Cyrillic medieval and early modern manuscripts behind the Slavonic world have been given less attention by scholars, and researchers on the region prefer to publish articles, not in English, but in the different Slavic languages. For example, during the International medieval congress in Leeds in 2021, there were 112 papers dedicated to Latin texts, 21 to Greek, and only 3 to Slavonic. Sometimes there is a problem of terminology: to find correct English terms fitted to Latin (Western) manuscripts that should reflect the specific features of Cyrillic manuscripts. The union catalogue of Cyrillic manuscripts in Britain and Ireland by Ralph M. Cleminson (1988) with other studies of the same author became the standard for the English-speaking scientific community on the topic. The modern focus in research is shifting from catalogue descriptions to social and material history, from the textuality to the functions of a book as a specific medium. The production of the manuscripts in the Cyrillic world during the medieval period was in constant change. It adopted Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Arabic cultural traditions. Such new tendencies in the research of Cyrillic manuscripts are not well represented in the English-speaking international community.
In geographical perspectives beyond the Balkans and Eastern Europe, where Cyrillic script was used for the creation of books and documents in the medieval and early modern period, Slavonic codices migrated to the West, and are now stored around the world. This volume will be useful for libraries wherever Cyrillic manuscripts are preserved by describing and presenting their contents for the international community of scholars who study Cyrillic manuscripts to find the points for cooperation and further research. The main topics are Cyrillic manuscript mainly of the period around 1000-1600 with the studies of their migrations, descriptions, researches, and digitalizing up to the 21st century.
The Balkan History Association invite you to submit papers referring to: material aspects of Cyrillic manuscripts (paleography, codicology, problems of catalogue description, early watermarks, binding, digitalizing process in the 21st century); visuality: illuminating and decoration (initials, head-pieces, borders, end-pieces, paragraphs, script as specific visuality); textuality (intros and colophons, maniculae, culture of reading, writing and early printing, text and image); migrations and collections (manuscripts’ change of place during their owners’ travels, wars and conflicts, collecting movements of the 19th-20th centuries, scientific expeditions, auctions, modern libraries, today’s collections of Cyrillic manuscripts); fragmentology (separation and damaging of codices, fragments in bindings, separated fragments, hypothetical and digital reconstruction of manuscripts).
Submission procedure
The volume will be published by Peter Lang (in the series “South-East European History”). Original manuscripts should be prepared following the editorial guide of Peter Lang available on its website, especially “Style Guidelines – British English” and “Submission Guidelines“. You can see the chapters of this open access volume to understand how manuscripts should be edited. Manuscripts must not have been published, submitted for publication or available on the internet elsewhere. Interdisciplinary work is particularly welcome. Please submit your proposal, including the title of your manuscript, an abstract (up to 300 words), and an author’s biography (up to 100 words) to all editors. The abstract should include the research question and purpose, the approach and main ideas, and results. No figures, tables, footnotes, or endnotes should be included in the abstract. Articles should not exceed 8,000 words in length including footnotes and references (reference list or bibliography). The volume may contain up to 20 black-and-white images.
Deadlines
April 17, 2023: Submission of the proposals to editors
April 24, 2023: Notification of accepted proposals
July 17, 2023: Receipt of final chapters for peer-review
August 24, 2023: Revised chapters re-submitted to editors
Editors
Viacheslav Lytvynenko (Charles University, Prague), vyacheslav.lytvynenko@gmail.com
Małgorzata Skowronek (University of Lodz), skowronek.malgo@gmail.com
Dimiter Peev (University of Jena), dimitter@yahoo.com
Achim Rabus (University of Freiburg), achim.rabus@slavistik.uni-freiburg.de
Boban Petrovski (Institute of History, UKIM, Skopje), boban@fzf.ukim.edu.mk
James Joshua Pennington (Balkan History Association), joshosu25@gmail.com
Please circulate this call for papers among your colleagues and other potentially interested scholars.