12th Biennial Medieval Slavic Summer Institute (MSSI), Ohio State University, June 17–July 12, 2024 

The Hilandar Research Library (HRL), the Resource Center for Medieval Slavic Studies (RCMSS), and the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures (SEELC) at The Ohio State University host a four-week intensive Summer Institute for qualified graduate students in Columbus, Ohio, every other year. The Medieval Slavic Summer Institute (MSSI) offers lectures in two areas: (1) Manuscript Description and Access and (2) Readings in Church Slavonic. Manuscript material on microform from the HRL’s extensive holdings forms a large part of the lectures and homework assignments. There are also a number of lectures on related specific topics. By the end of the Institute, each participant will be able to describe an original Slavic manuscript relying on both areas' lectures and hands-on work.

Space is limited to 12 participants.

Applicants must be graduate students with a BA degree and with a reading knowledge of Cyrillic and of at least one Slavic language. Preference will be given to applicants with reading knowledge of Old Church Slavonic or some other pre-modern Slavic language.

The HRL is the largest repository of medieval Slavic Cyrillic texts on microform in the world and includes holdings from over 100 monastic, private, museum, and library collections from twenty-three countries. There are over 6,000 Cyrillic manuscripts on microform in the HRL, as well as over 1,000 Cyrillic early pre-1800 printed books on microform. The holdings range from the eleventh to twentieth centuries, with a particularly strong collection of manuscripts from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. About half of the manuscripts are East Slavic, with much of the remainder South Slavic in provenience.