The Slavic Letters of St. Jerome: The History of the Legend and Its Legacy, or, How the Translator of the Vulgate Became an Apostle of the Slavs

275 Pages·2014·10.91 MB·English

by  Julia Verkholantsev

The Slavic leTTerS oF
ST. Jerome
The History of the Legend and Its Legacy,
or,
How the Translator of the Vulgate
Became an Apostle of the Slavs
Julia Verkholanstev
The Slavic Letters of St. Jerome

The SLavic LeTTerS of
St. Jerome
The History of the Legend and Its Legacy,
or,
How the Translator of the Vulgate Became an
Apostle of the Slavs
Julia Verkholantsev
NiU PreSS / DeKalb, IL
© 2014 by Northern illinois University Press
Published by the Northern illinois University Press, DeKalb, illinois 60115
Manufactured in the United States using acid-free paper
all rights reserved
Design by Shaun allshouse
Library of congress cataloging-in-Publication Data
verkholantsev, Julia, author.
The Slavic Letters of St. Jerome : the history of the legend and its legacy, or, how the translator of the
vulgate became an apostle of the Slavs / Julia verkholantsev.
pages : illustrations, maps ; cm
includes bibliographical references and index.
iSBN 978-0-87580-485-9 (cloth : alk. paper)—iSBN 978-1-60909-158-3 (electronic)
1. Jerome, Saint, -419 or 420. 2. christian saints, Slavic—europe, eastern. 3. Glagolitic alphabet—
history. 4. Liturgical language—history. 5. catholic church—Liturgy. 6. europe, eastern—
church history. 7. Jerome, Saint, -419 or 420—cult--europe, eastern. 8. Bible—versions. i. Title.
Br1720.J5v476 2014
270.2092--dc23
2014017240
contents
List of illustrations vii
acknowledgments ix
ProLoGUe 3
1. oriGiNS: Enigmatic Apostolate 11
The “Mission” 11
“and every tongue shall confess to God” 14
The alphabet 16
The Liturgy 18
The controversy 19
The Slavonic rite in Bohemia 26
The Slavonic rite in Poland? 28
The Bifurcation of Slavic Writing: Glagolitic and cyrillic 32
2. croaTia: Empowering Myth 34
The arrival of the Slavonic rite in croatia 34
The roman Slavonic rite of the Glagolite clergy 36
Sts. cyril and Methodius as Slavic apostles in croatia 45
cyril and Methodius in historical Sources 50
The Legend is created: Sources 53
The Legend is created: historical Setting 58
“Letters alone in books renew the past” 60
3. BoheMia: Imperial Aspirations 63
The roman Slavonic rite in Prague 63
“Monasterium Sancti hieronymi Slavorum ordinis Benedicti” 70
Patron Saints of the Slavonic Monastery of St. Jerome 72
The Slavic Theme in charles’s representation of Bohemia’s Sacred history 76
The Theology of the Slavonic Monastery’s Murals 86
Glagolitic, cyrillic, and Latin Letters at the Slavonic Monastery of St. Jerome 90
St. Jerome’s Slavic alphabet, the nobilis lingua Slauonica, and the czech Bible 101
The cult of St. Jerome in Bohemia beyond the Slavonic Monastery 106
St. Jerome in Literary Sources of Bohemian Provenance 108
implications of St. Jerome’s recognition as a Slav in Bohemia 114
4. SiLeSia: A Provincial Exploit 116
The Slavonic Monastery 117
hypotheses 119
5. PoLaND: In Prague’s Footsteps 124
The Slavonic Monastery of the holy cross at Kleparz: Sources and evidence 125
The cult of Sts. cyril and Methodius in Poland? hypothesis and evidence 128
catholic Mission to the orthodox rus’? hypothesis and evidence 131
The roman Slavonic rite as Memorial to Slavic christianity 140
Jadwiga—Patron of the Monastery 142
The czech Trend 144
The Slavic vernacular 148
Decline 150
St. Jerome as a Slavic apostle 153
conclusion 156
ePiLoGUe 158
The Denouement, Part 1 159
St. Jerome as a Slav in Bohemia 161
The Denouement, Part 2 164
St. Jerome as a Slav in Poland 165
The vernacular affair 168
“Refutatur Error Multorum” 172
Notes 175
Bibliography 229
index of Names and Subjects 253
index of Pimary Sources 259
illustrations
MaPS
1. central and southern europe 10
2. Prague ca. 1380s 70
fiGUreS
1. croatian (angular) Glagolitic alphabet 7
2. Codex Assemanianus (11th c.), vatican Library (cod. vat. Slav. 3), fol. 106v, fragment 13
3. First Vrbnik Breviary (late 13th c. or early 14th c.), vrbnik Parish archive,
fol. 168, fragment 43
4. alphabet of aethicus. Pseudo-Jerome, Aethicus Ister’s Cosmographia 56
5. alphabet of aethicus. rabanus Maurus, De inventione linguarum 56
6. Gallery in a cloister of the Slavonic Monastery of St. Jerome in Prague 88
7. Codex Gigas (1200–1230), National (royal) Library of Sweden (a 148), fol. 1v 92
8. Glagolitic (Alphabetum Sklauorum) and cyrillic (Alphabetum Rutenorum) alphabets,
Codex Gigas, fol. 1v, fragment 93
9. czech colophon, The Slavonic Gospel of Reims, Bibliothèque de reims (MS 255),
leaves 61–62 97–98
10. St. Procopius in an illuminated initial, The Slavonic Gospel of Reims,
Bibliothèque de reims (MS 255), leaf 25 102
11. St. Jerome in an illuminated initial, The Slavonic Gospel of Reims,
Bibliothèque de reims (MS 255), leaf 37 103
12. czech Glagolitic (Hlaholská, Vyšebrodská) Bible (1416), National Library of the
czech republic (Xvii a 1), fol. 200, fragment 106

acknowledgments
in the conception and writing of this study, i am first and fore-
most indebted to the work of many philologists and cultural histo-
rians whose ideas informed and inspired my research. i owe par-
ticular gratitude to the late Ludmila Pacnerová, for her lifetime of
work on the czech Glagolitic manuscripts and for her generous
and kind support of my own project in its early stages. and it was
John v. a. fine’s witty article “The Slavic Saint Jerome: an enter-
tainment” that made me want to learn more about the origin and
reception of this myth.
With gratitude i would like to acknowledge the assistance of var-
ious institutions and individuals without whom i would not have
been able to complete this book. Thanks to the generous aid of the
american council of Learned Societies, the american Philosophi-
cal Society, and the School of arts and Sciences of the University of
Pennsylvania, i was given the time and means to conduct research,
write, and publish my work. i give my heartfelt thanks to all those
who assisted me in this process: to andrew r. corin, David Gold-
frank, Lenka Jiroušková, Paul W. Knoll, roland Marti, and William
veder for reading partial or whole drafts of the manuscript, and of-
fering their astute comments, criticisms, and words of encourage-
ment; to václav Čermák, rita copeland, florin curta, Michael W.
herren, Milada homolková, David Kalhous, Paweł Kras, Jiří Matl,
David Mengel, Balázs Nagy, Zoё opačić, Jan Pařez, olga Strakhov,
anatolii Turilov, and Jiří Žůrek for sharing their research and ma-
terials with me and providing valuable bibliographic and archival
data; to Samuel Beckelhymer, Kevin Brownlee, Lenka Jiroušková,
and Jamilya Nazyrova for advising on the translation of a number
of intricate Latin passages (the responsibility for the final choices
is, of course, mine alone); to chelsea Pomponio for proofreading
the manuscript and making valuable stylistic improvements; and
to Daniel huffman, an expert cartographer, for turning my design
ideas into two very fine and stylish maps.
i am most grateful to the excellent publishing team of the North-
ern illinois University Press, who have made the process of publi-
cation smooth and enjoyable: to roy r. robson, the editor of the
orthodox christianity Studies, for engaging me with the press;
to amy farranto, the acquisitions editor, for her kind and patient