Medieval manuscripts returned to Serbia

The Republic of Serbia bought two important Serbian medieval manuscripts at an auction in London, which will enrich the fund of old and rare books of the National Library of Serbia.

"One of the purchased manuscripts is a Serbian octoich (fragment, first half of the 14th century, parchment). According to the assessment of English Slavist Ralph Cleminson, it originates from the 14th century, but it can be said that the letters belongs to the first half or even the end of the 13th century. It is a question of combined passages from different parts of the Oktoich paraclitic, and they are written in the Serbo-Slavic language, Raš orthography, and in small script. The significance of this hand-written manuscript is immeasurable, bearing in mind that only a few Serbian octoichs on parchment have been preserved, and none of them complete," reads the statement of the Serbian Government.

The second purchased manuscript is, as they stated, the Life of Varlam and Joasaph (beginning of the 15th century, paper) and is also incomplete, and the time of its creation was determined by filigree analysis.

To watch an insert from our show about the National Library of Serbia, where you can see part of the process of protecting and conserving old manuscripts, CLICK HERE .