Percorsi della ricerca in filologia slava dal XIX secolo
Abstract The paper deals with the methods developed in the field of Slavic philological research in the last centuries. The mission of Cyril and Methodius in Great Moravia and the activity of their disciples in the First Bulgarian Empire of Boris and Simeon laid to the foundation of a Slavic cultural and religious autonomy. The major problem of Cyril and Methodius’ studies has been to find the traces of their translations and to identify the area where the Palaeoslavic texts originated. The debate between R. Picchio and D. Lichačev revealed the clash between two different traditions in Slavic philological and literary studies; it opened a dialogue between Slavic and European scholars and led to a vast methodological and terminological renewal in the discipline. It was debated whether it was possible to apply to Slavic texts the methods developed in the field of Greek and Latin tradition, or a separate discipline Textology would be necessary for studying the history of Slavic texts and the conscious changes introduced by their coauthors and coeditors. A Linguistic Textology has also been created which limits the philological research to linguistic data. The article touches the new methods developed for the reconstruction of the Cyrill and Methodius’ Bible by means of the digitally supported profile-method applied to the editions of the Slavic Gospels. It is only at the beginning of this century that there has been a return to the method of textual criticism.