The Slavic translations of the vita of St. John Climacus (10th-14th and 18th centuries) and their Byzantine sources

The article is devoted to the description of 6 translations of the Vita of St. John Climacus, 4 of which are early Slavic, and 2 were made in the 18th century. The originals for these translations were Byzantine versions of the text: early (included in vol. 88 “Patrologia Graeca”) and late (published by Archimandrite Ignatius). The first translation of the Vita was made no later than the second quarter of the 10th century by the scribes of the Preslav school; the second translation of the Vita was completed in the middle of the 14th century Tarnovo monk Mark; the third translation of the Vita was made at the beginning of the second half of the 14th century in the Serbian book environment; the fourth translation was carried out on Athos at the same time by the Bulgarian scribe John. The basis for the first and fourth Slavic translations was the early Greek version, the basis for the second and third translations was the late Greek version. Not later than the beginning of the 1780s a new translation of the Vita was made by St. Paisiy Velichkovsky. Around the same time, in Moscow, D.R. Ulyaninsky worked on the new translation of the Vita. The article provides examples from the named original and translated texts of the Vita of St. John Climacus. The choice of examples is determined by the needs of the historical lexicography of the Russian language: they all contain lexemes that have not yet been reflected in the historical dictionaries of the Russian and Old Church Slavonic languages. These are the lexemes: дѹховьноглашениѥ, неприближаниѥ, несѹпротивьнословьникъ, обръщениѥ, оскѹжданиѥ, себѣвѣрьныи, себѣгодовыи, прѣждеѹморити, неизнемогыи, испытаньнѣ. Observations on the texts of these translations lead to the conclusion that the closest to the Greek text, in terms of its structure and meaning, is the translation of St. Paisiy Velichkovsky.