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.

Results:

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

Conferences:

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:

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, in press

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, 2022, accepted for publication

Emanuela Timotin, Daniar Mutalâp, “Cele mai vechi versiuni românești ale Imnului Acatist. Manuscrise și copiști”, Limba română, under evaluation