The article contains a comprehensive study of the Slavic translation of the third Greek recension of the Physiologus – the Pseudo-Basilian. The translation is preserved in a single Serbian copy from the Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos, No. 22, 15th century [Moní Agíou Panteleímonos (St. Panteleimon Monastery), 22]. As well as the known Greek copies of the Pseudo-Basilian recension, the Slavic text is inhomogeneous – it also contains chapters from the other two, earlier Greek recensions – the Alexandrian and the Byzantine. However, unlike the Greek copies, where the chapters taken from the different sources are mechanically combined into one common text, the Slavic copy was composed on a different principle – the particular chapters were rearranged so that all the texts about the same animal from the different recensions were collected together. The research presents the structure of the Slavic copy of the Pseudo-Basilian recension of the Physiologus, restoring the original sequence of the folia in the manuscript, which have been disordered while binding. Observations on the nature of the text and on the peculiarities of the translation show that, regardless of the Serbian orthography and linguistic features of MS. Athous Panteleimon 22, the translation is probably Bulgarian and originated no later than the 12th–13th centuries. The complete text of the copy is published in an appendix. - [Abstract]

Language: Bulgarian