Studying the History of the Slavic Stishnoy Prologue: New Opportunities and Prospects

In this review, the author analyses the Tarnovo Edition of the Stishnoy Prologue. Texts: Lexical Index (published by Bulgarian researchers Georgi Petkov and Maria Spasova) and focuses on the structure of the publication, providing a detailed description of the parts of each volume: prologue texts, prologue poems, the lexical index, and the index of saints’ names. The review evaluates the work from the point of view of its academic contribution. The reviewer largely agrees with the authors’ point of view on the history and the study of the Stishnoy Prologue set forth in the preface to the publication. While objecting to some points, the reviewer evaluates the work highly, considering it an important stage in the process of studying the history of the Stishnoy Prologue, one of the most widespread hagiographic calendar collections of the Middle Ages. The publication of the texts of the Stishnoy Prologue, even those in just the Tarnovo edition, can be a powerful catalyst for further textual criticism and linguistic studies of the numerous Russian, Serbian, and Bulgarian copies that have survived to the present day. Ultimately, the reviewed publication can become the basis for a full-scale critical edition of the Stishnoy Prologue. The review emphasises the timeless significance of this publication for Slavic studies, its innovative character, its structural integrity, its theoretical sophistication, and the enormous practical importance of the work for Bulgarian philologists.