КАКВО ОЗНАЧАВА ПРЕДМОДЕРНО ЧЕТЕНЕ: РОЛИ, ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКИ, ФУНКЦИИ: (ЙОСИФ БРАДАТИ, СВ. ФЕВРОНИЯ И ДРУГИ ЧИТАТЕЛИ)

Kurte

Taking as a starting point the mid eighteenth-century collections of sermons against witches and superstitions compiled by Joseph the Bearded, a monk from the Rila monastery, and the vita of the early Christian saint Febronia of Nisibis (known in Syriac, Greek, but also in Old Bulgarian/OCS), this article discusses some of the specificities of pre-modern reading. Pre-modern writers often regarded reading as a pathway to spiritual virtue and a means of attaining a place in Paradise. The vita of St. Febronia of Nisibis is particularly telling in this respect: it highlights three distinct modes of reading -- individual; within a close group; and in public (addressing both nuns and laity). Тhe first part of the vita depicts the saint as a metaphor for life immersed in reading, detached and isolated from reality. This text, alongside Joseph’s sermons, underscores the significant role of orality in medieval reading practices. The interrelationship between orality and reading has been successfully examined in recent decades. This article further explores orality as a complex phenomenon which operates on different levels and ritualizes reading practices. Thus, paradoxically, in pre-modern times, written text existed primarily to serve orality and oral communication, and not vice versa. The term ‘reading’ (чьтениѥ) denotes specific activities, but it also defines a type of text – the one read during the liturgy, but also a narrative or a prose excerpt. Therefore, one could describe pre-modern reading as a performative category which simultaneously prescribes the type of text and the way of its realization. Medieval reading practices should also be extended to the actual text production, as medieval writers habitually compiled their texts through quotes, reuses, and retellings -- acting more as diligent readers than original authors. The collection by Joseph the Bearded exemplifies this: it exists in two distinct versions -- one lengthy, focused on witches and superstitions, and another shorter, dealing primarily with women’s vanity and ill nature. These variations highlight medieval miscellanies as an essential source for studying readers’ choices, expectations, and tastes. Finally, pre-modern reading was not necessarily a human act: A specific group of amulets and magic seals, containing signs and combinations of letters, was not intended to be read by human beings. Instead, these objects were produced to evoke divine intervention and ward off supernatural evil.

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@inproceedings{kayit20252025,
  title = {{КАКВО ОЗНАЧАВА ПРЕДМОДЕРНО ЧЕТЕНЕ: РОЛИ, ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКИ, ФУНКЦИИ: (ЙОСИФ БРАДАТИ, СВ. ФЕВРОНИЯ И ДРУГИ ЧИТАТЕЛИ)}},
  author = {Angusheva-Tihanov, Adelina and 0000-0002-9086-6371, İd_orcid},
  year = {2025},
  publisher = {{Boian Penev}},
  school = {{University of Manchester}}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AU  - Angusheva-Tihanov, Adelina
AU  - 0000-0002-9086-6371, İd_orcid
TI  - КАКВО ОЗНАЧАВА ПРЕДМОДЕРНО ЧЕТЕНЕ: РОЛИ, ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКИ, ФУНКЦИИ: (ЙОСИФ БРАДАТИ, СВ. ФЕВРОНИЯ И ДРУГИ ЧИТАТЕЛИ)
PY  - 2025
PB  - Boian Penev
ER  - 

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