Vъlъkoša and Nikolaosъ: Two Hard-to-Interpret Inscriptions from the St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod

The present paper deals with two inscriptions from the Novgorod Saint Sophia Cathedral that had not been given convincing readings. Both graffiti have damages and both contain interesting linguistic material. The combination of these two factors has caused particular difficulties of interpretation.

Serious losses are found at the beginning of the first inscription (# 65 according to Medyntseva’s numbering). Previously offered reconstruction is as follows: (П)[Л]Ъ КОШѪ ВИЛ[ИЦ] | ЧЕТВРЬ|ТѪѪ НЕДѢЛЮ | (ПО В)ЪЗДВИЖ|Н[И] ‘Wrote (?) Koshuvilic (?) during the fourth week since the Feast of the Cross’. The new reconstruction interprets the graffito as a message about a newly ordained priest with a rare nonbaptismal name: [В](‑)ЛЪКОШѪ | С[ТА]ВИЛИ Ц|ЧЕТВРЬ|ТѪѪ НЕДѢЛЮ | [П](О) [В]ЪЗДВИЖЕ|Н[И](-) ‘Volkosha was ordained on the fourth Sunday since the Feast of the Cross’.

The second inscription was not published by A. A. Medyntseva. In spite of challenges such as rubbed-off surface and shallow profile of incisions, it has been read in its entirety as: НИКОЛАО|СЪ ПРЕЗ, where през is the writer’s abbreviation of the word презвитеръ ‘presbyter’.