Berlin Serbian Miscellany Facsimile Edition

The Berlin Serbian Miscellany is a substantial fragment of a late thirteenth- or early fourteenth-century manuscript. It is a Christian theological miscellany that compiles a wide range of religious and didactic texts, including homilies, apocryphal writings, saints' lives, penitential instructions, and liturgical materials.  Although modest, it features decorative elements embellished with interlace motifs. The manuscript holds considerable philological and historical importance, providing valuable insight into the transmission of Byzantine religious traditions into the Balkan peninsula and preserving early examples of Slavic Christian vocabulary and literary expression.

The Berlin Serbian Miscellany represents a remarkable cultural artifact that transcends mere Greek translation, incorporating authentic Slavic compositions characterized by distinctive originality despite their elementary-compilative nature.

Thematic Range

The manuscript's thematic scope is extraordinarily diverse, encompassing official homiletic-hagiographical texts, ecclesiastical legal documents, apophthegmatic material of varying authority, and both apocryphal and semi-apocryphal writings with eschatological and prognostic dimensions.

Notable Contents

Particularly noteworthy within this codex are several significant texts: the philosophical dialogue on the struggle between body and soul; the allegorical parable of the blind and the lame; a devotional hymn to St. Paraskeue-Petka; and the Middle Bulgarian recension of Chrabr's treatise on Constantine's creation of the Slavic alphabet.

Scholarly Significance

Despite its incomplete preservation, this manuscript establishes a significant linguistic benchmark. Its scholarly importance extends equally to Slavic studies, Byzantine research, and canonical theology, making it an invaluable resource across multiple academic disciplines.