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STICHERARIUM PALAEOSLAVICUM PETROPOLITANUM
ed. Nicolas Schidlovsky

Monumenta Musicae Byzantinae, Vol. XII
St. Petersburg, Russian Academy of Sciences Library (BAN)
Codex 34.7.6 (late 12th-13th cc.)
C.A. Reitzel Publishers, Copenhagen 2000

Facsimile edition with separate introduction and indices:
Pars principalis: high resolution black & white photographs / 203 folios
Pars suppletoria: introductory materials, essays, indices, bibliography / 96 pages
ISBN (both vols.): 87-7876-171-9
Price: 1800 DKK

Sticherarium Palacoslavicum Petropolitanum provides the first complete edition of an outstanding body of “medieval” musical literature previously issued only in its Byzantine-Greek counterpart. Samples from the office of the Russian Sts. Boris and Gleb (early 11th c., folios 164v-168v) demonstrate the earliest layer of original liturgical composition on Slavic-speaking territory.

The manuscript’s notation dates back to the first centuries of literate musical usage among the Slavs spurred by developments in Southwestern Rus’ (perhaps in the 8th c.) and then along the Kiev-Novgorod axis north of Constantinople (10th c.). Thus, the tradition is to be associated with the earliest stages of Byzantine musical writing, subsequently superseded by reform in Byzantium itself. The publication offers an essential tool for students of early Slavic chant as well as for those dealing with the prototype Byzantine and related “Mediterranean” recensions. Evidence of unusual value includes the contrafacta – prosomoia or podobny – rarely encountered with musical notation.

Originally undertaken with the guidance of the late Roman Jakobson at Harvard Univensity (see volumes 5a-b), the MMB’s publication of early Slavic musical documents has always kept in mind a wide variety of needs among scholars – not only chant historians, but also liturgists, linguists, and general historians alike.

In its modest beauty, Sticherarium Palaeoslavicum Petropolitanum is a clear and well-preserved exemplar of the early ecclesiastical chant book from the Orthodox East. Publication of this codex is destined to significantly expand our interpretation of the Cyrillo-Methodian legacy and its tradition from still earlier centuries beyond.

Gheorghe Vanau