Dicţionarul literaturii române de la origini pînǎ la 1900Review by: D. J. DeletantThe Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 59, No. 3 (Jul., 1981), pp. 414-415Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4208323 .

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4I4 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW

Seligcev, A. M. Slavjanskoe naselenie v Albanii. Preface by R. Olesch. Reprint of the I 93 I Sofia edition. Slavistische Forschungen, Band 24. B6hlau Verlag, Cologne, Vienna, 1978. x + vii + 352 pp. Appen- dixes. Maps. Indexes. DM 94.

SELI1DEV'S work on Slavonic-Albanian contacts had become such a rarity that Professor Olesch had a copy sent from Sofia in order to produce this reprint. (Both the British Library and the Bodleian boast a copy of the original.) In agreeing to the reprint, VAAP stipulated that it should be an exact one, so Professor Olesch has not been able to update references, nor even correct misprints. He has, however, added a preface, with a useful condensed survey of the book, and references to Mazon's more recent contributions. The reprint is in general clear, and the maps have come out well, but the original photographs have lost a good deal of definition, so that, for example, on p. I57 the boron'ba, which is the point of the illustration, is not visible at all.

Slavonic-Albanian contacts have lasted many centuries and involved population movements in both directions. Moreover the area of contact is considerable, so that the various Albanian dialect speakers mingled with various Slavonic dialects. Albanian has also been influenced by the Slavs who penetrated further west, were converted to Islam and aban- doned Slavonic, except that in certain semantic fields, their terms were adopted. These convolutions are skilfully charted by Selig6ev in five chapters. First, the Albanian movements on the border - in Gorna Reka and Polog; second, the Slavs in Albania. Both these chapters have lengthy appendixes, consisting principally of the reports of Russian consuls in Prizren, Bitola, Janina and Skutari during the 1850S-80s, which make gruesome reading. The third chapter considers Slavonic loanwords in Albanian, by semantic groups; the fourth Slavonic toponyms in Albania; and the final chapter characterizes the type of Slavonic which was the predominant influence on Albanian - clearly the Bulgarian-Macedonian dialect group.

The clarity of Seli?6ev's exposition, the full documentation, the useful indexes, make this book still a fascinating and important source, and Professor Olesch is to be thanked for putting it into circulation again. Oxford A. E. PENNINGTON

Dicqionarul literaturii romdne de la origini pfnd la 9goo. Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste Rom&nia, Bucharest, I979. xxxii + 976 pp. Indexes. Lei 145.

SEVERAL reference works on Rumanian literature have appeared in Rumania in recent years, most of them dealing with specific periods, but this dictionary of Rumanian literature from its origins until I900 is the most ambitious in scope. It is, in effect, the first dictionary of an encyclo- paedic nature of Rumanian literature. The work of scholars from the Institutes of Linguistics and of Literary History at the University of Ia?i, it contains some I,300 entries of which approximately 730 are dedicated

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REVIEWS 415

to specific writers and 470 to periodical publications. Literary societies are also included.

It is clear that a great deal of careful research has gone into many of the entries and each contributor has sought to present his article lucidly, using in several cases primary sources and sparing the reader the cliche- ridden approach of a number of contemporary Rumanian reference works. What is indeed refreshing is that the editors of this volume (a second volume devoted to the first half of the twentieth century is planned) have understood that the principal role of such a dictionary is to inform its readers about the life and work of the authors presented, and to offer a fundamental and up-to-date bibliography. Each entry is followed by a detailed bibliography which, in the case of some authors, exceeds two pages. Early Rumanian literature has not been neglected and the student of this period will be gratified to find that basic primary and secondary material is mentioned.

There are a small number of infelicities. Little is said of the activity of the Rumanian Academy, of the Societatea Academica Romana, or of Arhiva Societatii ?tiintifice ?i literare. On p. 446 the society Literatorul is said to have been founded in I883 while on p. 509 its date of foundation is given as I882. On p. 99I the poets Co?buc and Vlahuta are said to have brought out the review Sdmandtorul between I90I and 1905. In fact, both poets left the board of the review in 1902.

None of the above points detracts in any way from this outstanding volume which will remain a standard reference work for many years. London D. J. DELETANT

Dostal, A., Rothe, H. (eds). Der altrussische Kondakar'. Bausteine zur Geschichte der Literatur bei den Slawen, Editionen (3), Vol. 8, Parts 2-3. W. Schmitz Verlag, Giessen, I976, 1977. 260 pp.; I97 pp. Notes. Bibliography. DM 150.

THE creation of the kontakion as a genre is attributed to Romanos the Melos, the fifth-to-sixth-century Syrian hymnographer who is said to have composed more than a thousand kontakia. The kontakion was probably based on Syriac poetic-didactic prototypes, and in its full form consisted of a prooimion and up to forty oikoi, the latter linked by their common metrical shape and an acrostich. By the tenth century the full kontakion was normally replaced by the Canon, and survived (apart from the Akathistos) in a truncated form: the prooimion (now itself called kontakion) and one oikos, which are inserted after the sixth ode of the Canon.

The Slavs know only the truncated kontakion (kondak), and it has been suggested that the kontakia (and other liturgical hymns as well) were not translated on the Cyrillo-Methodian mission, but were first translated from the Greek by the East Slavs (see F. Keller, Die russisch-kirchenslavische Fassung des Weihnachtskontakions und seiner Prosomoia, Berne, I977, PP. 7-14). The problems of the genesis of the Slavonic kontakia have been compounded by the inaccessibility of the relevant texts: seven Russian

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