CiobanuPsalter.png
“Ciobanu” Psalter (Slavonic-Romanian), 16th century, Rom. Ms. 3465, Romanian Academy Library, f. 2v.

Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters.
Aligned Corpus and Comparative Studies


Research project: roPSALT

Start date: 4 January 2021 | End date: 31 December 2023

Funded under  PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2020-2939 | UEFISCDI

Host institution
“Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași | UAIC
Institute of Interdisciplinary Research
Department of Social Sciences and Humanities

Area
Philology and palaeography | Computer science
Cultural studies, cultural identities and memories, cultural heritage

Summary and Aims

The sixteenth century Romanian Psalters are among the oldest texts written in Romanian. There is no consensus in the academic literature on their translation initiative, which was attributed to Orthodox, Hussites, Catholics or Reformers. However, it is generally acknowledged that the prototype translation, from a Church Slavonic source yet unidentified, underwent multiple revisions following different sources, resulting in related versions, of which four manuscripts and three printed texts from the sixteenth century survived; some of them are bilingual (Slavonic-Romanian). The difficulty of establishing their precise source(s) came from the fact that the Church Slavonic Psalter has a complicated and incompletely explored textual tradition. Moreover, other scholars advanced a Latin or even a Hungarian source hypothesis, but these perspectives need further investigation. 

While the oldest Romanian Psalters have been studied for more than a century, their translation process, sources, relations and reception are not entirely clarified. The lack of a tool facilitating their comprehensive linguistic comparison and a Bible-philology related analysis, the fragmental knowledge about the sources and the lack of modern philological editions are among the causes of this state-of-the-art. Seeking to fill this research gap, roPSALT will a) create a digitally aligned (at verse level) corpus of the sixteenth-century Romanian Psalters, b) compare and emphasize their translation practices and relations with the sources and between them, c) assess the context of their appearance.

16th Century (Slavonic-)Romanian Psalters

Printed

CP = Coresi, <Romanian Psalter>, Brașov, 1570 (CRV-16, Romanian Academy Library, Bucharest).

CP1 = Coresi, <Slavonic-Romanian Psalter>, Brașov, 1577 (CRV-19, Romanian Academy Library, Bucharest).

CP1a = Coresi, <Slavonic-Romanian Psalter>, Brașov, 1577 (CRV-78, Romanian Academy Library, Bucharest).

CP2 = <Șerban> Coresi, <Slavonic-Romanian Psalter>, <Brașov>, 1589 (CRV-19A, Romanian Academy Library, Bucharest).

Manuscripts

PC = <“Ciobanu” Slavonic-Romanian Psalter>, c. 1573-1585 (ms. Rom. 3465, Romanian Academy Library, Bucharest).

PH = <“Hurmuzaki” Psalter>, beginning of the 16th century (ms. Rom. 3077, Romanian Academy Library, Bucharest).

PS = <Scheian Psalter>, c. 1573-1578 (ms. Rom. 449, Romanian Academy Library, Bucharest).

PV = <Slavonic-Romanian Psalter from Voroneț>, c. 1551-1558 (ms. Rom. 693, Romanian Academy Library, Bucharest).

1701879621728-126.png

@16th Century Romanian Psalters Aligned at Verse Level. XML Annotation Interface.

Project Outline

Objective 1 (Y1): Creating a digitally aligned corpus of the texts

The aims of the project’s first phase are to transcribe the Psalters (from Romanian Cyrillic into Latin) and collect them, alongside the Church Slavonic text, in a structured database. The outcome will be a digital corpus aligned at the verse and word level, which will be comparatively investigated and displayed open-access at the end of the project. 

Objective 2 (Y1 and Y3): Re-evaluating the hypotheses regarding the sources and filiations of the Romanian texts. Comparative studies (I)

The outcome of the project’s second phase is a comparative study between the Romanian texts and their presumed source(s). The main research questions are: Which are the sources of the sixteenth century Romanian Psalters? What is the relationship between them? Clarifying the relationships between them and their sources would be a first step towards elucidating the context of their translation. Every hypothesis regarding the sources (Church Slavonic, Latin, Hungarian) will be addressed. Methodologically, the texts will be analysed and compared from a Bible-philology perspective and in the light of the new knowledge about the textual tradition of the Church Slavonic Psalter.

Objective 3 (Y3): Re-evaluating the hypotheses regarding the sources and filiations of the Romanian texts. Comparative studies (II)

The main outcomes of the project’s third phase:

1. a philological edition; 2. articles; 3. a thematic volume proposed for publication

Team

  • Dr. Ana-Maria GÎNSAC (anamaria.ginsac@uaic.ro)
  • Dr. Mădălina-Andreea UNGUREANU
  • Dr. Iosif CAMARĂ
  • Lect. dr. Alex MORUZ
  • Dr. Gabriela HAJA
  • Conf. dr. Marina VRACIU
  • Dr. Ana DUMITRAN
  • Dr. Ágnes KORONDI
  • Dr. Ion-Mihai FELEA
  • Dr. Ana-Veronica CATANĂ-SPENCHIU

Collaboration

  • Dr. Vladimir AGRIGOROAEI (University of Poitiers - CÉSCM)
  • Dr. Constanța BURLACU (University of Oxford)
  • Dr. Dinu MOSCAL (Academia Română, Institutul de Filologie Română „A. Philippide” din Iași)

Workshops and Conferences

  1. Les méthodes d’édition des trois psautiers métriques étudiés par le projet ANR PSalteRATIO dans le paysage ecdotique contemporain , Joint meeting of roPsalt and PsALTEratio projects, Iași, January 12, 2023.
  2. Translation Automatisms in Early Vernacular Texts: Units, Clusters, Networks, International conference (poster), Verona, June 9–11, 2022.
  3. Vernacular Bible(s): From Manuscript to the Digital Edition, International workshop, Prague – Iași, September 9, 2021.
  4. Les automatismes de traduction dans l’édition des textes sacrés, International workshop, Poitiers, November 4–5, 2021.
  5. Antichitatea şi moştenirea ei spirituală [Antiquity and its Spiritual Heritage], Symposium, Iași, November 13, 2021.

Results

2023

Scientific report

Corpus

Publications

  1. Monumenta linguae Dacoromanorum. Psaltirea Voronețeană – Psaltirea „Ciobanu”. Texte, studii, indice de cuvinte, Ana-Maria Gînsac, Constanța Burlacu, Iosif Camară, Ion-Mihai Felea, Dinu Moscal, Mădălina Ungureanu, Editura Universității „Alexandru Ioan Cuza“ din Iași, ISBN volum: 978-606-714-829-9. – Link.
  2. Ana-Maria Gînsac, Dinu Moscal, Les ainsi nommées « reliques » lexicales d’origine latine des psautiers roumains du XVIe siècle, în „Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie” 139/4, 2023, p. 1220-1250 (Web of Science – AHCI). – Link.
  3. Ion-Mihai Felea, Translating the Slavonic Present Participles in the Early Romanian Psalters (16th Century), în „Studia Ceranea. Journal of the Waldemar Ceran Research Centre for the History and Culture of the Mediterranean Area and South-East Europe” 13, p. 100–140 (Web of Science – ESCI). – Link.
  4. Iosif Camară, Izvodul bilingv al Psaltirii Hurmuzaki, în „Limba română (Omagiu dlui prof. Gheorghe Chivu, membru corespondent al Academiei Române, la 75 de ani)” 71/1–2 , 2022, p. 39-54. – Link.
  5. Ágnes Korondi, Psalm quotations in the Old Hungarian versions of a Latin prayer and the issue of automatisms in translation, in "Translation automatisms in the vernacular texts of the Middle Ages and Early Modern period”, Vladimir Agrigoroaei, Ileana Sasu (eds.), Turnhout, Brepols, 2023. – Link.
  6. Ana-Maria Gînsac, Dinu Moscal, Psaltirea Scheiană și ipoteza unei surse latine. Probleme de metodă, în „Dacoromania” 28/1, 2023, p. 56–68 (Web of Science – ESCI). – Link.
  7. Ana Dumitran, The Context of the First Romanian Translations Revisited, în „Annales Universitatis Apulensis. Series Historica” 26, 2022, p. 125–166. – Link.
  8. Claudia Tărnăuceanu, Ana-Maria Gînsac, Strategii de traducere în cartea Psalmilor din Vulgata de la Blaj (1760-1761), în „Classica et Christiana” (Actele Conferinței „Receptarea Romei si a Imperiului roman în cultura română modernă”, Iași, 16-18 noiembrie 2023), 2024.

International conferences

  1. Ana-Maria Gînsac, Language alternation in the 16th century Slavonic Romanian texts: Editorial challenges and functions, International Conference “Exotic Ecdotics and Semiotics The Purpose and Usefulness of Textual Criticism for Hardly Editable Manuscripts”, Poitiers, 8-10 iunie 2023. – Link.
  2. Ana-Maria Gînsac, Mădălina Ungureanu, Lexical Variation in the First Romanian Versions of the Psalter (16th Century), 13th International Conference for Historical Lexicography and Lexicology “More than Words: Lexical Variation and Change across Cultures, Time, and Space”, Salerno, 27-29 septembrie 2023. – Link.
  3. Ion-Mihai Felea, Neither normalized, nor diplomatic: Editing the Slavonic text from the early bilingual Romanian Psalters, International Conference “Exotic Ecdotics and Semiotics The Purpose and Usefulness of Textual Criticism for Hardly Editable Manuscripts”, Centre d’études supérieures de civilisation médiévale, Poitiers, 8-10 iunie 2023. – Link.
  4. Ion-Mihai Felea, Mădălina Ungureanu, The Cyrillic Writing of the Early Romanian Psalters: Slavonic-Romanian Interferences, Scientific Conference “Cyrillo-Methodian Legacy in International Scholarship and Cultural Memory”, Sofia, 22-24 mai 2023. – Link.
  5. Alex Moruz, Ana-Maria Gînsac, A Digital Corpus of Romanian Psalters from the 16th Century: Tools and Processing Pipelines, Prague Medieval DH Storming, Universitatea din Praga, 23-24 februarie 2023. – Link.
  6. Alex Moruz, Ana-Maria Gînsac, Revising Old Texts in XML Using the Oxygen Editor, Universitatea din Praga, 23-24 februarie 2023. – Link.
  7. Ion-Mihai Felea, A Digital Corpus of Romanian Psalters from the 16th Century: Aim, Tools and Challenges, Academia de Științe a Cehiei, Departamentul de Studii Bizantine și Slavone (DSBS), Praga, 12 aprilie 2023. – Link.

National conferences

  1. Ana-Maria Gînsac, Claudia-Dorina Tărnăuceanu, Strategii de traducere în cartea Psalmilor din Vulgata de la Blaj (1760-1761), Conferința „Receptarea Romei si a Imperiului roman în cultura română modernă”, Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” din Iași, 16-18 noiembrie 2023. – Link.
  2. Ana-Maria Gînsac, Dinu Moscal, Termenii de origine latină din psaltirile rotacizante și corespondenții lor din versiunile latină și slavonă: analiză comparativă, Conferința Internațională „Zilele Sextil Pușcariu”, ediția a VI-a, Institutul de Lingvistică și Istorie Literară „Sextil Pușcariu”, Cluj-Napoca, 14-15 septembrie 2023. – Link.
  3. Iosif Camară, Transmiterea textului Psaltirii la începuturile scrisului în limba română: diortosirile traducerii primitive, Conferința Internațională „Zilele Sextil Pușcariu”, ediția a VI-a, Institutul de Lingvistică și Istorie Literară „Sextil Pușcariu”, Cluj-Napoca, 14-15 septembrie 2023. – Link.
  4. Ion-Mihai Felea, Lecţiuni atipice în textul slavon al psaltirilor slavo-române din secolul al XVI-lea, Simpozionul Internaţional „Explorări în tradiţia biblică românească şi europeană”, ediția a XII-a, Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” din Iași, 18-20 mai 2023. – Link.
  5. Marina Vraciu, Iosif Camară, Circulația Psaltirii comentate slavone la români, Simpozionul internațional „Slavistica românească și dialogul culturilor”, ediția a XI-a, Universitatea din București, 3-4 noiembrie 2023. – Link.

Scientific meetings

  1. International Conference Exotic Ecdotics and Semiotics The Purpose and Usefulness of Textual Criticism for Hardly Editable Manuscripts, Centre d’études supérieures de civilisation médiévale, Poitiers, 8-10 iunie 2023 (co-organizare).

2022

Scientific report

Publications

  1. Ana-Maria Gînsac, When philology has the upper hand: ‘Culture-specific items’ and their translation in 16th century Romanian Psalters as proof of a prototype text, in "Translation automatisms in the vernacular texts of the Middle Ages and Early Modern period”, Vladimir Agrigoroaei, Ileana Sasu (eds.), Turnhout, Brepols, 2023, p. 271–274. Link.
  2. Ana-Maria Gînsac, Gr. ἀπὸ βάρεων ἐλεφαντίνων în vechile versiuni românești ale Psaltirii, in "Philologica Jassyensia”, XVIII, nr. 2, 2022, p. 75–82.
  3. Ana-Maria Gînsac, Alex Moruz, Mădălina Ungureanu, The recurrence of the 16th century Romanian Psalters vocabulary in the 17th century lexicons based on automatic corpora comparison, in „Proceedings of the 17th International Conference "Linguistic Resources and Tools for Natural Language Processing. Chișinău, 10–12 November 2022”, Editura Universității "Alexandru Ioan Cuza” din Iași, 2022. – Link.
  4. Iosif Camară, New information on the Slavonic sources of the oldest Romanian Psalters, in "Palaeobulgarica” XLVI, 2022, nr. 1, p. 81–94.
  5. Mădălina Ungureanu, Mihai Felea, Who is hiding the face of God? The translation choices for the Church Slavonic dative absolute in early Romanian Psalters, in "Translation automatisms in the vernacular texts of the Middle Ages and Early Modern period”, Vladimir Agrigoroaei, Ileana Sasu (eds.), Turnhout, Brepols, 2023, 99–92. – Link.
  6. Vladimir Agrigoroaei, Agnes Korondi, Ana-Maria Gînsac, Mădălina Ungureanu et al., A pan-European translation cluster: Synonymic variations in the vernacular translation choices for τυμπανιστριαί/ tympanistriae (Ps 67:26), in "Translation automatisms in the vernacular texts of the Middle Ages and Early Modern period”, Vladimir Agrigoroaei, Ileana Sasu (eds.), Turnhout, Brepols, 2023, p. 296–304. – Link.
  7. Ana Dumitran, Despre metodologia primelor traduceri românești: privire retrospectivă prin prisma experienței traducătorilor Psaltirii bălgrădene din 1651, in „Apulum. Seria Historia et Patrimonium. Supplementum”, LX, 2023, p. 1-18. ― CEEOL.

International conferences

  1. Ana-Maria Gînsac, Culture-specific items (realia) and their translation in the Old Romanian psalters of the 16th century, Conferința internațională Translation Automatisms in Early Vernacular Texts: Units, Clusters, Networks, University of Verona, June 9–11.
  2. Ana-Maria Gînsac, Dinu Moscal, Les ainsi-nommées « reliques » lexicaux latines des psautiers roumains de XVIe siècle, XXX Congrès International de Linguistique et de Philologie Romanes (XXX CILPR), Universidad de la Laguna, San Cristobal, July 4–9.
  3. Agnes Korondi, Powerful Verses: Psalm Quotations in Old Hungarian Prayers, Conferința internațională Translation Automatisms in Early Vernacular Texts: Units, Clusters, Networks, University of Verona, June 9–11.
  4. Mădălina Ungureanu, Formal Slavonisms in the 16th century in the Romanian “Ciobanu” Psalter, Conferința internațională Translation Automatisms in Early Vernacular Texts: Units, Clusters, Networks, University of Verona, June 9–11.
  5. Iosif Camară, Marina Vraciu, Between Letter and Spirit: The Slavonic Models of the Oldest Romanian Psalters, Society of Biblical Literature International Meeting, University of Salzburg, July 17–21. 
  6. Marina Vraciu, Iosif Camară, Translation as commentary: The case of the oldest Romanian Psalters, Oxford Medieval Commentary Network Second Conference, University of Oxford, September 29.

National conferences

  1. Ana-Maria Gînsac, Pasajul ἀπὸ βάρεων ἐλεφαντίνων în vechile traduceri româneşti ale Psaltirii, Simpozionul Internațional"Explorări în tradiția biblică românească și europeană”, 11th edition, Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” din Iași, June 16–18.
  2. Ana-Maria Gînsac, Alex Moruz, Mădălina Ungureanu, The recurrence of the 16th century Romanian Psalters vocabulary in the 17th century lexicons based on automatic corpora comparison, ConsILR-2022, Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Vladimir Andrunachievici Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science, Chișinău, November 10–12.
  3. Ana-Maria Gînsac, Editarea comparativă a Psaltirilor românești din secolul al XVI-lea, Workshop – Lecturi tehnice. Critică de text, critică de ediție, Academia Română – Filiala Iași, November 24–25.
  4. Ágnes Korondi, Surse maghiare prezumate ale traducerii Psaltirii în limba română (secolul al XVI-lea): funcţii şi forme în schimbare, Simpozionul Internațional „Explorări în tradiția biblică românească și europeană”, 11th edition, Universitatea "Alexandru Ioan Cuza” din Iași, June 16–18.
  5. Iosif Camară, Ce ştim azi despre sursele Psaltirilor rotacizante?, Simpozionul Internațional „Explorări în tradiția biblică românească și europeană”, 11th edition, Universitatea "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" din Iași, June 16–18.
  6. Iosif Camară, Izvorul bilingv al Psaltirii "Hurmuzaki", Al Optulea Simpozion Internațional de Lingvistică, Institutul de Lingvistică al Academiei Române "Iorgu Iordan - Al. Rosetti”, București, 29-30 September.
  7. Mădălina Ungureanu, Ediția critică a Psaltirii Scheiene (I.-A. Candrea, 1916): utilitate și limite, Workshop – Lecturi tehnice. Critică de text, critică de ediție, Academia Română – Filiala Iași (Institutul de Istorie "A. D. Xenopol"), November 24–25.
  8. Mihai Felea, Observații privind editarea textului slavonesc din Psaltirea slavo-română de la 1577, Workshop – Lecturi tehnice. Critică de text, critică de ediție, Academia Română – Filiala Iași (Institutul de Istorie "A. D. Xenopol"), November 24–25. 
  9. Ana Dumitran, Metodologia   traducerii:   privire   retrospectivă   dinspre   paradigma   Psaltirii românești din 1651 spre laboratorul traducătorilor din secolul al XVI-lea, Conferința națională "Bibliologie și patrimoniu cultural național”, ediția a XVI-a, Universitatea "1 Decembrie 1918”, Muzeul Național al Unirii din Alba Iulia, June 23–24.

Scientific meetings

  1. Workshop Editarea vechilor traduceri biblice, între tradiție și inovație [Editing the Oldest Translations of the Bible, between Tradition and Innovation], in Lecturi tehnice. Critică de text, critică de ediție, Romanian Academy – Branch Iași (“A. Philippide” Institute of Romanian Philology, "A. D. Xenopol” Institute of History), "Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași, November 24–25.
  2. International conference Translation Automatisms in Early Vernacular Texts: Units, Clusters, Networks, University of Verona (poster), June 9–11 (co-organizer).

2021

Scientific Report

Publications

  1. Iosif Camară, Cele mai vechi Psaltiri româneşti şi redacţiile Psaltirii slavone [The oldest Romanian Psalters and the redactions of the Old Church Slavonic Psalters], in Caietele Sextil Puşcariu. Actele Conferinței Internaționale „Zilele Sextil Pușcariu”, V, 2021, p. 69–78.
  2. Mădălina Ungureanu, Ion-Mihai Felea, Creative calques in the early Romanian translations of the Psalter. Translatological and philological approaches, in Translation automatisms in the vernacular texts of the Middle Ages and Early Modern period, Vladimir Agrigoroaei, Ileana Sasu (eds.), Turnhout, Brepols, 2023, p. 239–243. – Link.
  3. Claudia Tărnăuceanu, Ana-Maria Gînsac, Cosmin Popa-Gorjanu, Colloquial calque translations, novice blunders, and grammaticalization clusters in a Latin complaint of the Romanian knezes from the Remete estate, c. 1360-1380 [viitorul perifrastic în Psaltiri], in Translation automatisms in the vernacular texts of the Middle Ages and Early Modern period, Vladimir Agrigoroaei, Ileana Sasu (eds.), Turnhout, Brepols, 2023, p. 43–51. – Link.

Conferences

  1. Ana-Maria Gînsac, Les noms propres dans les premiers psautiers roumains et le problème des sourcesLes automatismes de traduction dans l’édition des textes sacrés, International Workshop, Poitiers, November 4–5.
  2. Ana-Maria Gînsac, Gabriela Haja, Alex Moruz, The Sixteenth-Century (Slavonic-) Romanian Psalters Digital Corpus: Challenges, Solutions Vernacular Bible(s): From Manuscript to the Digital Edition, International Workshop, Czech Language Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague (DiaBible) & “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași (roPsalt), Praga-Iași, September 9 (online).
  3. Iosif Camară, Straturi redacţionale în Psaltirea “Hurmuzaki” [Redactional Layers in “Hurmuzaki” Psalter] – International Conference “Zilele Sextil Puşcariu”, 5th edition, “Sextil Pușcariu” Institute of Linguistics and Literary Theory, Romanian Academy, Cluj-Napoca, September 9–10 (online).
  4. Iosif Camară, În căutarea surselor Psaltirilor rotacizante. Cercetări în biblioteci din Bulgaria, Serbia şi Muntele AthosSimpozionul Internaţional “Slavistica românească şi dialogul culturilor”, 9th edition, University of Bucharest - Departamentul de Filologie Rusă şi Slavă, Asociaţia Slaviştilor din România, October 22–23 (online).
  5. Ana-Maria Gînsac, Iosif Camară, O reevaluare a psaltirilor românești din secolul al XVI-lea. Corpus aliniat și studii comparative (roPSALT): prezentarea proiectului – Romanian Academic Lexicography. The Challenges of Digitization, International Colloquium, 10th edition, Institute of Romanian Philology “A. Philippide”, Romanian Academy, Iaşi, May 27–28 (online).
  6. Iosif Camară, Descendenţii lat. *poenitare în cele mai vechi versiuni româneşti ale Psaltirii şi Apostolului [Descendants of Lat. *poenitare in the Oldest Romanian Versions of the Psalter and Apostle] – Simpozionul Internaţional “Provocări trecute şi prezente în evoluţia limbii, literaturii şi culturii române”, 20th edition, Institute of Romanian Philology “A. Philippide”, Romanian Academy, September 22–24 (online).
  7. Iosif Camară, Rom. lângoare (< lat. languorem) în cele mai vechi texte românești [Rom. lângoare (< Lat. languorem) in Oldest Romanian Texts] – Simpozionul „Antichitatea şi moştenirea ei spirituală”, 17th edition, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iaşi, Classical Philology, November 12–13 (online).
Tags:
Created by Alex Moruz on 2021/06/09 00:23