The paper discusses the depictions of sinners representing individual punishments in two cycles of the Last Judgement from the late–medieval Eastern-rite churches of Leșnic and Ribița (southwestern Transylvania, Romania, fourteenth–fifteenth centuries), as well as the use of vernacular words in an inscription that accompanies one of the characters. Similar representations can be found in the Cretan cycles of the damned from the same timeframe, but the terms of comparison could be extended to Serbian churches, too. Western influences can also be detected, particularly in light of earlier cycles of the damned depicted in the Church of Streisângeorgiu (same region, 1313–1314), and the imagery can be related to the texts later included in the Old Romanian miscellaneous manuscript known as Codex Sturdzanus (sixteenth–seventeenth centuries).

^[1] E.g., Sergio Raffaelli, “Sull’iscrizione di san Clemente: un consuntivo con integrazioni,” in Il volgare nelle chiese di Roma. Messaggi graffiti, dipinti e incisi dal IX al XVI secolo, ed. Francesco Sabatini, Sergio Raffaelli, Paolo D’Achille (Rome: Bonacci, 1987), 35–66; Serena Romano, “Commedia antica e sacra rappresentazione. Gli affreschi con ‘storie di San Clemente’ nella basilica inferiore di San Clemente a Roma,” in Figure et récit. Figura e racconto. Narrazione letteraria e narrazione in Italia dall’antichità al primo Rinascimento. Atti del convegno (Losanna, 25-26 novembre 2005, eds. Gabriele Bucchi, Marco Praloran, Serena Romano (Florence: SISMEL – Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2009), 54-88.

^[2] A discussion of the Romanian vocative at Leșnic can be found in Vladimir Agrigoroaei, “Umbra lui Dobre la Leșnic. Despre un comanditar fictiv, despre picturi inspirate de apocrife și nu în ultimul rând despre primele atestări endogene ale limbii române [The Shadow of Dobre at Leșnic. A Fictitious Patron, Paintings Inspired by Apocrypha, and Last but not Least the First Endogenous Testimony of the Romanian Language],” Apulum 52 (2015): 157-222, here 197-198. The inscriptions were edited by Monica Breazu, “Studiu epigrafic [Epigraphy Study],” in Repertoriul picturilor murale medievale din România (sec. XIV-1450). Partea 1 [The Survey of Medieval Wall Paintings in Romania (14^th Century-1450). Part 1], ed. Vasile Drăguţ (Bucharest: EARSR, 1985), 33–70; cf. Maria Mocanu, “Biserica Sf. Nicolae din satul Leşnic (com. suburbană Veţel a municipiului Deva, jud. Hunedoara)” [The Church of St Nicholas in the Village of Leșnic (Vețel, Suburban Commune of Deva, Hunedoara County)], in Repertoriul picturilor, 98-115. I thank Iosif Camară for data confirming the first endogenous Romanian use of the word at Leșnic. According to Dicţionarul elementelor româneşti din documentele slavo-române: 1374-1600 [Dictionary of Romanian Elements in Slavonic-Romanian Documents: 1374-1600], ed. Gheorghe Bolocan (Bucharest: EARSR, 1981), the first use of the Romanian word popă in Church Slavonic documents occurs in 1435 in Moldavia. However, the word is written попъ. This raises doubts concerning its unadulterated Romanian features. In Church Slavonic documents, the general tendency is to use Romanian words with Church Slavonic declension (see a Moldavian document dated 1431 – acest uric, in Dicţionarul elementelor, s.v. cest; and another one from Moldavia, dated 1452 – bucată, in Dicţionarul elementelor, s.v. bucată).

^[3] For an overview and interpretation of the mural paintings of Leșnic, see Agrigoroaei, “Umbra lui Dobre.” For other studies on the paintings of Leșnic, see Vasile Drăguţ, “Biserica din Leşnic [The Church of Leşnic],” SCIA 10, 2 (1963): 422-433; Vasile Drăguț, Pictura murală din Transilvania (sec. XIV-XV) [The Mural Paintings of Transylvania (14^th-15^th  Centuries] (Bucharest: Meridiane, 1970), 26-29; Ecaterina Cincheza-Buculei, “Ansamblul de pictură de la Leşnic – O pagină din istoria românilor transilvăneni din veacul al XIV-lea [The Mural Ensemble of Leșnic – A Page in the History of 14^th-Century Transylvanian Romanians],” SCIA - AP 21, 1 (1974): 45-58; Mocanu, “Biserica Sf. Nicolae din satul Leşnic;” Elena Dana Prioteasa, Medieval Wall Paintings in Transylvanian Orthodox Churches: Iconographic Subjects in Historical Context (Cluj: Mega, 2016), 164–167. For the votive inscriptions, see Dragoș Gh. Năstăsoiu, “The Social Status of Romanian Orthodox Noblemen in Late-Medieval Transylvania According to Donor Portraits and Church Inscriptions,” Études byzantines et post-byzantines 7 (2016, eds Nicolae-Șerban Tanașoca, Alexandru Madgearu): 34-36; cf. Breazu, “Studiu epigrafic,” 45-49; Prioteasa, Medieval Wall Paintings, 165. For archaeological research, see Gheorghe I. Cantacuzino, “Cercetările arheologice de la Leşnic, jud. Hunedoara [Archaeological Research in Leșnic, Hunedoara County],” CA 8 (1986): 127-133.

^[4] For the scenes with the sinners at Ribița, see Adrian Rauca, “Pictura murală din bisericile cneziale de piatră de la Ribiţa şi Crişcior [The Mural Paintings of the Knezial Stone Churches of Ribiţa and Crişcior],” CRes 2 (2014): 218-229, here 227. For the other paintings of Ribița, in the sanctuary and in the nave of that church, see Drăguț, Pictura murală, 34-36; Marius Porumb, Pictura românească din Transilvania. I. (sec. XIV–XVII) [The Romanian Paintings of Transylvania. I (14^th-17^th Centuries] (Cluj: Dacia, 1981), 26-28; Liana Tugearu, “Biserica Sf. Nicolae din com. Ribiţa (jud. Hunedoara)” [St. Nicholas Church in Ribiţa Commune (Hunedoara County)], in Repertoriul picturilor, 129-148; Ecaterina Cincheza-Buculei, “Ipoteze și certitudini în frescele descoperite la Ribița (jud. Hunedoara) [Hypotheses and Certainties in the Frescoes Discovered at Ribița (Hunedoara County)],” AT 5 (1995): 85-91; Prioteasa, Medieval Wall Paintings, 168-173. For the new dating of the sanctuary paintings (1393), see Dragoş Gh. Năstăsoiu, Anna Adashinskaya, “New Information on the Dating of the Murals of St. Nicholas Church in Ribița: A Hypothesis,” Museikon 1 (2017): 25-44. For archaeological research, see Adrian Andrei Rusu, “Biserica românească de la Ribiţa (judeţul Hunedoara) [The Romanian Church of Ribiţa (Hunedoara County)],” RMI 60, 1 (1991): 3-9.

^[5] I doubt the correct interpretation and translation of the Church Slavonic inscriptions of the two scenes presented by Mocanu, “Biserica Sf. Nicolae din satul Leşnic,” 111. My two alternatives correspond to well-known titles used for the scenes of the Cretan cycle.

^[6] For the damned in the cycles of the Last Judgement (communal and individual punishments), see e.g., Miltos Garidis, “Les punitions collectives et individuelles des damnés dans le Jugement Dernier (du xii^e au xiv^e siècle),” Зборник за ликовне уметности 18 (1982): 1-18. For a comprehensive presentation of Eastern-rite examples preceding the Cretan cycles, see the contributions included in Valentino Pace, ed., Le Jugement dernier entre Orient et Occident (Paris : Éditions du Cerf, 2007), 47-51, 85-98. For an anthropological point of view, see Sharon E. J. Gerstel, “The Sins of the Farmer: Illustrating Village Life (and Death) in Medieval Byzantium,” in Word, Image, Number: Communicating in the Middle Ages, eds. John J. Contreni, Santa Casciani (Florence: sismel-Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2002), 205-217.

^[7] Angeliki Lymberopoulou, ed., Hell in the Byzantine World: A History of Art and Religion in Venetian Crete and the Eastern Mediterranean (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), 2 vols, here vol. 2, 512, 515, 552, 554, 558. Cf. the “abbot who invokes the devil” and other variations in Angeliki Lymberopoulou, “Hell on Crete,” in Hell in the Byzantine World: A History of Art and Religion in Venetian Crete and the Eastern Mediterranean, ed. Angeliki Lymberopoulou (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), vol. 1, 117-190, here 188.

^[8] Lymberopoulou, Hell in the Byzantine World, vol. 2, 465, 510, 808, 812.

^[9] Sharon E. J. Gerstel, Panayotis S. Katsafados, “Images of Hell and the Afterlife in the Churches of Lakonia,” in Hell in the Byzantine World, vol. 1, 310-345, here 335-337. For the depiction of the individual punishments and other scenes from Hell at Gardenitsa, see the detailed analysis of Panayotis S. Katsafados, “Hell and Individual Punishment Scenes in an Early-Fourteenth Century Cycle of the Last Judgement in the Church of the Transfiguration of the Saviour at Gardenitsa, Mani (Greece), with Special Attention to a Depiction of the ‘Time of Man’,” Museikon 8 (2024): 9-44. For Kouvaras, see Doula Mouriki, “An Unusual Representation of the Last Judgement in a Thirteenth Century Fresco at St. George near Kouvaras in Attica,” Δελτίον της Χριστιανικής Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας 8 (1975-1976): 145-172.

^[10] The Three Holy Kings of Hungary (Stephen, Emeric, and Ladislas), a group of Catholic dynastic saints, are depicted on the southern wall of the nave in the Church of Ribița. See the many studies of Dragoş Gh. Năstăsoiu – e.g., Dragoş Gheorghe Năstăsoiu, “Between Personal Devotion and Political Propaganda: Iconographic Aspects in the Representation of the sancti reges Hungariae in Church Mural Painting (14th Century-Early-16th Century)” (PhD diss., Central European University, Budapest, 2018).

^[11] Cf. two variant spellings ζουράρις/ζουράρης. This borrowing is used in Karydi (Karydaki, 1270-1290), Spili (Agios Vasileios, fourteenth century), Kavousi (Ierapietra, mid-fourteenth century/1410–1420), Achladiakes (Selino, 1360s), Ano Viannos (Viunnos, 1360s), Kritsa (Merambello, 1389/1390), Axos (Mylopotamos, 1390s), Sklavopoula (Selino, turn of the fifteenth century), Avdou (Pediada, also turn of the fifteenth century), and Kato Valsamonero (Rethymnon, c.1400). See Lymberopoulou, Hell in the Byzantine World, vol. 2, 445, 508, 563, 619, 648–649, 694, 717, 729, 796, 809. For a different term, see also the inscription at Deliana (Kissamos, c. 1300), where the usurer is designated as ο τοκον ηπερπιρον. Lymberopoulou, Hell in the Byzantine World, vol. 2, 466.

^[12] The patron of the paintings was often considered to be a certain Dobre, kneze of the village of Leșnic, who had received the confirmation of his kneziate of a forest from the Hungarian king in 1394. Drăguţ, “Biserica din Leşnic,” 29, argued that the church was built using the royal fortune bestowed upon Dobre, and that Dobre wished to recall the blood sacrifice of one of his brothers, allegedly killed by an arrow in a foreign land, fighting against the Turks. This conjecture tried to accommodate the reading of an inscription in a scene that depicted one man carrying another man pierced by an arrow. The inscription contained the words “brother(s)” and “(foreign) land.” Cf. Vasile Drăguț, Vechi monumente hunedorene [Old Monuments of Hunedoara] (Bucharest: Meridiane, 1968), 51-54; Drăguț, Pictura murală, 26-29, for reiterations of the conjecture that focused on the battle of Rovine (1395 – Wallachian Romanians vs Ottomans). Since the inscription mentioned “sin(s),” others have opted for the battle of Ghindăoani (1395 – Kingdom of Hungary vs Moldavia) and have considered that the inscription expressed Dobre’s Transylvanian regret for spilling Moldavian-Romanian brotherly blood; Ecaterina Cincheza-Buculei, “Implicații sociale și politice în iconografia picturii medievale românești din Transilvania, secolele XIV-XV. Sfinții militari [Social and Political Implications in the Iconography of Medieval Romanian Paintings from Transylvania, 14^th-15^th Centuries: The Military Saints],” SCIA - AP 28 (1981): 3-34, here 30. Mocanu, “Biserica Sf. Nicolae din satul Leşnic,” added to the conjecture and found even an ancestor of Dobre – actually the depiction of Death (vide infra). Doubts concerning these exaggerations were expressed by Adrian Andrei Rusu, “Geografia și evoluția picturii medievale românești din jud. Hunedoara (Câteva răspunsuri domnului Sorin Ulea) [The Geography and Evolution of Romanian Medieval Paintings in Hunedoara County (Some Answers to Mr Sorin Ulea)],” Studia hi. 48-49 (2003-2004): 109-116; and Ileana Burnichioiu, “Biserici parohiale şi capele private în comitatele Alba şi Hunedoara (1200-1550) [Parish Churches and Private Chapels in the Counties of Alba and Hunedoara (1200-1550)],” (PhD diss., Universitatea Naţională de Arte Bucureşti, 2009). In Agrigoroaei, “Umbra lui Dobre,” 163-166, I argued that Dobre was not the only kneze of that village. Furthermore, Cincheza-Buculei, “Ansamblul de pictură de la Leşnic,” 47, and Mocanu, “Biserica Sf. Nicolae din satul Leşnic,” 104, 112, had already noted an inscription in the theory of saints painted in the upper register of the northern wall. It read: мoление рав(а) бж i___ише, подрѹжиа его и сна егo... (“the prayer of the servant of God ___ishe and his wife and son”), which is an entirely different name. As a result, the dating of the murals is unclear. For my dating (prior to 1450), see Agrigoroaei, “Umbra lui Dobre,” 193-194.

^[13] Năstăsoiu, Adashinskaya, “New Information.” For previous hypotheses, see, e.g., Tugearu, “Biserica Sf. Nicolae;” Rusu, “Biserica românească.”

^[14] See the Greek phonetic interpretation of certain Latin names of saints in the mural paintings of Dârlos, where painters with Byzantine training worked for Catholic patrons; Dragoş Gh. Năstăsoiu, “Narrative Strategies at the Crossroads of Byzantine and Western Visual Traditions: The Pictorial Cycle of St. Catherine of Alexandria in Dârlos, Transylvania,” Зограф 45 (2021): 159-186, here 161-162, 164.

^[15] E.g., Andrea Gamberini, Inferni medievali: Dipingere il mondo dei morti per orientare la società dei vivi (Rome: Viella, 2021), 85-88. Individual punishments appear early in Western Europe. See, for instance, the mid-twelfth century tympanum dedicated to the Last Judgement in the Cathedral of Saint Lazarus of Autun.

^[16] Peter Megyeši, “The Landlady from Hell: The Iconography of the Medieval Wall Paintings in Rimavské Brezovo and Liptovské Sliače,” Ars 54, 2 (2021): 170-177.

^[17] Lamentations 1:14 – “My sins have been bound into a yoke; by his hands they were woven together. They have been hung on my neck, and the Lord has sapped my strength. He has given me into the hands of those I cannot withstand” (ἐγρηγορήθη ἐπὶ τὰ ἀσεβήματά μου ἐν χερσίν μου συνεπλάκησαν ἀνέβησαν ἐπὶ τὸν τράχηλόν μου ἠσθένησεν ἡ ἰσχύς μου ὅτι ἔδωκεν κύριος ἐν χερσίν μου ὀδύνας οὐ δυνήσομαι στῆναι). For the interpretation of this passage in connection with the man with a purse tied to his neck, see Giuliano Milano, L’uomo con la borsa al collo: Genealogia e uso di un’immagine medievale (Rome: Viella, 2017), 243. Cf. pages 91-107, where Milano discusses a few Byzantine images, centred around saint Peter marching upon Simon Magus in the ninth-century Chludov Psalter, but does not mention the purses from the cycles of the damned.

^[18] A little bit over a hundred kilometres to the West as the crow flies, the knezes of Remete had already written a Latin letter to their lord’s wife, c. 1360-1380. They used Romanian syntax and an interlanguage full of mistakes. Cf. Claudia Tărnăuceanu, Ana-Maria Gînsac, Cosmin Popa-Gorjanu, “Colloquial Calque Translations, Greenhorn Gaffes, and Grammaticalisation Clusters in a Latin Complaint of the Romanian Knezes from the Remete Estate, c. 1360-1380,” in Translation Automatisms in the Vernacular Texts of the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, eds. Vladimir Agrigoroaei, Ileana Sasu (Turnhout: Brepols, 2023), 43-51.

^[19] The presence of attributes is well documented in Crete. The tavern keeper is often depicted with jugs, barrels, cups, and/or bottles tied to his neck, while the usurer can have one or several purses. Cf. Lymberopoulou, Hell in the Byzantine World, vol. 2, passim.

^[20] See Romans 1:30 – “slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents” (καταλάλους, θεοστυγεῖς, ὑβριστάς, ὑπερηφάνους, ἀλαζόνας, ἐφευρετὰς κακῶν, γονεῦσιν ἀπειθεῖς).

^[21] Similar scenes (but without the devil) are found at Kitiros (Voutas, Selino, 1373/1374), Axos (Mylopotamos, 1390s), Agios Ioannis Kaimenos (Agios Vasileios, c.1400), Plemeniana (Selino, 1409-1410), and Prines (Selino, fifteenth century). For references to all these Cretan depictions of the Sunday sleepers, see Lymberopoulou, Hell in the Byzantine World, vol. 2, 473, 475, 513, 514, 550, 558, 560, 563, 616, 620-621, 635, 637, 651, 653, 662, 686, 689, 712, 794, 796. I do not refer to the depictions where the Sunday sleeper does not appear in bed. Instead, the character can be depicted with the arms bound behind and legs raised in the air, or in other postures.

^[22] Ion-Mihai Felea kindly suggested that a Church Slavonic version based on the formulas that we find in the Greek texts would use an active participle + въ недѣлѫ / въ цр҃кви, such as: съпѧи / съпѫщеи въ недѣлѫ = “the one / those who sleep(s) on Sundays”; не ходѧи / ходѧщеи въ цр҃кви = “the one / those who do(es) not go to church”; съпавъи / съпавшеи въ неделѫ = “the one / those who has/have slept on Sunday”; etc. There are other options, too. One of them could be the use of a relative pronoun + a verb in the present, aorist, or imperfect tense, such as иже лѣниѣаше сѧ “those who were idling” + въскръсенїе, недѣлꙗ, or any other words referring to or implying the liturgy. Cf. Elektronický slovník jazyk staroslověnského / Digital Old Church Slavonic Dictionary gorazd: Digitální portál staroslověnštiny / An Old Church Slavonic Digital Hub (online http://gorazd.org/?q=cs/node/20 accessed 03.11.2024).; s.v. сѫбота: въ сѫботѫ же и вь недѣл҄ѫ прьвѣи вьсѣхъ въхождааше вь цръкве “on Saturdays and Sundays they entered the church before everyone else” (Codex Suprasliensis, XXV, 285, line 9); or Elektronický slovník jazyk staroslověnského, s.v. недѣлꙗ: ѡ несъбирающихъ сѧ по•г҃•нⷣ҇елѣ въ ц‹ь›рквь “about those who do not gather to church after the third week” (Methodius’ Nomocanon, fol. 12a, 2).

^[23] One cannot exclude the probable disappearance of the inscription prior to the restoration. The Orthodox parish priest of Ribița, Alin-Constantin Perța, was unaware of the loss when contacted this summer. The restoration work was officially completed on 12 December 2023. The two specialists who carried out the restoration of the paintings are Florin Călimoceanu and Sorin Pârvulescu. The latter replied 09.12.2024 that “[they] preserved absolutely everything that could be found on the mural surface at the beginning of [their] intervention” and “the level of capillary humidity was extremely high (as in the southern section of the altar), and the phenomenon of salt recrystallization was at an extremely advanced stage, the mural surface being aggressively marked by irreversible forms of alteration” (am conservat absolut tot ce se găsea pe suprafața murală la începutul intervenției noastre; nivelul umidității de capilaritate era extrem de ridicat (la fel ca în extremitatea sudică a altarului), iar fenomenul de recristalizare a sărurilor se găsea într-un stadiu extrem de avansat, suprafața murală fiind marcată agresiv de forme ireversibile de alterare).

^[24] For a description of the Last Judgement at Bogorodica Ljeviška, see, e.g., Aleksandra Davidov Temerinski, Church of Holy Virgin Ljeviška in Prizren (Belgrade: Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Serbia, 2017), 73-74. Cf. Драга Панић, Гордана Бабић, Богородица Љеоиииса [Bogorodica Ljeviška] (Belgrade: Српска књижевна задруга, 2007³), Fig. XLVIII, where the character is described as the woman who slept during the Sabbath.

^[25] See Davidov Temerinski, Church of Holy Virgin Ljeviška, 73-74; cf. Бранислав Тодић, “Новооткривене представе грешника на Страшном суду у Грачаници [The Newly Discovered Representations of Sinners from the Last Judgment of Gračanica],” Зборник за ликовне уметности 14 (1978): 193-204, 196.

^[26] For the analysis and text of the inscriptions, see Тодић, “Новооткривене представе грешника.”

^[27] For these scenes, see Александра Давидов Темерински, “Циклус Страшног суда [The Cycle of the Last Judgement],” in Зидно сликарство манастира Дечана [The Wall Paintings of Dečani Monastery], ed. Војислав Ј. Ђурић (Belgrade: Српска академија наука и уметности, 1995), 192-211, 206.

^[28] Cf. notes 10 (vide supra), 41, 44 (vide infra).

^[29] Cf. Oliviu Boldura, Șerban Angelescu, Marius Rădulescu, Gabriela Mruczinschi, “Le résultat des recherches effectuées à l’église de Strei-Sîngeorgiu,” Colloque sur la conservation et la restauration des peintures murales: Suceava, Roumanie, juillet 1977, eds. Vasile Drăguţ, Tereza Sinigalia, Ioan Opriș (s.l.: s.e., [1980]), 113-119, here 118-119, who list a series of places in the nave where the 1313-1314 stratum is preserved under the eighteenth-century paintings. The same authors had published a part of this study in a rare interdisciplinary group of papers dedicated to the Church of Streisângeorgiu, essential to the understanding of the monument in RMMI 47, 1 (1978): Radu Popa, “Streisîngeorgiu. Mărturii de istorie românească din secolele XI-XIV în sudul Transilvaniei [Streisângeorgiu. Testimonies of Romanian History from the 11^th-14^th Centuries in Southern Transylvania],” 9-32; Gheorghe Mihăilă, “Cele mai vechi inscripții cunoscute ale românilor din Transilvania (1313-1314 și 1408, Streisîngeorgiu – orașul Călan, jud. Hunedoara) [The Earliest Known Inscriptions of the Romanians in Transylvania (1313-1314 and 1408, Streisângeorgiu - Town of Călan, Hunedoara County)],” 33-38; Vasile Drăguț, “Streisîngeorgiu. Observații preliminare privind picturile murale [Streisângeorgiu. Preliminary Remarks on the Mural Paintings],” 39-42; Șerban Popescu-Dolj, “Rezultatele cercetărilor de arhitectură la biserica din Streisîngeorgiu – Jud. Hunedoara [Results of Architectural Research at the Church in Streisângeorgiu – Hunedoara County],” 43-46; Oliviu Boldura, Șerban Angelescu, Marius Rădulescu, Gabriela Mruczinschi, “Rezultatele cercetărilor efectuate asupra picturilor medievale românești de la Streisîngeorgiu [The Results of the Research on the Romanian Medieval Paintings of Streisângeorgiu],” 47-50; Ioana Popovici, M. Adam, “Considerații asupra structurii antropologice a populației descoperite în necropola medievală de la Streisîngeorgiu [Considerations on the Anthropological Structure of the Population Discovered in the Medieval Necropolis of Streisângeorgiu],” 51-52; Gheorghe Baltag, “Podoabe din secolele XIV-XVIII din inventarul necropolelor de la Streisîngeorgiu și Strei – jud. Hunedoara [14^th-18^th Century Ornaments from the Inventory of the Necropolis of Streisângeorgiu and Strei – Hunedoara County],” 53-56; Victor Eskenasy, “Cercetări și sondaje arheologice pe teritoriul așezării medievale de la Streisîngeorgiu [Archaeological Research and Surveys on the Territory of the Medieval Settlement of Streisângeorgiu],” 57-62. For the paintings, see also Anca Bratu, “Biserica ortodoxă Sf. Gheorghe din satul Streisîngeorgiu (Călan, jud. Hunedoara) [The Orthodox Church of St George in the Village of Streisângeorgiu (Călan, Hunedoara County)],” in Repertoriul picturilor, 284-300; and Prioteasa, Medieval Wall Paintings, 185-190. For the inscription that dates the first stratum, see Mihăilă, “Cele mai vechi inscripții;” Ion-Radu Mircea, “Quelques considérations paléographiques et linguistiques au sujet de l’inscription votive de 1313–1314 à Streisîngeorgiu” Dacia 20 (1976): 63-69; Breazu, “Studiu epigrafic,” 63-55; Năstăsoiu, “The Social Status,” 38-39; Prioteasa, Medieval Wall Paintings, 187.

^[30] Anca Bratu, “Biserica ortodoxă Sf. Gheorghe,” here 296: Fragment de pictură reprezentînd două personaje alăturate, un bărbat și o femeie, încolăciți de șerpi; bărbatul fiind mușcat de șerpi de mînă și de limbă poate fi considerat o întruchipare a păcatului furtului și clevetirii. Cf. 296-297: Judecata de apoi (fragmente din chinurile iadului). Fragment de pictură reprezentînd trei personaje (două femei și un bărbat) nude, văzute din față, cu mîinile încrucișate pe piept, încolăcite de șerpi.

^[31] The Romanian INP (Institutul Național al Patrimoniului [National Heritage Institute]) is currently financing a preliminary study for the restoration (Biserica de la Streisângeorgiu în context. De la studii de fundamentare la proiect de conservare și valorificare).

^[32] For parallels with Greece during the Latin occupation, see Vladimir Agrigoroaei, “Un termen de comparație grecesc pentru caii pictați în sanctuarul bisericii de la Streisângeorgiu [A Greek Term of Comparison for the Horses Depicted in the Sanctuary of the Church of Streisângeorgiu],” in Evul Mediu neterminat: Omagiu adus profesorului Adrian Andrei Rusu cu ocazia împlinirii vârstei de 70 ani [The Unfinished Middle Ages: A Tribute to Professor Adrian Andrei Rusu on His 70th Birthday], eds. Gianina-Diana Iegar, Péter Levente Szőcs, Gabriela Rusu, Florela Vasilescu (Cluj: Mega, 2022), 399-414.

^[33] E.g., Bruno Boerner, “Les portails du Jugement dernier dans le gothique français: Paris, Chartres, Amiens, Bourges,” in Le Jugement dernier entre Orient et Occident, ed. Valentino Pace (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 2007), 135-144.

^[34] Cf. Fabio Scirea, “L’Aldilà prima della fine dei tempi. Proposte iconografiche per la controfacciata di San Michele al Pozzo Bianco a Bergamo,” in Pittura murale del Medioevo lombardo. Ricerche iconografiche: l’alta Lombardia (secoli XI-XIII), ed. Paolo Piva (Milano: Jaca Book, 2006), 185-207.

^[35] For chained sinners led to Hell, see Jérôme Baschet, Les Justices de l’au-delà. Les représentations de l’enfer en France et en Italie (XII-XV siècle) (Rome: École française de Rome, 1993), 334-336.

^[36] For an analysis of the Syrian paintings, see Erica Cruikshank Dodd, The Frescoes of Mar Musa Al-Habashi: A Study in Medieval Painting in Syria (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2001); cf. Paolo Dall’Oglio, et al., Il restauro del monastero di San Mose l’Abisino, Nebek, Siria (Rome: Ministero degli Affari Esteri, 1998).

^[37] E.g., Gamberini, Inferni medievali, 37-40.

^[38] For the textual sources of communal and individual punishments, see Garidis, “Les punitions,” 3-4.

^[39] The mandorla and the rest of the composition was interpreted as a sign of Western influence by Mocanu, “Biserica Sf. Nicolae din satul Leşnic,” 110, note 26. In Kouvaras, wavy lines in a similar mandorla were also interpreted as Western influence alongside other arguments (see Mouriki, “An Unusual Representation”). Cf. Vladimir Agrigoroaei, The Culture of Latin Greece: Seven Tales from the 13^th and 14^th Centuries (Leiden: Brill, 2023), 314.

^[40] Lymberopoulou, “Hell on Crete,” 188.

^[41] Burnichioiu, “Biserici parohiale,” 280, noted the similarities with the mural paintings of Svinica (Slovakia), and Mugeni (Szeklerland, Romania). For my own interpretation, see Agrigoroaei, “Umbra lui Dobre,” 169-171. I thank once again Dragoş Năstăsoiu for his suggestion to add the depiction from Čerín (Slovakia) to the series of examples.

^[42] I prefer not to quote and discuss here the text of this particular inscription, as it is still a matter of dispute, being heavily reconstructed to suit sociopolitical conjectures. See Drăguţ, “Biserica din Leşnic,” 28; Cincheza-Buculei, “Ansamblul de pictură de la Leşnic,” 54; Mocanu, “Biserica Sf. Nicolae din satul Leşnic,” 110 (and explanations in Breazu, “Studiu epigrafic,” 48-49). For my point of view, see Agrigoroaei, “Umbra lui Dobre,” 168.

^[43] Agrigoroaei, “Umbra lui Dobre,” 171-184.

^[44] See, for instance, the sinners represented in Svinica, as they present a similar composition to the cycles of the damned of Leșnic and Ribița, but also the Cretan churches. Cf. Marie Lionnet, “La réception des formes iconographiques (dans les régions frontières: Vierge de miséricorde et Jugement dernier dans les peintures murales du royaume de Hongrie an XIVe et XVe siècles,” Acta Hist. Art. Hung. 46 (2005): 25-49, here 27 and 35, passim, who ties these images not only to cultural interferences, but also to the intensification of the Franciscan activities in the Kingdom of Hungary.

^[45] According to Iosif Camară, whom I thank once again for his precious advice, the spelling –o– instead of –oa– is either the result of a diphthong reduction or a graphic habit determined by the fact that Church Slavonic does not mark the diphthong oa. See Alexandru Rosetti, Istoria limbii române de la origini până la începutul secolului al XVII-lea [The History of the Romanian Language from Its Origins to the Early 17^th Century] (Bucharest: Editura Științifică și Pedagogică, 1986), 419; or Dicţionarul elementelor, 145, which shows that the Romanian words moară, moaşă, or moaşte were written with a basic о in Church Slavonic documents. In its earliest Romanian use – the Hurmuzaki Psalter, the word “death” is written both морте and моарте.

^[46] Agrigoroaei, “Umbra lui Dobre,” 184-194. Communal punishments and other scenes from Leșnic, Ribița, as well as the Serbian and Cretan churches (including the tavern wench), are also present in the first Ukrainian icons. See, e.g., John-Paul Himka, Last Judgement Iconography in the Carpathians (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009), 34-35, 66-71. For the representation of Death, see pp. 62-64 in particular.

^[47] For a first corelation between Codex Sturdzanus and the paintings of Leșnic, see Breazu, “Studiu epigrafic,” 46-47.

^[48] Breazu, “Studiu epigrafic,” 45-49, who first noted the links with oral or popular literature; and Corina Popa, “La peinture murale orthodoxe en Transylvanie au XIVe siècle et ses relations avec le monde serbe,” RRHA-BA 33 (1996): 3-19, here 5, who followed Breazu’s conclusions but mainly discussed the paintings of Haţeg.

^[49] For all the references to Codex Sturdzanus quoted in this paragraph and the next (unless quoting other studies), I follow the study and edition of Gheorghe Chivu, Codex Sturdzanus. Studiu filologic, studiu lingvistic, ediție de text și indice de cuvinte [Codex Sturdzanus. Philological Study, Linguistic Study, Text Edition, and Word Index] (Bucharest: Editura Academiei Române, 1993). Some texts can also be found in the Todorescu Fragment (Budapest, National Széchényi Library, RMK, I 361/I, c. 1571-1575); cf. Ion Gheție (ed.), Fragmentul Todorescu. Studiu filologic, studiu lingvistic și indice [The Todorescu Fragment: Philological Study, Linguistic Study, and Index] (Bucharest: EARSR, 1993); Nicolae Drăganu, ed., Două manuscripte vechi: Codicele Todorescu și Codicele Marțian. Studiu și transcriere [Two Old Manuscripts: The Todorescu Codex and the Martian Codex: Study and Transcription] (Bucharest: Socec/Sfetea, 1914).

^[50] Agrigoroaei, “Umbra lui Dobre,” 190-196.

^[51] See the Old Romanian text edited by Chivu, Codex Sturdzanus, 248-261.

^[52] E.g., Cristina Grigore, “O versiune a ‘Apocalipsului Maicii Domnului’ de la începutul veacului al XVIII-lea [An Early 18^th -Century Version of the ‘Apocalypse of the Virgin’],” LR 52, 4 (2003): 136-144; cf. Emil Turdeanu, “Un manuscris miscelaneu necunoscut [An Unknown Miscellaneous Manuscript],” Arhiva pentru știință și reformă socială 10, 1-4 (1932): 381-404.

^[53] Charalambos Gasparis, “Venetian Crete: The Historical Context,” in Hell in the Byzantine World, vol. 1, 60-116.

Fig. 1. Leșnic, Church of St Nicholas. Northern wall of the nave. The first group of sinners. © Vladimir Agrigoroaei, 2012.

Fig. 2. Leșnic, Church of St Nicholas. Northern wall of the nave. The second group of sinners. © Vladimir Agrigoroaei, 2012.

Fig. 3. Ribița, Church of St Nicholas. Southern wall of the entrance corridor under the belltower. General view of the nine sinners. © Vladimir Agrigoroaei, 2012.

Fig. 4. Ribița, Church of St Nicholas. Southern wall of the entrance corridor under the belltower. Close-up of the first sinner. © Vladimir Agrigoroaei, 2012.

Fig. 5. Ribița, Church of St Nicholas. Southern wall of the entrance corridor under the belltower. Close-up of the inscription of the first sinner. © Vladimir Agrigoroaei, 2012.

Fig. 6. Ribița, Church of St Nicholas. Southern wall of the entrance corridor under the belltower. Close-up of the inscription of the second sinner. © Vladimir Agrigoroaei, 2012.

Fig. 7. Ribița, Church of St Nicholas. Southern wall of the entrance corridor under the belltower. Close-up of the first four sinners after the restoration. © Adrian Andrei Rusu, 2024.

Fig. 8. Ribița, Church of St Nicholas. Southern wall of the entrance corridor under the belltower. Close-up of the last sinner (Sunday Sleeper). © Vladimir Agrigoroaei, 2012.

Fig. 9. Ribița, Church of St Nicholas. Southern wall of the entrance corridor under the belltower. Close-up of the inscription of the last sinner. © Vladimir Agrigoroaei, 2012.

Fig. 10. Ribița, Church of St Nicholas. Southern wall of the entrance corridor under the belltower. Close-up of the last two sinners after the restoration. © Adrian Andrei Rusu, 2024.

Fig. 11. Streisângeorgiu, Church of St George. Western wall of the nave. Close-up of the first fragment with the chained sinners. © Vladimir Agrigoroaei, 2017.

Fig. 12. Streisângeorgiu, Church of St George. Northern wall of the nave. Close-up of the second fragment with the couple coiled by snakes. © Vladimir Agrigoroaei, 2017.