Despite the difficult wartime, the Chernihiv Historical Museum named after V.V. Tarnovsky continues his scientific and educational activities and studies and popularizes his large and unique collection.
Today, the collection of the historical museum includes more than 230 thousands of items, so it's not surprising, that there are artifacts among them, which require careful study and still hide various secrets and mysteries, waiting for his time.
Preparing in 2021 year before the exhibition "The Bible in the museum collection" the attention of researchers was attracted by a book unusual in its format - a handwritten poetic Psalter. It is written in Romanian, but in Cyrillic.
The author of the verse translation of the psalms is Teodor Korbe, a Romanian diplomat and writer, to which belong the lexicographic ones, political and poetic and religious works. A native of the city of Brasov (Румунія, Transylvania), son of priest Ion Korbe, who was actively engaged in educational activities among the Orthodox population of Brasov, contributed to the development of Romanian culture. Theodore Korbe knew many languages (Latin, Slavic, Greek, German, Hungarian). He received his education at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Education and knowledge of languages did not leave him unnoticed. Theodore Korbe received the position of secretary at the court of the master of Wallachia, Konstantin Brynkovianu, and played an important role in the diplomacy of that time.
In 1711 In 2006, he moved to Kyiv and settled in one of the estates in Podil. In Kyiv, he took the position of translator of the Kyiv provincial office. Most likely, it was during the Kyiv period of his life that he began working on the creation of a poetic Psalter. In the future, some of his descendants settled in the Chernihiv province and were acquainted with Vasyl Tarnovsky. They handed over the handwritten Psalter to a well-known antiquities collector, which, together with the entire collection of Ukrainian antiquities, was presented to Chernihiv by a benefactor.
Having identified the author of the poetic Psalter, for researchers, the question remained open - whether the book, kept in our museum was written by Theodore Korbe himself, has our copy been transcribed by another person?
An expert in the field of Romanian literature, a Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, helped us find the answer, professor of the University "December 1 1918 year" m. Alba-Julia (Румунія) Alin-Mihai Herman, who devoted a quarter of a century to the careful study of Theodor Korbe's literary heritage and published two of his works: Latin-Romanian dictionary (in which over 35 000 words) and versed Psalter based on copies of works, stored in the library of the Romanian Academy (branch in. Cluj-Napoca, Румунія). Comparing the pages of the handwritten dictionary from Cluj-Napoca and the poetic Psalter from the collection of the Vasyl Tarnovsky Historical Museum in Chernihiv, it became obvious, that the handwriting belongs to one person, i.e. to Theodor Korbe.
Commenting on the scientific importance of our museum specimen, Professor Alin-Mihai Herman noted: "Manuscript, stored in Chernihiv, is of great importance, because, unlike a manuscript, stored in Cluj-Napoca, which is missing several pages, he is full. This fact forces us to reevaluate the entire written text and prepare for future editing. The availability of this manuscript opens a new chapter in the study of Theodor Korbe's life, which we will have to study in cooperation with Ukrainian colleagues".
The Chernihiv manuscript is particularly valuable and unique, since it is a draft with working corrections and, according to Professor Alin-Mihai Herman, is "the artistic laboratory of this literary work".
Theodore Korbe was not a pioneer in translating the psalms into verse form. It was preceded by a Psalter in verses by Metropolitan Dosoftey of Moldavia (Dosipheia) Baril. The translation of the latter is made in highly scholarly language. Korbe's psalms-verses sound in a simple vernacular. As noted by the famous Romanian literary critic Petre Panaitescu: "Corbe's poem is inspired by folk poems and lyrical Romanian songs, which were sung in the villages on holidays... The translation is characterized by a great variety of poetic size and rhythm, in which the tempo of Transylvanian folk music is felt".
4 In October, a unique event took place in the Chernihiv Historical Museum named after Vasyl Tarnovsky - presentation handwritten verse Psalter. We hope for further fruitful cooperation with Romanian colleagues in the matter of publishing the already edited text of Theodore Korbe's poetic Psalter based on the original manuscript from the funds of our museum.
Scientific employee of Chernihivskyi
historical museum named after VV. Tarnovsky,
Candidate of Theology Miroslav May-Boroda
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