Dimitri's Psalter is an 11th-century Glagolitic manuscript containing verses from the Psalms.
History The manuscript was discovered in 1975 in the Sinai Monastery of St. Catherine. It is currently still located in the monastery. The manuscript is completely preserved, and contains 145 leaves measuring 13.5 x 11 cm and has its original binding intact. The text dates back to the 11th century, and was published in its entirety in 2012 by Austrian historians.
Description The publisher of the description of the manuscript, Ioannis Tarnanidis, called it "The Psalter of Dmitry the Altarnik" on the basis of an entry on folio 1a, where the expression ⰰⰸⱏ ⰴⱏⰿⱅⱃⱏ ⰳⱃⱑⱎⱀⰺⰽⱏ (az dъmtrъ grěšnikъ) is followed by the beginning of a word that has not been preserved in full: ⱁⰾ(...), presumably, this is the beginning of the word ol (tarnik) . The name "Dmitry" is repeated on folio 141b: az dmtryi pisakh se.
The manuscript contains the Psalm of David, and contains the writings of two various scribes. The first is believed to have written the leaves: 1b-2a, 3a, 35b-141b, 142a-145b, and the second wrote the rest. Both scribes are alternating with different handwriting, and there are many unfilled pages in between that are filled with notes and prayers in Glagolitic writing.
The writing shows transitions within the Church Slavonic alphabet, as it contains orthography with ⱏ, the use of four yus, the presence of ⱋ, ⱎ, and ⱅ, and the clarification of reduced vowels with Cyrillic influence.
There are multiple notes and inserts in the manuscript in Greek, Latin, and Glagolitic. There are deuterocanonical texts, and recipes to protect against various ailments. The texts of the recipes contain unknown and little-known words and expressions that shed light on the culture of Balkan Slavs, such as: ⱍⰰⰹ (čai), ⱁⰱⱏⱃⰺⱀⱏ (obъrinъ), ⱂⱁⰽⱃⰺⰲⱏⱀⱁ ⰾⰺⱄⱅⰲⱏⰵ (pokrivъno listvъе = crooked foliage), ⰸⱁⰴⱏ (zodъ), ⱁⰿⰰⱀⱏ (omanъ), ⰿⱁⱅⱏⰹⰾⰰ (motъila), ⱄⱅⱆⰴⰵⱀⰺⱌⰰ (studenica = jelly), and ⱍⱔⰱⱃⰵⱀⱁ (чębreno).
According to the Bulgarian professor Boryana Velcheva, the manuscript comes from Northeastern Bulgaria, although most scholars, including the editors of the manuscript, have pointed out that the manuscript represents a collaboration between multiple scribes and was most likely produced on Sinai itself, while the scribe came from the Adriatic coast, possibly the area of Duklja. Among Western Balkan features, the main text of the manuscript contains characters such as "ⱓ" instead of "ⱙ", which likely points to Serbian or Croatian scribes.
Author Miklas and colleagues hypothesized — while noting it could not be proven — that Dimitri might have worked as a physician at the Hospital of Saint John, but that later either he or the author of the Medical Folia moved to Saint Catherine's Monastery. The author of the Medical Folia was judged to hail from Istria based on botanical Slovenisms like kry (Prescription 5) and črěmošъ (Prescription 13), while acknowledging that the East Bulgarisms of the underlying text pointed to its translation or composition at Preslav. They provided a list of dialectalisms for each layer.
Prayer Cycle Dimitri's prayer cycle can be divided into 4 units: 1r2–17 2r2–13 2r14–20, 3r14–21, 34v1–4 (with alleluia and psalm versicle) 34v4, 140r13–23, 140v, 144r.
Unit 1 (Demetrii subscriptio I et precatio I ad S. Demetrium Thess. cum epilogo atque abecedario tripartito)
In Miklas' allegorical interpretation, which without further evidence he considers more of a "thought experiment", Dimitri is invoking his patron saint Demetrius of Thessalonica to protect the tradition of Cyril and Methodius of the same city, along with their Glagolitic script. He interprets the "great mountain" as Mount Sinai, located behind Saint Mary's Monastery (the contemporary name of Saint Catherine's Monastery), the she-wolf as the She-wolf of Rome, and the wolf as Pope Gregory VII, whom he contrasts in Unit 3 with Pope Gregory I, lifelong benefactor of Saint Catherine's Monastery and founder of a pilgrim's hospice in Jerusalem, as he does elsewhere with motifs Miklas believes were taken from Pope Gregory's vision of the Archangel Michael sheathing his sword as a sign of divine forgiveness. In this interpretation, Gregory VII was the antagonist for his role in the Synod of Split of 1059/1060, further tightening the liturgical language restrictions to the detriment of the Slavonic liturgy, stripping priests lacking Latin proficiency of their offices. Some Glagolite priests evidently left the realms of Peter Krešimir IV (later Demetrius Zvonimir) of the Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia, and Mihailo I of Duklja (later Constantine Bodin) of the Kingdom of Duklja and Serbia for the March of Istria, where the jurisdiction of Antipopes Clement III and Honorius II sheltered the Glagolite priests from those new restrictions. In 1084–1085, which may have been the time of writing, Pope Gregory VII had been reduced to captivity ("the wolf may not untie itself"), having barricaded himself inside the Mausoleum of Hadrian to escape Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor.
Unit 2 (Abecedarium latinum and Demetrii precatio II ad Dominum ICh contra lupum)
Unit 3 (Demetrii precatio III ad Dominum)
Unit 4 (Demetrii precatio IV (ex oratione s. Grеgorii sumpta) ad ICh pro absolutione peccatorum in expectatione mortis)
See also List of Glagolitic manuscripts (900–1199) Lists of Glagolitic manuscripts
References
Bibliography
External links
Folios 1 and 2 transcription Folios 3 and 4 transcription