Kirjakielten variaatiosta

On the variation in literary languages The article discusses the formation and development of several literary languages. The main objects of the study are the Finno-Ugric languages spoken in the Volga-Kama region (Russia), and Chuvash, but, for comparison, Norwegian, Arabic, Russian, Finnish and some other Finno-Ugric languages are treated, as well. A general classification of cases where linguistic variation tends to occur in standard languages is put forward. The author also discusses the question whether some kind of universal “normal” amount of variation can be defined for literary languages. The conclusion is that the degree of variation allowed in a literary norm is highly language-specific and depends on the characteristics of the linguistic situation and the history of the literary standard.

Theorica Pantegni . Facsimile and Transcription of the Helsinki manuscript (Codex EÖ.II.14)

The Theorica Pantegni is a medieval medical textbook written in Latin. The author was Constantine the African (Constantinus Africanus), a monk of Tunisian origin. He compiled the work in the latter half of the eleventh century at the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino in Italy. - Manuscript Eö.II.14, containing the Theorica Pantegni published here, belongs today to the National Library of Finland. It can be dated to the third quarter of the twelfth century, which makes it one of the earliest surviving exemplars of the Theorica Pantegni: over seventy manuscripts of the work survive, of which about fifteen can be dated to the twelfth century. Manuscript Eö.II.14 is written in black ink on 210 parchment leaves (recto and verso), amounting to 420 pages, in pre-Gothic script. - The present text is a transcription of Ms Eö.II.14. The goal is to provide the reader with an accessible text that is faithful to the original.

Kit̄̄̄̄̄̄̄̄āb al-ṭabīkh

Arabic cookery book, dated tentatively to 12th or 13th century by the editors (Öhrnberg & Mroueh) on the basis of the script. Aro suggests (grounds not made explicit) that the manuscript came to the library from the collections of G. A. Wallin, but Öhrnberg & Mroueh simply describe it as being of unknown provenance.