Het Boek. Serie 3. Jaargang 36

[p. 234]

Keetje Rozemond
Unknown ‘catavasier’?

In the Leiden University Library an Eastern liturgical book was acquired recently which does not occur in the extensive ‘Bibliografia Românéscă veche’¹.

As the first four and the last two leaves are missing it is difficult to indentify the copy.

The whole book is in Cyrillic writing. The first part is in Greek, transcribed phonetically in Cyrillic characters in accordance with the modern Greek pronunciation. The second is in old Slavonic and the third in Rumanian.

The Greek part (fols, e up to and including м͂e) contains the Canons of the Nativity, the Theophany, the Purification, Easter; some hymns to the Theotokos, the exaltation of the Cross, the holy Ghost, the holy Trinity; the Magnificat, the divine Liturgy, other hymns to the Theotokos. (On fols. к͂ϑ r., v., a r., д - e r. there are hymns in old Slavonic).

The Slavonic part (fols, м͂ς up to and including ч͂д) has nearly the same contents as the Greek, but in addition to this it also has prayers of penitance, the canons of Palm Sunday, the Sunday of Thomas, Mid-Pentecost, the Ascension, Pentecost, prayers to St. George and St. Theodosius (On fols. м͂ς (54)v. - н͂e (55)r. the blessing is written in Greek).

The Rumanian part (fols. ч͂д v. up to and including гд) contains even more than the Slavonic, viz. prayers for the feasts of the saints, morning prayers, evening prayers, some psalms, a calendar of saints, the paschalia which begin in the year 1769 and therefore make it possible to date the book approximately. Fols. м͂ς r., ч͂д r. and сн͂ r. show an icon of the Theotokos.

The book in 8^o is rather primitively printed in red and black and has 18 lines on each page. The type area is ± 113 and 80 mm. A water mark in the paper shows the letters FD.

1 Ioan Bianu, Nerva Hodos, Dan Simonescu, Bibliografia Românească veche 1508-1830, Bucuresti 1903-1936.

[p. t.o. 234]

Incipit of the Slavonic text.

[p. t.o. 235]

Incipit of the Rumanian text.

[p. 235]

The copy seems to be a rare specimen of Rumanian printing, as the first book printed in the three languages, Greek, Slavonic, Rumanian, which the ‘Bibliografia Românéscă veche’ mentions, was printed in 1816¹. The printing of Greek in Cyrillic characters also seems to be an exception at this time. Greek was already printed in Greek characters long before 1769².

Perhaps the book is a product of some episcopal press which was impoverished during the troubles that afflicted the Rumanian countries in the eighteenth century.³

It has provisionally been catalogued under the heading of Catavasier.

1 Op. cit., t. III, p. 155, nr. 918.

2 see for example op. cit., t. I, p. 251-258, nr. 75.

3 Nikolaus Iorga, Geschichte der Rumänen und ihrer Kultur, Hermannstadt 1929, p. 243-270.