9 thoughts on “Puzzle”

1. I’m pretty sure it’s John 1-5 in Old Church Slavonic.
   In modern Russian:

   1 В начале было Слово, и Слово было у Бога, и Слово было Бог.
   2 Оно было в начале у Бога.
   3 Все чрез Него начало быть, и без Него ничто не начало быть, что начало быть.
   4 В Нем была жизнь, и жизнь была свет человеков.
   5 И свет во тьме светит, и тьма не объяла его.

2. It definitely is. The OCS text is

   1 Искони бе Слово, и Слово бе к Богу, и Бог бе Слово.
   2 Сей бе искони к Богу:
   3 вся Тем быша, и без Него ничтоже бысть, еже бысть.
   4 В Том живот бе, и живот бе свет человеком:
   5 и свет во тме светится, и тма его не объят.

3. Translation?

4. 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
   2 The same was in the beginning with God.
   3 All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made.
   4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
   5 And the light shineth in the darkness; and the darkness apprehended it not.

5. What does the small text at the bottom mean? It’s hard to read on this photo, but it seems to be Latin letters, like

   G? ? ? Evang Assom???

6. You’re a superstar, AlexM, this picture has been baffling my family since we took it.

   I can’t tell what the Latin text says very well, and I don’t think I have access to the full-size picture right now. G—- Evang Assomani is my best guess.

7. The last line (Latin script) is :
   Gv (ital. Giovanni = John) I 1-5 Evang. Assemani
   i. e. Evangelarium Assemani
   The manuscript of Assemani is the oldest copy of the Church Slavonic Gospel.
   http://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=21362

8. Тhere’s an error at the end of the first line.It must be:
   ⰋⰔⰍⰑⰐⰉⰁⰡⰔⰎⰑⰂⰑⰋⰔ
   not:
   ⰋⰔⰍⰑⰐⰉⰁⰡⰔⰎⰑⰂⰑⰔⰋ

9. I just stumbled on this same stone thing a couple days ago and all the Italian experts/historians on my trip were so confused. Thank you for answering the question, folks from 15 years ago 😅