MATERIALS FOR THE HISTORY OF THE PUBLICATION OF CHURCH SLAVONIC TRANSLATIONS IN THE XVIII CENTURY: THE MOSCOW DOBROTOLUBIE

This article concerns the history of the preparation and publication of the collection of Church Slavonic translations of Byzantine texts of mystic-ascetic content, known under the title “Dobrotolubie” (Moscow, 1793, 1799). The composition of this collection, which completed a thousand years of history of translations of this type of texts into Church Slavonic, was determined by the composition of a corresponding anthology of Greek texts printed in Venice in 1782. A search and a study of archival sources showed that most of the texts for the Moscow edition had been prepared at Trinity Seminary by a Greek teacher Y. D. Nikolsky. However, their submission to the printer was preceded by a survey performed by Archimandrite Methodius Smirnov and Archimandrite Abrahamim Florinsky, which made various changes to the texts. The edition was organized by Metropolitan Gabriel Petrov and executed by Hieromonk Filaret Pulyashkin. A selective textual analysis of the printed texts shows that the majority of them are based on translations, either by the Sumerian abbot Paisios Velichkovski or by the editorial staff of the Monk Father Superior Paisios Velichkovski. For this reason, each text in the Dobrotolubium should be treated separately, taking into account the history of translation, editing, and use of the text in the Paisios tradition as well as the history of its prepublication.