Original scientific paper
Varietas delectat - a new approach to a Croatian glagolitic text
Marija-Ana Dürrigl
orcid.org/0000-0002-7715-1953
; Old Church Slavonic Institute, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The title of the most intricate Croatian Glagolitic dispute is a direct quotation from the Bible: Milost’ i Istina sretosta se Pravda i Mir’ obcelivasta se (Psalm 85,11 or 84,11). This opens new paths for the understanding of this allegorical text and its multi-layered meaning. I propose the term estrangement for the focal structural technique applied, because the Biblical stories of Adam’s fall, Christ’s redemptive sacrifice and the looming Judgement Day are told through a series of new but easily recognizable motifs. The structure of the texts includes narration, debate and sermon, which indicates that it was primarily intended for the audience familiar with lectio divina. The work as a whole indicates that the author (and hence the translator) aimed to achieve the effect of variation: the constant return to the initial debate between the Four Daughters of God (i.e. the personified virtues of Charity, Truth, Justice and Peace), albeit always with some degree of variety in introducing new elements and stylistic procedures. This creates an effect of a musical rondo and is at the same time a form of ruminatio because it constantly keeps reminding the audience of the main plot. The work is distinctive because it comprises not only a debate between the characters, but also a multilayered exegesis of the narrated events. On the agar of a Psalm quotation allegory was born a debate between the Daughters of God, and a paraphrase of the Biblical history of salvation, as well as a multi-layered exegesis. Its complex composition makes this text unique among preserved Croatian Glagolitic debates/contrasts.
Keywords
Croatian Glagolitic literature; debates; composition; Bible; allegory
Hrčak ID:
193013
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2017.
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