in Russian collection <i>Velikoe Zertsalo</i> (Speculum Maius)
as an <i>exemplum</i>
Studying the Western European collection Speculum Maius (the Great Mirror) translated into
Russian at the end of the 17th century involves identifying its plot-thematic connections with
the ancient Russian written culture. Seven stories about Francis of Assisi († 1226) and his
companions were discovered in the collection that were included in the medieval florilegium – he legends about the founder of a mendicant order called Fioretti (14th century). Their
thematic and motif content and use of medieval genre forms in the narratives about the first
Franciscans are close to the instructive accounts of ascetics from the translated and domestic
paterics, the Prologue, the Menalogies for reading collections and hagiography, which, like
the “floral” narratives, were in line with the material demanded in the moral and religious instructions of Christians. The articles from Fioretti in the Great Mirror have a small volume,
a minimal number of characters, narrate the connection and interchange of the earthly and
heavenly worlds. This brings them closer to the exemplum – the most famous Latin written
culture phenomenon, serving as an instructive “basis” of medieval sermons and being an
important part of collections of religious and secular content such as “zertsalo.” Summarizing
theoretical experience, the author follows modern foreign and domestic scholars and understands an “exemplum” as a narrative of a small volume implemented in didactic discourse,
with its reception using signs of medieval genres. “Flower” articles-exempla of the Russian
Great Mirror, devoid of personalization and topological references, embody a universal order
in a typical and generalized event.
Avgustin (Nikitin), arkhim. Svyatoy Frantsisk Assizskiy i vostochnoe monashestvo
[St. Francis of Assisi and Eastern Monasticism]. Neva. 2015, no. 9, pp. 235–254.
Bednarek B. Święty Franciszek i franciszkanie w “Wielkim zwierciadle przykładów”. In: Observare Evangelium. Wrocławska Księga Jubileuszu 800-lecia Zakonu
Braci Mniejszych. F. M. Rosiński (Ed.). Wrocław, 2009, pp. 19–39.
Belyakov A. V., Gus’kov A. G., Liseytsev D. V., Shamin S. M. Perevodchiki Posol’skogo prikaza v 17 v.: materialy k slovaryu [Translators of the Ambassadorial
Prikaz in the 17th century: materials for the dictionary]. A. A. Romanova (Sci. ed.).
Moscow, Indrik, 2021, 304 p.
Berlioz J. Consommateurs et consommation au Moyen Âge (13e – 15e siècle). Le
double apport des récits exemplaires. Consommateurs et consommation au Moyen Âge
(XIe – XVe siècle). L’enjeu des sources, dans Guilhem Ferrand, Judicaël Petrowiste, éd.,
Paris, Publications de la Sorbonne, sous presse, 2017, pp. 1–28. URL: https://www.
academia.edu/31682127/ (accessed: 26.06.2019).
Brémond Cl., J. Le Goff J., J.-Cl. Schmitt J.-Cl. L’Exemplum. Typologie des
Sources du Moyen Age Occidental, fasc. 32. Turnhout, 1984, pp. 37–38.
Brémond Cl. L’Exemplum mediéval est-il un genre litteraire? Les Exempla
medievaux: Nouvelles perspectives. J. Berlioz, M. A. Polo de Beaulieu (Ed.). Paris-
Geneve, 1998, pp. 21–28.
Budilova A. V. Zhanr “exemplum” v kontekste srednevekovykh literatur [Genre
“exemplum” in the context of medieval literatures]. In: Literatura v konteksti kul’turi
(zbirka naukovikh prats’). Zbirnik prats’ [Literature in the context of culture (collection
of scientific works). Coll. of works]. Dnipropetrovsk, 2008, 350 p. URL: www.info-
library.com.ua/books-text-10577.html (accessed: 25.05.2019).
Derzhavina O. A. “Velikoe Zertsalo” i ego sud’ba na russkoy pochve [The Great
Mirror and its fate on Russian soil]. Moscow, Nauka, 1965, 438 p.
Gurevich A. Ya. Exempla: literaturnyy zhanr i stil’ myshleniya [Exempla: literary
genre and style of thinking]. In: Gurevich A. Ya. Izbrannye trudy. Kul’tura srednevekovoy Evropy [Selected Works. Culture of medieval Europe]. St. Petersburg, SPbU
Publ., 2007, pp. 302–341.
Gurevich A. Ya. Exemplerum [Exemple]. Slovar’ srednevekovoy kul’tury [Dictionary of Medieval Culture]. Moscow, ROSSPEN, 2003, pp. 594–597.
Karmanova N. A. Ust’-Tsilemskie spiski novelly “Velikogo Zertsala” o pokayanii
trekh razboynikov [Ust-Tsilem lists of the novel “The Great Mirror” about the repentance of three robbers]. “Proceedings” of the Komi Science Centre of the Ural Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 2013, iss. 1 (13), pp. 84–89.
Khoreva L. G. Zhanr exempla kak predshestvennik novelly v srednevekovoy ispanskoy literature [The exempla genre as a predecessor of the short story in medieval
Spanish literature]. RSUH BULLETIN. Series: History. Philology. Cultural Studies.
Oriental Studies. 2011, no. 7 (69), pp. 206–217.
Kiseleva M. S. Intellektual’nyy vybor Rossii vtoroy poloviny 17 – nachala 18 veka:
ot drevnerusskoy knizhnosti k evropeyskoy uchenosti [The intellectual choice of Russia
in the second half of the 17th – early 18th centuries: from Old Russian bookishness to
European scholarship]. Moscow, Progress-Traditsiya, 2011, 472 p.
Kurtsius E. R. Ɛvropeys’ka literatura i latins’ke seredn'ovichchya [European
literature and the Latin Middle Ages]. Pereklav z nim. Anatoliy Onishko. Lviv, 2007,
752 p.
Louis N. Exemplum ad usum: Définition d’usages d’un récit qui n'en a que la forme.
Le Récit exemplaire (1200–1800), études réunies par V. Duché et M. Jeay. Paris, 2011,
pp. 17–36.
Mula S. Srednevekovye tsistertsianskie exempla: mezhdu filologiey i istoriey
[Medieval Cistercian exempla: between philology and history]. St. Tikhon’s University
Review. Philology. 2013, no. 3 (33), pp. 113–132.
Nikolaev S. I. K izucheniyu “Velikogo Zertsala” [Towards the study of the “Great
Mirror”]. Sovetskoe slavyanovedenie. 1988, no. 1, pp. 74–76.
Panich T. V. Artem’ev [Artemiev]. Pravoslavnaya entsiklopediya [Orthodox Encyclopedia]. Moscow, Church Scientific Center “Orthodox Encyclopedia”, 2001,
vol. 3, pp. 467–468.
Polo de Bol’e M.-A. Sborniki exempla na narodnykh yazykakh: Novaya publika?
Novye funktsii? [The exempla vernacular compilations: A new audience? New features]. St. Tikhon’s University Review. Philology. 2013, no. 3 (33), pp. 75–97.
Samarina M. S. Simvolika volka v kul’ture: ot Kapitoliyskoy volchitsy do volka
Frantsiska Assizskogo [Symbolism of the wolf in culture: from the Capitoline she-wolf
to the wolf of Francis of Assisi]. Vestnik of Pushkin Leningrad State University. 2012,
no. 4, pp. 216–223.
Shamin S. M. Legenda o svyatom-kamneplavtse v russkoy literaturnoy i fol’klornoy
traditsii [The legend of the saint-stone-melter in the Russian literary and folklore
tradition]. In: Germenevtika drevnerusskoy literatury [Hermeneutics of Old Russian
Literature]. Moscow, LRC Publishing House, Progress-traditsiya, 2004, iss. 11,
pp. 471–479.
Smirnova V. V. Chudo kak zhanroobrazuyushchiy element srednevekovykh zhanrov:
zhitie, primer, videnie [Miracle as a genre-forming element of medieval genres: life,
example, vision]. Cand. philol. sci. diss. Moscow, 2006, 254 p.
Tsvetochki svyatogo Frantsiska Assizskogo: Perevod s latinskogo [Flowers of St.
Francis of Assisi: Translation from Latin]. Moscow, SP “Vsya Moskva”, 1990, 208 p.
Tubach Fr. C. Strukturanalytische Probleme — Das mittelalterliche Exemplum.
Hessische Blätter für Volkskunde. 1968, band 59, pp. 25–29.
Uzhankov A. N. Uchenie o priloge kak dukhovnaya osnova khudozhestvennogo
obraza Anny Kareninoy [The doctrine of the accretion as the spiritual basis of the
artistic image of Anna Karenina]. The New Philological Bulletin. 2017, no. 2 (41),
pp. 89–100.
Vladimirov P. V. “Velikoe Zertsalo” (Iz istorii russkoy perevodnoy literatury 17 veka) [The Great Mirror (From the History of Russian Translated Literature of the
17th Century)]. Moscow, Universitetskaya tip., 1884, 274 p.
Welter J. Th. L’exemplum dans la litterature religieuse et didactique du Moyen Age.
Paris-Toulouse, OCCITANIA, Annciens Librairies Marqueste et Bouquet-Morainville
réunies, 1927, 285 p.
Zadvornyy V. L. Antoniy Paduanskiy [Anthony of Padua]. In: Pravoslavnaya entsiklopediya [Orthodox encyclopedia]. Moscow, Church Scientific Center “Orthodox
Encyclopedia”, 2001, vol. 2, pp. 673–674.
Zol’nikova N. D. Traditsiya srednevekovykh exempla v tvorchestve staroverov
vostoka Rossii (20 v.) [The tradition of medieval exempla in the work of the Old
Believers of the East of Russia (20th century)]. Humanitarian sciences in Siberia. 2001,
no. 15, pp. 11–15.
Zyumtor P. Opyt postroeniya srednevekovoy poetiki [The experience of constructing
medieval poetics]. St. Petersburg, Aleteyya, 2003, 544 p.
in Russian collection <i>Velikoe Zertsalo</i> (Speculum Maius)
as an <i>exemplum</i> // Сибирский филологический журнал. 2021. № 3. Pp. 50–61. DOI: 10.17223/18137083/76/4.