Convoluted Transmission without Translation: Reassessing Latin Influence in the First Old Church Slavonic Life of Wenceslas

Abstract

Although it is widely accepted that the First Old Church Slavonic Life of Wenceslas (FSL) is a tenth-century Bohemian composition written in Old Church Slavonic (OCS), some scholars have hypothesized a Latin original and subsequent translation. This article evaluates that hypothesis by testing the FSL against features typically associated with Latin-to-OCS translation, including loanwords, hendiadys, and morphological patterns. It argues that the FSL lacks consistent evidence of translation from a Latin source. While most Latinisms attested in the text are more plausibly explained as the result of cultural and religious contact with communities under Roman jurisdiction, even those expressions that appear more suggestive fail to meet the criteria of reliable translation markers and are better interpreted as scribal interpolations introduced during the text’s exceptionally complex transmission. Similarly, the purported instances of hendiadys and Bohemian morphological features are too sporadic and contextually ambiguous to support the hypothesis of a Latin prototext. Cases of quasi-hendiadic synonymic reinforcement are more likely to reflect broader literary conventions, and what has been interpreted as Bohemization may instead result from local linguistic norms affecting the text at later stages of its transmission. The article therefore concludes that the FSL should be regarded as an original OCS composition with an unusually complex transmission history.