inedite pe marginea unui Acatist al Născătoarei de Dumnezeu tipărit în a doua jumătate a secolului al XVII-lea”, in C.-I. Dima,  A.-M. Gherman, G. Mihăilescu (eds), De rebus philologiae mirabilibus. In honorem Mihai Moraru, Bucharest, Editura Muzeului Literaturii Române, 2021, p. 243–258

Emanuela Timotin, Daniar Mutalâp, “Cele mai vechi versiuni românești ale Imnului Acatist. Manuscrise și copiști”, Limba română, 70/1, 2021, p. 91-110