NIŽNORYBNICKÝ SPEVNÍK Z ROKU 1817 – ZNOVUOBJAVENÝ RUKOPIS

Nižnorybnický hymn-book was donated to Ján Stanislav Institute of Slavistics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, by academician Mikuláš Mušinka in 2008. Its existence was first reported by Ivan Paňkevyč in 1956. Paňkevyč had been notified of the manuscript by Štefan Papp who had been a priest in the parish of Nižná Rybnica (District of Sobrance) until 1952. Paňkevyč published only the secular songs of the hymn-book and he did not give any description of the manuscript. Today, the Nižnorybnický hymn-book consists of 77 folios is destitute of cover and has a considerably damaged sewn binding. Hence, several folios are missing. The hymn-book contains 80 paraliturgical and 3 secular songs as well as an Old Testament narrative about Tobias. Most of the manuscript is written in a semi-cursive Cyrillic script (poloustav) but cursive Cyrillic is also partially used. The size of the hymn-book is 15, 5 cm by 22, 5 cm, the beginning and the end of the text are missing. The Nižnorybnický hymn-book belongs among those Cyrillic manuscripts of Eastern Slovakia which are inseparably bound to the local Byzantine-Slavonic hymn culture. The language of the manuscript contains borrowings from Eastern Slovak dialects, chiefly the Soták and Uh dialects. The hymn-book is closely bound to the identity of the Slovak members of the Byzantine-Slavonic Church in the territory of the former Eparchy of Mukačevo. It provides an opportunity for a comprehensive research into the Cyrillic production connected to the Byzantine Church in the territory of Slovakia.