Gruniushkina Daria

Russian (Pseudo-) Ambrosiana in translation traditions of the Synodical period

Abstract

The article studies the history of works signed by the name of St. Ambrose of Milan which was translated into Church Slavonic and Russian. The tradition of translations of the Bishop of Mediolanum is very young and heterogeneous. The first translations have been appeared sporadically only in the second half of the 18th century, and they were not systematic. The chronological framework of the article is due to the fact that the main body of the theological, homiletic and moral-ascetic heritage of the St. Ambrose was translated and published precisely in the Synodal period. Later, some early translations have been reprinted again and again or taken as a basis for adapting texts into modern language. Thanks to the educational activities of the St. Petersburg and the Kiev Theological Academies, which began to translate regularly and print the texts of the Holy Fathers, the number of publications from the authentic texts of the saint, as well as The pseudo-Ambrose's “Words”, increased noticeably. Many translations were published in the journals “Christian Reading”, “Sunday Reading”, “A Guide for Rural Shepherds”, which contributed to the spread of the patristic heritage outside the walls of religious educational institutions. In the article we reconstruct, if possible, the names of the translators and establish the source of original Latin texts, due to misattribution of many writings published under the name of St. Ambrose. The results are expected to contribute to clarify and to supply bibliographic lists, as well as to prepare a complete annotated catalog of editions of St. Ambrose of Milan in Russian and Church Slavonic.

Keywords

St. Ambrose of Milan, Pseudo-Ambrose, Maximus of Turin, Russian translations of Latin patristic writings, translations projects of Theological Academies, archpriest Ioann Kharlamov

References

1. Anonym (2015) “Podgurskii David Aleksandrovich”, in Biograficheskii slovar’ vypusknikov Kievskoi dukhovnoi akademii 1819–1920-e gg. [Biographic dictionary of graduates of Kiev Theological Academy, 1819–1920]. Kiev, vol. 2, pp. 533–534 (in Russian).
2. Golovnina N. (2016) “Rossiiskaia psevdo-Avgustiniana v kontekste perevodcheskoi deiatel′nosti XVIII veka” [Russian Pseudo-Augustiana in the context of translations of the 18th century]. Vestnik Pravoslavnogo Sviato-Tikhonovskogo gumanitarnogo universiteta. Seriia II: Istoriia. Istoriia Russkoi Pravoslavnoi Tserkvi, 2016, vol. 5 (72), pp. 58–74 (in Russian).
3. Kalugin V. (2002) “õKniga sviatogo Avgustina″ v russkoi pis′mennosti XVI–XIX vv.” [The Book of St. Augustine in the Russian literature of the 16th — 19th centuries]. In Lingvisticheskoe istochnikovedenie i istoriia russkogo iazyka [Linguistic source criticism and the history of the Russian language]. Moscow, pp. 108–163 (in Russian).
4. Karpuk D. (2011) “Periodicheskie izdaniia Sankt-Peterburgskoi dukhovnoi akademii (1821– 1917): k 190-letiiu zhurnala õKhristianskoe chtenie″” [Periodicals of St. Petersburg Theological Academy (1821–1917): the 190th anniversary of the journal Christian Reading]. Khristianskoe chtenie, 2011, vol. 6 (41), pp. 41–89 (in Russian).
5. Tiulenev V. (2016) “Maksim Turinskii: propovednik i ego pastva” [Maximus of Turin: the preacher and his congregation]. Vestnik Nizhegorodskogo universiteta im. N.I. Lobachevskogo, 2016, vol. 1, pp. 82–88 (in Russian).

Information about the author

Gruniushkina Daria

Student status: Master's Degree Student;
Academic Rank: Professor;
Place of study: St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University for the Humanities; Moscow, Russia;
Post: no;
ORCID: https://orcid.org/ 0000-0003-1742-9738;
Email: d.grunyushkina@gmail.com.