UDC

930.272

Authors

Mikhail A. Shibaev
Saint Petersburg State University;
ul. Sadovaya 18, St. Petersburg, 191069, Russian Federation; e-mail: michailshibaev@mail.ru

Abstract

This article describes one of the aspects of the history of book writing in the Monastery of St. Cyril of Beloozero under hegumen Сassian. During that period, the monastery received a lot of attention and gifts from the grand princes of Muscovy; its financial situation and administrative facilities improved. In these circumstances, four volumes of the first edition of the Prolog (Synaxarion) were written; only three of them have survived to the present day. The Prolog was introduced in Russia as a result of the second South Slavic influence. Its copies were rare in the first half of the 15th century. This paper studies the 15th-century codices kept in the Manuscript Department of the National Library of Russia: collection no. 1/1240 from the Monastery of St. Cyril of Beloozero and collections no. 1353 and 1332 from the Cathedral of St. Sophia in Veliky Novgorod. The author argues that the above codices were written in the given order. Further, the article examines the chronology of the script and of the paper used. Codicological observations on the manuscripts made by the author indicate that the copying was initiated by scribe Porphyry, who copied the chronologically first codex in 1452. He also was involved in the work with the other two volumes, either as a scribe or as a compiling editor. In addition to calligraphic polustav (semi-uncial), Porphyry mastered the Greek style of writing with abundant elements graphically resembling skoropis (cursive writing). The article concludes that this decorative Greekish script came into fashion among Russian scribes in the first half of the 15th century as a result of the second South Slavic influence.

Keywords

codicology, 15th-century manuscripts, Monastery of St. Cyril of Beloozero, first edition of the Prolog, collection from the Cathedral of St. Sophia

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