The Hilandar Research Library (HRL), the Resource Center for Medieval Slavic Studies (RCMSS), and the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures (DSEELC) at The Ohio State University will host a four-week intensive Summer Institute for qualified graduate students in Columbus, Ohio, June 24 July 19, 2013. The Medieval Slavic Summer Institute (MSSI) will offer: Practical Slavic Palaeography (Slavic 814) and Readings in Church Slavonic (Slavic 812). All lectures will be in English.

Photo of MSSI 2011 class with manuscripts and gloves

MSSI 2011

Manuscript material on microform from the HRL’s extensive holdings forms a large part of the lectures and exercises. There is also a program of lectures on related topics, and other activities. Time permitting, participants may have the opportunity to work with original manuscripts and to conduct their own individualized research on manuscript collections/materials found in the HRL.

The Sixth Annual Hilandar Conference will be held in Columbus, Ohio, immediately following the end of the MSSI 2013.

Photo of 4 MSSI participants working at a table in the Special Collections Reading Room

MSSI 2011

Applicants must be graduate students with a BA degree and with a reading knowledge of Cyrillic and of at least one Slavic language. Preference will be given to applicants with reading knowledge of Old Church Slavonic or some other pre-modern Slavic language.

Photo of a student at the MSSI 2011 looking at a manuscript

MSSI 2011

The HRL, the largest repository of medieval Slavic Cyrillic texts on microform in the world, includes the holdings from over 100 monastic, private, museum, and library collections of twenty-three countries. There are over 5,000 Cyrillic manuscripts on microform in the HRL, as well as over 700 Cyrillic early pre-1800 printed books on microform. The holdings range from the eleventh to twentieth centuries, with a particularly strong collection of manuscripts from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. About half of the manuscripts are East Slavic, with much of the remainder South Slavic in provenience.

For further information about the HRL and RCMSS, see their websites go.osu.edu/Hilandar and rcmss.osu.edu. See issues of Cyrillic Manuscript Heritage, for accounts of MSSI 1999 (CMH 6), MSSI 2001 (CMH 10), MSSI 2003 (CMH 14), MSSI 2006 (CMH 20), MSSI 2008 (CMH 24), and MSSI 2011 (CMH 30). The DSEELC website address is http://slavic.osu.edu.

For further information on eligibility, credit, housing, financial aid, and to obtain an application to the MSSI, please contact the HRL and RCMSS either by email hilandar@osu.edu or by regular post: The Hilandar Research Library and the Resource Center for Medieval Slavic Studies, The Ohio State University, 119 Thompson Library, 1858 Neil Avenue Mall, Columbus, Ohio 43210-1286.

Image source: Photos by Daria Safronova, CMH 30 (2011): 10.