The readings supplied with their corresponding liturgical elements: antiphons, prokeimena and alleluia, together with the liturgical indications are a valuable source for the earliest liturgical practices introduced with the conversion of Bulgarians and followed by Bulgarian Church in the epoch of the First Bulgarian Kingdom. The language of Enina Apostolos is an ancient example of the phonetic and syntactic features of Old Bulgarian.
From the time of its discovery until today the fragment has proven to be of crucial importance for establishing basic linguistic, textological, orthographic, paleographic, historic and liturgical issues of the Slavonic cultural heritage based on the works of St Cyril and St Methodius.
The text of the Apostolos Lectionary (selected parts or readings from the Acts and Epistles, arranged according to the liturgical calendar) is of great importance as it comprises the basic formulae of Christian dogma. As an inseparable part of the text corpus for the Christianization of Slavs and the performing of Slavonic liturgy in vernacular, the New Testament text preserved in Enina Apostolos is a witness of the affiliation of Slav people to Christianity – a crucial change in their history and culture.
Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute manuscripts
Inscribed 2001
What are they
Manuscripts on Islamic astronomy, mathematics and astrology and other subjects from the 11th century up to the 20th century.
Why were they inscribed
Astronomy, astrology, mathematics and medicine were core disciplines of Islamic science in the Ottoman Empire and this is one of the finest collections of manuscripts on these subjects in the world.
Where are they
Library of the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute, Bogaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey
Medicine, mathematics and astronomy were the core disciplines of Islamic science in the Ottoman Empire and there were many works written on these subjects in Turkish, Arabic and Persian. The Library of the Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute contains astronomical, astrological, mathematical, geographical and miscellaneous works dating from the 11th century to the early 20th century. This collection of 1339 works contains a number of unique and rare manuscripts and occupies an important place among other related manuscript collections in the world, especially as its works on astronomy and astrology are crucial not only to scholars of the Ottoman Empire and the Islamic world, but also to Western scholars in the field. The manuscripts in the library were donated to the Institute by the founder and the first director of the observatory, Fatin Gökmen (also known as Fatin Hoca), who oversaw the start of operations in July 1911. The Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute was under the responsibility of the Turkish Ministry of Education until 1982, when it came under Bogaziçi University, Istanbul.
A manuscript from the collection
Treasures from the Kandilli collection
Among the treasures in the Kandilli collection is a calendar in Persian prepared in 1489–90 and presented to Sultan Beyazit whose personal seals are found at the beginning and end of this calendar. Other calendar scrolls are designed by month of the year, with details of the partial and total eclipses of both the sun and moon, and have gilded decorations and calligraphy of great artistic merit. The rûznâmes (daily calendars) show the religious festivals and prayer times in the Islamic world. Other significant items in the collection include astronomical tables prepared through the use of Takiyeddîn’s works, the translations of Ali Kuscu’s Hulâsatu’l-hey’e and Mirkatu’s-semâ and Ulugh Bey’s astronomical tables, which overall reflect the cultural and scientific achievements of the Ottoman Empire.
Codex Suprasliensis – Mineia četia, Mart (The Supraśl Codex – Menology, March)
Inscribed 2007
What is it
The largest and oldest of the few surviving manuscripts written in Old Church Slavonic.
Why was it inscribed
Codex Suprasliensis is the main source for studying Old Church Slavonic. It is also one of the earliest testimonials to the reception of Orthodox Christianity among the Slavs.
Where is it
National and University Library in Ljubljana, Slovenia; National Library of Russia, St Petersburg, Russia; National Library, Warsaw, Poland
The Codex Suprasliensis is a unique manuscript written by a monk named Retko around 1014 in one of the monasteries near Preslav, the old capital of Bulgaria. In 1823 it was discovered by Professor Michał Bobrowski in the library of the Basilian monastery in Supraśl near Białystok, Poland, where it had been brought by monks from Athos, Greece. The item was divided in 1838 and 1839 and is now kept in three libraries: in Warsaw, Ljubljana and St Petersburg.
The codex was written in Old Church Slavonic, using the Cyrillic alphabet in Slavonic majuscule. It consists of 285 (118+16+151) parchment folios. It describes the lives of saints and the teachings of fathers of the church for readings in March (the final fragment of Mineia četia). It is especially valuable for linguists who study Old Slavonic languages because of its age and extent. It does not possess illuminations; its decorations are very modest and consist of ink-painted initials and narrow vignettes. The script is a very beautiful, regular, broad Cyrillic.
Old Church Slavonic was the first literary Slavic language, developed by the 9th-century Byzantine Greek missionaries St Cyril and St Methodius who used it to translate the Bible and other Christian texts into a language that ordinary Slavic peoples could understand. The introduction of a national language to the liturgy influenced the reception of a religion and had great significance in forming national languages.
Codex Suprasliensis
The codex is irreplaceable as a testimonial to Orthodox Christianity and Slavdom at the time when Old Slavonic was evolving into national languages (Old Bulgarian, Old Slovenian, Old Polish). Being supranational and supraregional, it is a significant fragment of European and world culture.
The discovery of the codex in the 19th century was important for the rapidly developing field of Slavonic studies and for the strengthening of national consciousness among the Slavs who were subjects of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Turkish state (e.g. Bulgarians, Slovenians, Serbs).
The first part of the codex (Ljubljana) consists of sixteen unbound quires (one hundred and eighteen folios) kept in a special acid-free case. The text contains twenty-four lives of saints and twenty-three homilies, separate for Lent and Easter cycles, and one prayer.
The second part of the codex (St Petersburg) consists of two quires (sixteen folios). The text contains Colloquy on Annunciation, assigned to John Chrysostom; Colloquy on Annunciation by John Chrysostom, 25 March; St. Irene’s Torment, 26 March; Torment of the St. Iona and St. Varahisi, 29 March.
The third part of the codex (Warsaw) consists of 151 folios. The text contains: six lives of saints, eighteen sermons of John Chrysostom, one sermon of Photius (patriarch of Constantinople) and one sermon of Epiphanius.
The works of Ibn Sina in the Süleymaniye Manuscript Library
Inscribed 2003