Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887. Excerpt: ... APPENDIX B. THE ORIGIN OF THE GLAGOLITIC ALPHABET. Dobrovsky, the founder of Slavonic philology, at the close of the last century for the first time drew attention to a mode of writing employed in some Slavonic books totally different from the Cyrillian. This question was vigorously taken up by Kopitar when he published in 1836 the Slavonic text written with such characters, and known thenceforth under the name of " Glagolita Clozianus." The problem which presented itself thus to the students of Slavonic philology was to ascertain the date and the probable origin of this long-forgotten or totally neglected alphabet. The most opposite views were taken upon the matter, and a discussion ensued which lasted nearly half a century, till at least one point was generally agreed upon, viz., the greater age of the Glagolitic alphabet and its priority to the Cyrillian. The reasons brought forward are twofold: philological and palaeographical. A close inquiry into the nature of the language represented by the Glago 0 litic texts proves it to be of the most archaic form, and to approach as closely as possible that language which is considered by Professor Miklosich to be the basis of the so-called Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic language--the Slavonic dialect, namely, into which the Apostles Cyril and Method are said to have translated the Bible for the first time. In these dagolitic texts are thus preserved the oldest specimens of the Slavonic literature, whilst the language of the Cyrillian text is more modern, and already contains traces of dialectic influences, chiefly Bulgarian peculiarities, as is only natural, when we remember the rise and development of the Slavonic literature in Bulgaria. Among these texts we do not find anything of so hoar an antiquity as so...
