http://dx.doi.org/10.18778/2084-140X.04.23

Book reviews 301

му [Dating the translation. The historical context location (card and verse), and their Greek coun- of its creation](p. 146–158), Slavova presents terparts (according to the critical edition by current theories concerning date when the Slav- Laourdas and Westerink). ic version of the text was created, and – on the The latest publication by Tatiana Slavova basis of her own analysis of the linguistic charac- is an excellent addition to her research on tex- teristics, she presents convincing arguments that tology and history of language she has been date the text no earlier than the late fourteenth conducting for many years (with particular century5. emphasis on lexicology)6 and certainly can be Chapter six (Принципи на издаване на a valuable and reliable source of information for текста [Principles of text publication], p. 159– researchers in many fields. Not to be underes- 160) presents the rules of text edition adopted timated is also the author’s contribution in the by the author. On the subsequent several dozen dissemination of knowledge about the ancient pages, one will find an edition of the letter itself history of the southern Slavs and their relation- (chapter seventh, Издание на текста [Publica- ship with the Byzantine culture. The critical edi- tion of the text], p. 161–245), which became the tion of the text, which usually poses many prob- basis for the above-cited manuscript РГБ, Ф. 178, lems of varying nature at the development stage № 3112, supplemented by lections of the other 7 (such as selecting texts, comparison thereof, and full copies and the old print. Irregularities noted the necessity to resolve the problems of spell- in the body text and/or lections are commented ing), is extremely transparent conceptually (and by quoting the Greek original based on the edi- thus readable), and probably will often serve as tion by Laourdas and Westerink. a valuable material for further research. In chapter eight (Речник-индекс на Translated by Katarzyna Gucio словоформите [Glossary-Index of words], p. 246– Agata Kawecka (Łódź) 325), the author provides an alphabetical list of 2,075 lexical units (excluding pronouns, numer- 6 als, conjunctions, prepositions, and particles) Cf. e.g.: Т. Славова, Владетел и адми- attested in the Slavic translation of the letter by нистрация през ранното Средновековие в България. Филологически аспекти, София Photios. Each dictionary entry from the source 2010; Тълковната палея в контекста на contains a semantic definition, all word forms старобългарската книжнина, София 2002; attested in the primary copy, along with their Речник на словоформите в Архангелското евангелие от 1092 г., София 1994; Пре- 5 According to certain researchers the Slavic славска редакция на Кирило-Методиевия translation of the letter by Photios dated back to старобългарски евангелски превод, КМc the tenth century, or even the late ninth century 6, 1989, р. 15–129; Помагало по българска a cf. p. 146 of the monograph. историческа лексикология, София 1986 et al.

Izabela Lis-Wielgosz, O trwałości znaczeń. Siedemnastowieczna literatura serbska w służbie tradycji [On Permanence of Meaning. The Serbian Literature of the Seventeenth Century in Service with Tradition], Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, Poznań 2013, pp. 336. From the research point of view, the description important time of change, which often results in of the seventeenth century cultural space phe- the overestimation of the events of this period. nomena in the Balkan Peninsula is quite compli- On the other hand, some other scholars margin- cated and multifaceted. This is due to primarily alize this century and do not see it as anything the dynamics of the events of that era, as well as groundbreaking. There is no doubt, however, rich and yet extremely diverse source material, that many publications in the academic litera- which has survived into modern times. For this ture, on both philological, and historical aspects reason, some researchers consider this age an of the seventeenth century Serbian culture were 302 Book reviews developed. However, the publications are so far, Siedemnastowieczna literatura serbska w po- a bit outdated and need to be supplemented with rządku periodyzacynym [Medieval or Baroque? new research findings1. A seventeenth-century Serbian literature in peri- Recognizing the existing gap in the aca- odic order] (p. 15–28) presents several research demic literature, Izabela Lis-Wielgosz2 in her positions on the attitudes of scientists to the sev- book O trwałości znaczeń. Siedemnastowieczna enteenth century. The author wonders whether literatura serbska w służbie tradycji [On Perma- the century in question should be considered as nence of Meaning. The Serbian Literature of the the final phase of the Serbian medieval or wheth- Seventeenth Century in Service with Tradition] er the beginning of the Baroque period. She also has made attempts to capture the basic shape of reflects on the thesis of those researchers who Serbian culture and literature in the seventeenth consider this period as a time of transition. century. The author has also made an in-depth In the first chapter, entitled Pod znakiem exploration of selected and important Serbian patriarchatu w Peci [Under the sign of the Patri- cultural texts of the seventeenth century, often archate in Peć] (p. 29–48) the author draws at- putting them in a broader context. tention to the function of the Serbian Orthodox The work of I. Lis-Wielgosz consists of five Church in the life of the Serbian community. chapters, as well as an extensive introduction Undoubtedly a significant role at that time (since and conclusion. The author also has not forgot- 1557) was played by Patriarchy in Peć, which not ten about postinga rich bibliography that shows only held the religious leadership, but also the the extent of the source database used. The work tradition of the Serbian state and Serbian con- also includes two abstracts, one in Serbian and sciousness. This, not only led to a deep process the other in English. of ethnicization of religion, but also to the de- The introduction consists of two parts velopment of Serbian culture in the medieval (p. 7–28). In the first one, the author out- and traditional shape. I. Lis-Wielgosz rightly ob- lines the range of her research. She draws at- serves that this marked return to the past is natu- tention to how greatly underestimated in the ral in the course of the great restoration, reproduc- academic literature is the seventeenth century. tion and reconstruction of all creations – spiritual She stresses, however, that this is due to the ex- and material (p. 41). tent and disorder of the sizeable material. She The second chapter:Pomiędzy i ponad – also shows the time frame of her work, not- patriarchat wobec Pierwszego i Trzeciego Rzymu ing however that dates given by her are merely [Between and over – the Patriarchate in regards to contractual. The second part of the introduc- the First and the Third Rome] (p. 49–104) is of a bi- tion entitled Średniowieczna czy barokowa? partite character. The first part describes the Serbian-Russian relations. The author tries to show how invigorating influence of the Serbian 1 D. Bogdanović, Istorija stare srpske knji- culture had continuous contacts with Moscow. ževnosti, Beograd 1980; M. Pavić, Istorija stare The second part of this chapter was in extenso srpske književnosti baroknog doba, Beograd devoted to far more difficult relations between 1970; Đ. Trifunović, Stara srpska književnost, the Patriarchate of Peć and the Vatican. The sev- Beograd 1994. enteenth century brought about the deteriora- 2 Izabela Lis-Wielgosz is an employee of tion of relations between the Catholics and the Slavic Philology Institute at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Her research focuses Orthodox, which was the result of increased primarily on the cultural space of Slaviae activity of the Latin clergy (especially the Jesu- Orthodoxae, both in the literary and paleoslavic its) and the activity in the South Slavic region of aspect. Her most important works include Sacra Congregation de propaganda fide, which such publications as Śmierćw literaturze wanted to establish to the union of the Serbian staroserbskiej (XII–XIV wiek), Poznań 2003 and Patriarchate and the Holy See. In this part of her Święci w kulturze duchowej i ideologii Słowian publication the author cites many examples of prawosławnych w średniowieczu (do XV w.), Catholic missions (eg. Francesco de Leonardis) Kraków 2004. Book reviews 303 among Orthodox Serbs, aimed at the conversion they have been adapted to the realities of the of the latter to Catholicism. In addition, she also new political and cultural contexts of the seven- draws attention to the issue of printing the Or- teenth century. thodox liturgical books in Catholic areas (main- Izabela Lis-Wielgosz used a lot of source ly in Venice) and the consequences that arise for texts, which attest numerous quotations in her the one and the other party. publication. Undoubtedly, this reflects a vast The next chapter is entitled Kultura erudition of the author, and also a very good ori- zapamiętana – Kultura pamięci [Culture remem- entation and identification of the source mate- bered – Culture of Memory] (p. 105–152). In this rial explored. The drawback, however, is that the section I. Lis-Wielgosz mainly focuses on show- author cites most of the texts in the original lan- ing the continuity of medieval literary forms guage, which can be a problem for readers who (hagiographies, hymnographies) in the seven- do not know well the language of seventeenth teenth century. This fact is indicative of the con- century’s Serbs. It should be therefore consid- sistency and high degree of homogeneity of the ered to translate the more important texts in the Serbian cultural model. The above-mentioned next edition of this book. forms of literature are the author’s specific trans- After a review of the most important works mission belts between the medieval past and of medieval literature, the author summarizes seventeenth century’s reality and in the future the previously presented theses in the section will be a cornerstone of the national conscious- entitled Zakończenie bez końca [Termination ness for the Serbs. without End] (p. 289–302). On the basis of ana- The Fourth Chapter: Kontynuacja tradycji lysed texts and academic literature, the Polish Przepisywanie ksiąg – zapisywanie rzeczywistości Slavist unequivocally concludes that the seven- [Continued tradition. Rewriting the books – sav- teenth-century literature of Serbs should be re- ing reality] (p. 153–211) was devoted entirely garded as the final phase of development of Old to show the originality of seventeenth-century Serbian literature. This does not mean, however, Serbian literature. In this section I. Lis-Wielgosz that the author does not see signs of change, uses quotes from a very well developed set of which at that time began to appear in the South source texts by Ljubomir Stojanović (1860– Slavic culture. Therefore she notes quite rightly, 1930), entitled Stari srpski zapisi i natpisi3. Very that they were not strong enough to change the valuable should also be considered the construc- character of the Serbian medieval literature in tion of a sort of cultural-writing maps, where the the seventeenth century. more significant Serbian publishing centres were There is no doubt that Izabela Lis-Wielgosz listed. Showing the viability of the literature of has taken up a very difficult and pioneering task this period is all the more justified as the forms, in the field of Polish humanities. The result of topoi and ideological structures saved in the sev- several years of work on her dissertation is ad- enteenth century can be found in later periods mirable. Polish Slavist presented the audience (eg. in the works of Zaharije Orfelin or Jovan with a systematic, well-structured and extremely Rajić). valuable publication on the Serbian culture in In the last chapter entitled Przeszłość–His- the seventeenth century. In the preface the au- toria–Historiografia [Past–History–Historiogra- thor modestly admits, that it is merely an attempt phy] (p. 212–288) Izabela Lis-Wielgosz focuses to capture the shape of the seventeenth [Serbian on the historical narrative in the monuments of – P.K.] literature and its culture-forming poten- Serbian literature of the seventeenth century. On tial (p. 10). No doubt this is a fully successful numerous examples she shows long-term devel- attempt, which can safely be treated as a mono- opment of Old Serbian historical writing. She graphic approach of the problems in question. O states quite rightly that in the analysed texts one trwałości znaczeń. Siedemnastowieczna literatu- can see a repetition of some historical themes ra serbska w służbie tradycji is a publication that well-known since the Middle Ages. However, every humanist interested in cultural changes in the area of Slaviae Orthodoxae in the early mod- ern era, should have in their collection. 3 Љ. Стојановић, Стари српски записи и на- Piotr Kręzel (Łódź) тписи, Београд 1902–1924.