Original scientific paper
The dragon/snake motif in the illuminated old Glagolitic manuscripts
Elissaveta Moussakova
orcid.org/0000-0002-2552-1975
; SS Cyril and Methodius National Library, Sofia
Abstract
The motif, embellishing the earliest Glagolitic books, reveals itself as a meaningful, polysemic image and partakes in a visual paradigm, which the decorators abode by. In this paper the author proceeds with a theme taken up nearly fifteen years ago, now exploring in detail the artistic specificity of the repetitive zoomorphic or, rather, teratological motif. Previously it has been identified as a dragon head but the persisting ambivalence in the notions of the snake/serpent and the dragon cannot be ignored. As it has been applied most of all to the decorated initials, some interpretations of the twofold symbolism of the letter – as a ‘picture’ in itself and as a message related to the text – are offered on examples from the codices Assemanianus and Psalterium Sinaiticum.
Keywords
Boiana Palimpsest; Codex Assemanianus; Codex Marianus; Codex Zographensis; Glagolita Clozianus; Euchologium Sinaiticum; Psalterium Sinaiticum; Glagolitic manuscript; Slavonic literacy; illumination; initial; ornament; dragon; snake; serpent
Hrčak ID:
176037
URI
Publication date:
30.12.2016.
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