A comparative analysis of the Greek and Serbian versions of the text is used
to establish the authenticity of the agreement between archbishop Sava and
the representatives of the Mount Athos administration at the time of Protos
Eusebius (August 1228), but also to identify layers from different periods,
common for a document that has multiple copies. The paper seeks to determine
the methods of creating the two versions and the precise relationship
between the underlying manuscript traditions, as well as the diplomatic
status of some versions, especially the two earlier Greek and the only
Serbian version. By relying on a methodology that separates the textual and
event-history levels in the document and by tracking the consistency and
deviations in the surviving variants of the texts, it is demonstrated that
the Greek text was created by Saint Sava by adapting an earlier agreement
made under Protos Theoktistos (1215-1218/1219). It has also been concluded
that the original version was most likely written by Sava?s collaborator,
that the earliest Greek copy dates from the time of Saint Sava (as inferred
by V. A. Mosin), that the Serbian Slavonic translation was made some time
after Saint Sava?s death (ca. 1235/1236), that an intermediate copy was
based on it (ca. 1498/1499) and that it served as the source for the only
surviving manuscript copy, probably made by a Russian or a Serbian monk well
versed in Russian chancery practices (the very beginning or the first
decades of the 17th century). The Greek copies of the aforementioned
agreement and its Serbian version reveal that Saint Sava purchased land
intended for a vineyard for the Hermitage of Saint Sava in Karyes on two
occasions, first as an archimandrite and then as an archbishop.