Chapter Вертоград многоцветный Симеона Полоцкого как мнемотехническое и гомилетическое пособие

Overview & Synopsis

Simeon Polotsky's A Garden of Many Flowers as a Mnemonic and Homiletic Manual. The study attempts to investigate Simeon’s Polotskij poetic encyclopedia Vertograd mnogotsvetnyj (A Garden of Many Flowers) as a kind of homiletic manual: organized as a sequential enumeration of arguments, points and “vin” (вин), the poems could have been conceived by Simeon as a mnemonic tool to facilitate the composing of doctrinal, catechetical and thematic sermons for less educated preachers. Through two Latin collections of annual sermons — by Matthias Faber (XVII C.) and supposedly by Meffreth from Meissen (XV C.), both collections identified by Anthony Hippisley — a number of mnemonic verses and fragments of rhymed writings, already known in the Middle Ages, were included in Vertograd mnogotsvetnyj. Some poems in the poetic encyclopedia have parallels in Simeon’s two collections of homilies: Obed dushevnyj (The Spiritual Midday Meal, 1681) and Vecherya Dushevnaya (The Spiritual Supper, 1683), which confirms the close relation between Simeon’s Polotskij poetic and homiletical heritage.