PRAVILA DE LA GOVORA

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Pravila de la Govora (the Pravila of Govora) (1640) is the oldest code of church and civil laws, published in Romanian, from Wallachia. The Slavonic original of the text, preserved in the ms. sl. BAR 726, was made in 1618, in Moldavia, at the urging of Metropolitan Teofan, and is based on a South-Danubian compilation of Bulgarian origin. The Romanian translation of this Slavonic nomocanon, which arrived at the beginning of the third decade of the 17th century at the Bistrița Monastery (Vâlcea County), is owed to the Oltean monk Mihail Moxa. Although Pravila appeared with the approval and expense of Prince Matei Basarab, both the initiative of the translation and that of the printing of the writing belong to Metropolitan Teofil of Ungrovlahia. The printing of the book, based on Moxa’s autograph manuscript (Romanian manuscript BAR 2471), was undertaken by Meletius the Macedonian, abbot of the Govora monastery, and Stephen of Ohrid. The volume went through two editions: one, more extensive, dedicated to Wallachia, whose preface was signed by Metropolitan Theophilus, and another, smaller, intended for Transylvania, with an identical preface, inscribed by Metropolitan Ghenadie.