Chernorizets Hrabar is the credited author of only one literary work, "On the Letters" (,
O pismenehь), a popular medieval treatise written in
Old Church Slavonic. The work was written in the late ninth or early tenth century. He also provided information critical to Slavonic
paleography with his mention that the pre-Christian Slavs employed "strokes and incisions" (,
črъty i rězy), a form of writing that was, apparently, insufficient to properly reflect the spoken language. It is thought that this may have been a form of
runic script but no authentic examples are known to have survived. The dominant view among scholars is that Hrabar was defending Slavonic in response to Greek criticism, while others have argued that his text was a defense of
Glagolithic against
Cyrillic. The work has also been printed in
Vilnius (1575–1580),
Moscow (1637),
Saint Petersburg (1776),
Supraśl (1781). It is the earliest printed work of an early Bulgarian author, included as part of the 1578 version of
Ivan Fеdorov's East Slav primer.
Excerpt From the opening of the 1348 manuscript text: Transliteration (with adapted punctuation, removed diacritics, resolved abbreviations): :
Prěžde ubo slověne ne iměhǫ knigъ, nǫ črъtami i rězami čьtěhǫ i gataahǫ pogani sǫšte; krъstivše že sę, rimьskami i grъčьskymi pismeny nǫždaahǫ sę [pisati] slověnьsky rěčь bezъ ustroenia. Nǫ kako možetъ sę pisati dobrě grъčьskymi pismeni b[og]ъ, ili živōtъ, ili ʒělō, ili cr[ъ]kovь, ili čaanie, ili širōta, ili jadь, ili ǫdu, ili junostь, ili ǫzykъ, i inaa pod[o]bnaa simь? I tako běšǫ mnoga lěta. Po tom že čl[ově]koljubec b[og]ъ [...] posla im s[vę]t[a]go Kōstantina filosofa naricaemago Kirila, mǫža pravedna i istinna, i sьtvori imъ [30] pismena i osmь, ōva ubō po činu grъčьskyhь pismenъ, ōva že po slověnьstěi rěči. Translation: :
In the past, the Slavs did not have books, but read and divined by means of strokes and incisions, being pagans. Having been baptised, they had to write the Slavic speech with Roman and Greek letters without any system. But with Greek letters how can one write words such as God
, or life
, or very
, or church
, or waiting
, or width
, or meal
, or where
, or youth
, or tongue
, and other similar ones? And so it was for many years. Then the mankind-loving God [...] sent them Saint Constantine the Philosopher, called Cyril, a just and upright man, and he created thirty-eight letters for them, some in the manner of Greek letters, and some in accordance with Slavic speech. ==Legacy==