K tolkovaniju termina «chorik'» v kolofone Dobrianovoj minei

This paper focuses on the colophon written by the bulgarian copist-kalligrapher Dobrian at the end of the Menaion manuscript ОГНБ, 1/4 (17). This manuscript was found by V. I. Grigorovich at the Zograf monastery on Mount Athos and carried to Odessa. The beginning and some sheets were already missing from the manuscript, but its relevance is unquestionable both from a codicological and textual point of view, not to mention the scribal ending note. Aiming to clarify the sense of the term «khorik'» used in it (to be considered an hapax legomenon in Old Church Slavonic), this paper gets into account some colophon typical elements. In particular, the formulaic expressions used: a) to metaforically describe the attitude of the scribe finishing his book; b) to emphasize the scribe humility in his work, especially when he is a monk. Concerning point a), the paper attempts to demonstrate the Greek origins of such expressions, providing a brief survey of well known similar Greek attestations in form of epigrammata. As for point b), a link between the Slavonic term «khorik'» and the Greek «χωρικός» – a typical marker of scribal professional lack used as a locus modestiae –, is provided by means of analysis of humility-formulas used in Greek colophons. In conclusion, an hypothesis is drawn, according to which the scribe Dobrian had to know very well the Greek colophon writing technique and used it to write his own.