Published 2011-01-17
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Abstract
Giorgio Ziffer
On Blatьnьskъ kostelъ again
The author examines a particular passage in the little Old Church Slavonic treatise On the letters by Monk Khrabr. The passage in question mentions the margrave Kocel’ and, above all, the place of his ‘residence’, Blatьnьskъ kostelъ. More specifi cally, the author sets out to disprove the arguments proposed in a recent article by M. Capaldo who refutes the genuineness of the reading (undefined symbol), transmitted by the ms. Mount Athos, Hilandar 481. In addition to the intrinsic authenticity of the toponym Blatьnьskъ kostelъ – which corresponds both to the Old High German Mosapurc and to the Latin urbs paludarum, as noted by R. Nahtigal –, the reading of the Athonite manuscript proves to be the original since it is the only one capable of explaining the genesis of the other variants attested in the rest of the tradition. Therefore there is no valid reason to doubt the genuineness of the above-mentioned reading, the presence of which in the ms. Hilandar 481 is due to a particular form of contamination, which also explains other readings characteristic of that witness.