Glosy jako integralny składnik średniowiecznego tekstu

W poszukiwaniu adekwatnych procedur badawczych

Abstract

Glosses as an integral element of medieval text: in search of adequate research procedures

Most Old Polish texts are in fact sixteenth century copies with accompanying inscribed or reinscribed glosses (interlinear and marginal) introduced into the text. The aim of this article is not only to show how to recognize these types of glosses in the text using elements of semantics, syntax, rhetoric and source studies, but also to propose a typology of tools adequate for recognizing incorporated glosses.
The authors believe that only a multidimensional analysis gives a chance to achieve this goal. They also show that analyses conducted usually from one, sometimes two, perspectives, yield results that can be easily undermined from another perspective.
The majority of examples come from four Old Polish apocrypha, including the most extensive monument of Polish and Slavic medieval prose and apocryphal literature, Rozmyślanie przemyskie (‘The Przemyśl Meditation’). In the only preserved copies of these apocryphal texts, glosses are incorporated into the main body of the text. Proper recognition of glosses leads to a complete change of thinking about these texts and about Polish religious language in the Middle Ages in general.