Ancient manuscripts prove: Rus' is the birthplace of vampires. An ancient manuscript with spells has been deciphered by scientists

HANDWRITTEN BOOK IN ANCIENT Rus'.

The most ancient Russian books that have survived to our time date back to the 11th century. But handwritten books, of course, existed before. They came to us with the adoption of Christianity. The state required well-trained clergy, and also needed literate people for diplomatic, economic and other activities. The chronicle under the year 988 indicates that Prince Vladimir, after baptism, began to build churches, appoint priests, and gather children "among the deliberate children"(notable people) and “give a start to book learning”(give them training). “Book teaching” reached a special scope under Yaroslav the Wise, who, according to the stories of the chronicle “A gathering of elders and priests taught 300 children books.” Princes Vladimir and Yaroslav created schools where, in addition to reading, writing and singing, philosophy, rhetoric and grammar were also taught, as well as Greek, information was given on history, geography, and natural science. Literacy was widespread among the widest sections of the population. Schools were opened not only in Kyiv and Novgorod, but also in other cities at monasteries and churches, and they accepted children who had “reached the seventh summer.” Not only boys, but also girls were trained. The daughters of Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise were famous for their education. One of them, Anna, married the French king Henry I. A document has been preserved - a deed of gift from King Henry to the Soissons monastery. In addition to the king and queen, influential feudal lords of France were also supposed to sign it, but only Anna Yaroslavna signed it, because others, including the king himself, being illiterate, only put crosses. Chroniclers, when characterizing the princes, never forgot to emphasize their education. About Prince Yaroslav Vladimirovich himself, the Laurentian Chronicle wrote that he “being diligent in books, and reading them often night and day.” The son of Yaroslav the Wise, Anna’s brother, Vsevolod, was also widely educated: he knew five foreign languages. Prince Vladimir Monomakh highly valued books - he read a lot, took books with him on hikes, and was himself a talented author. His “Instructions for Children” belongs to the most important literary creations. It gives the ideal image of a prince, a caring and demanding teacher-father, a diligent owner, an experienced and brave warrior, caring not only about the good and power of his state, but also about the “bad stink” and the “poor widow.” The first books came to Rus' from Bulgaria, but very soon the translation and correspondence of liturgical and other literature directly on Russian soil was established. Large monasteries and cathedral churches, where highly educated people worked, became the main centers of literary creativity, correspondence and distribution of books. For example, the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Nestor, the author of “The Tale of Bygone Years,” is rightfully called the founder of Russian historical science.

How were the first Russian handwritten books created? The material for books was parchment, called in Rus' "haratya"(from the Latin word “charta” - “writing, writing”), as well as “leather”, “veal”. Books were written iron ink which had a brownish tint. Old iron (such as nails) was used for ink and tannins(“ink nuts” are growths on oak leaves). Added for shine and thickness cherry glue and molasses. Used for decoration colored paints, especially red ones, and also gold leaf, less often silver. The writing instruments were goose feathers, and for ceremonial writing they used swan and peacock feathers. The tip of the feather was cut off obliquely, and a short split was made in the middle of the tip. The process of writing books proceeded like this: the scribe sat on a stool next to a low table on which writing utensils were located. He held the parchment on his lap. Before writing the text, the parchment was lined using a ruler and an awl, and from the 16th century, a frame with threads stretched over it began to be used to line the sheets. The ink was dried by sprinkling it with sand. In monastic and princely book workshops there was a division of labor. The handwritten book had the form of a codex and consisted of sheets of parchment folded in half. First, the text was rewritten in ink, and then red lines were written in the empty spaces left. A special master artist decorated the book with headpieces and miniatures (drawings). After this, the book fell into the hands of a bookbinder, who sewed the sheets together and made the binding. The binding was two boards covered with leather, sometimes with velvet or brocade. Convex plaques made of metal (copper, gold or silver) were attached to the binding. Some books were placed in a frame - a kind of case, silver or even gold. It was decorated with precious stones. The book turned out to be large and heavy. It was difficult to hold it in your hands, so when reading, it was placed on the table. Naturally, such books belonged to rich people, monasteries and churches. Creating a handwritten book took a long time, sometimes several years.

Already the first books created in Rus' talk about high level book business, about the extraordinary skill of book writers and designers. The letterforms, decorated initials, intricate headpieces and drawings - all this shows how much care the ancient masters put into creating the book. Many books were made to order. Excellent examples of ancient Russian handwritten books have survived to this day, such as Svyatoslav’s “Izbornik” of 1073. This is a collection of articles rewritten by clerk John and his assistant at the request of the eldest son of Yaroslav the Wise - Prince Izyaslav of Kyiv. The “Izbornik” was rewritten from the original in Bulgarian, which originally belonged to the Bulgarian Tsar Simeon (10th century). Later, this book went to Izyaslav’s brother, Svyatoslav, who ordered the manuscript to be supplemented with parchment sheets with miniatures, one of which depicts Svyatoslav Yaroslavich himself with members of his family. The book contains 266 parchment sheets, richly decorated with colored vignettes, initials, and zodiac signs written in the margins. The book's decoration uses motifs from Russian folk art. "Elects" were very popular in Rus'. They included fragments from the “holy scriptures,” the works of the “church fathers,” sayings of the sages, and works of ancient and medieval writers. They included articles on rhetoric, logic, poetics, and historical information. In addition to “Izborniki”, it was also widespread Gospel. The Mstislav Gospel, written around 1115, stands out for its artistic design. Beautiful parchment, beautiful writing, ornaments made in gold and multi-colored paints, luxurious binding covered in silver, with elegant gold plaques and filigree. From the entry in the Gospel it follows that this book was rewritten by Alexa, the son of the priest Lazarus, by order of the Novgorod prince Mstislav. Another record shows that after Alexa, who wrote the text in ink, the work was continued by master Jaden, who painted the necessary places with gold. From the third, later entry, we learn that, having taken the throne of the Grand Duke in Kyiv after the death of his father, Mstislav sent his steward Naslav with this Gospel to Byzantium and ordered the book to be provided with a beautiful binding there. The most popular book for home reading was Psalter. Her lyrical poems were read with pleasure by both young and old, and individual phrases were widely used as aphorisms to decorate live speech. The Psalter was read to the sick to alleviate their suffering, and its texts were also used during funeral services for the dead. They wrote for church services Service Menaion, in which the content was distributed by month. It is quite difficult to divide ancient Russian books into educational books, chetya books (that is, for home reading) and liturgical books. The only thing that distinguished the books used in worship from books for reading was their rich design, in order to give the church service a special solemnity.

The middle position between religious and secular literature was occupied by very widespread "Walking"- travel of various clergy or laity to Jerusalem and other holy places. For example, “The Walk of Abbot Daniel from the Russian Land.” It was written in the 12th century. This is a travel diary - a story about the journey of a Russian monk to Palestine. Some works also came from Byzantium to Rus' fiction. They were not just translated, but processed and replenished. One of the most beloved was the novel “Alexandria” - a story about the life and deeds of Alexander the Great. Historical facts here they coexist with bizarre fiction, but for medieval man this fantastic Alexander was a completely real hero.

“Scientific” literature also came to Rus' from Byzantium and Bulgaria. The most widespread book was “Christian Topography” by the Egyptian monk Cosmas Indicopleus (VI century), which said that the earth as the center of the universe is an oblong flat rectangle, around it is the ocean, above the earth is the firmament supported by two arches, and even higher - "kingdom of heaven" The change of night and day was explained by the movement of the Sun around a cone-shaped elevation in the northern part of the earth's plane. The reader of those times learned about the animal world from Physiologists. These descriptions of animals and birds were replete with fairy tales and legends. The authors presented to readers not only the appearance of animals, but also their “spiritual properties.” So, for example, the fox, like the devil, is “a cunning deceiver, and her deeds are evil.” Along with real animals, centaurs, unicorns, sirens, the phoenix bird and others appeared. This diversity of translated literature became an incentive for the emergence of different genres in ancient Russian literature. The source was epics, fairy tales, and historical songs. Folk legends formed the basis of the first Russian chronicles. Perhaps it was then that the legends kept in the people's memory about the first Kyiv princes Askold and Dir, about the “prophetic” Oleg, were recorded. Truly priceless monuments of domestic and world literature were “The Tale of Bygone Years” and “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” (12th century). In those distant times, there were books banned by the church. The first lists of “false” (forbidden) works appeared already in the 11th century. In Svyatoslav’s “Izbornik”, in addition to the list of “true” books recommended for reading, two more are given. The first list included books that had errors in copying. Such books were only allowed to be read by particularly knowledgeable readers. Another list included “false” or “renounced” books. They were subject to destruction, and reading them was strictly prohibited. These included pagan literature, and later the bans extended to books in various branches of “secret” sciences (astronomy, astrology, cosmography, etc.), which rejected the teachings of the church about the creation of the world. This also included “witchcraft” books, collections of spells, dream books and the like. Reading “false” books was considered a grave sin.

A low vaulted cell or a simple wooden hut. Dim light falls from a tiny window, and in the evenings and at night it pours from a small lamp. On a small low table lies everything you need for writing: an inkwell and a cinnabar, a sandbox with small river fishing line for sprinkling what you just wrote (instead of a blotter), two knives - one for sharpening pens, the other for erasing mistakes, for the same purpose lies pumice and sponge; right there to line the page there is a ruler, a compass, a chain and a special metal or bone awl, which is used to press the line line. And a man is sitting next to him. He has a manuscript on his lap. In the hands of a goose feather. He writes. Writes a book. This is an ancient Russian scribe, or copyist. He was completely absorbed in his difficult, painstaking and intense work. The text from which he copied is right there on the table. So the scribe looked up from the manuscript lying on his lap, looked at the text, found the right place, read it and again bent over his work, repeating aloud the words that his hand was writing at that time. And so letter by letter, word by word, line by line, page by page.

He watches carefully so as not to miss a letter or (God forbid!) a line - this also happens if his attention weakens and his eye accidentally jumps from the right place to another. If an error is detected immediately, in progress is underway a knife, and the wrong letter or line is scraped out, the missing word is written on. At the end of the book, the scribe turns to the future reader with a request to forgive him for the mistakes he made: “And Kozma Popovich wrote, and I’ll be where I hesitated (made a mistake) in my rudeness and drunkenness, fathers and brothers, honor me correctly... but don’t slander me.”

A tired copyist was not averse to reminding the future reader of the book about his existence, to talk about the situation in which the book was born. So notes appeared in the margins, from which it is easy to imagine the life and work of a book copyist.

It's already night outside. Everyone had long since fallen asleep. And only two people bent over their manuscripts: “All people are sleeping, but we, our two scribes, are not sleeping.” But sleep overcomes them too, their attention weakens, and a note appears in the margin: “Oh Lord, help, oh Lord, hurry up!” Drowsiness is inapplicable, and in this row (line) I went crazy (made a mistake).” And so all night long, and in the morning the tired scribe will again remind himself in the fields of his work: “the night is over, and the day is approaching.” They lit the stove, made some smoke, and the scribe reports: “It’s already smoky, let’s climb into another hut.”

Many notes remind us of the census taker’s appetite: “Boil, dividing God, sturgeon fish and fresh pike,” he writes in the margins; or: “You won’t be able to overeat if they put jelly with milk.”

“The merchant rejoices when he has made a purchase, and the helmsman rejoices when the bailiff is at rest, and the wanderer has come to his fatherland; The book writer rejoices in the same way when he reaches the end of his books; So too am I, a bad, unworthy and sinful servant of God, Lavrentiy. I began to write this book, the verb chronicler, in the month of January at 14..., and I finished on March at 20...” We will find such a record on the oldest copy of the chronicle that has reached us, which is called after its “writer” Laurentian.

There were shorter entries, but no less expressive: “As the groom rejoices over the bride, so the scribe rejoices when he sees the last sheet”; or: “...As glad is the hare to escape the snare, so glad is the scribe to write the last line.”

In most cases, the copyists of books were laymen - artisans who devoted themselves entirely to this difficult work. There were cases when such a scribe went to a monastery, continuing to practice his craft there. Perhaps in XVI-XVII centuries There were special workshops for copying books. Sometimes scribes could be found among the boyar household: a serf scribe copied books for his enlightened scribe master.

They wrote with feathers - goose, swan, even peacock. The latter, of course, is much less common, and in such cases the scribe did not miss the opportunity to boast: “I wrote with a peacock pen.” But more often he bitterly stated something completely different: “It’s a wicked pen, you can’t write with it.” The very process of preparing the pen for writing required high art from the scribe.

To make ink, old (or other objects made from old iron) were used, which were dipped in kvass or sour cabbage soup; oak or alder bark was added for viscosity.

It was more difficult with the material on which to write. The most ancient material for writing in Rus' was parchment. This word itself appears among us only in the 17th century. Before this, books on parchment were called “Kharatiya” (from “haratos”) or even more often “books on leather” or “on veal” (they wrote: “a book was written in ten years on veal”) - after all, parchment was usually made , made of calfskin.

Since the 14th century, paper appeared in Rus', first only imported, then its own, domestic paper. Until the 19th century. the paper was made by hand. Hemp or linen rags were soaked for a long time and boiled together with ash or lime until a solid mushy mass was obtained. This mass was then scooped out of the vat using a special device consisting of a rectangular stretcher, wire mesh and a removable frame. The water drained, and the mass remained on the mesh and, when dried, turned into a thin paper layer, which was then smoothed and polished. The production method was reflected in the appearance of ancient paper. If you look at it in the light, you will immediately notice the wire mesh imprinted on it, on which the paper was dried. And in the center of the sheet (or on the side) we will definitely find some kind of pattern, letter, emblem. These are watermarks, or filigrees, made from the same wire as the mesh. Each workshop had its own filigree. Therefore, researchers are now closely studying these watermarks, which often help date the manuscript.

One way or another, the census taker purchased paper or “veal” and finally got to work. He writes on notebooks folded into double or quadruple sheets - the bookbinder's work still lies ahead. The “artist” will also come later. And the scribe leaves room for future miniatures, headpieces, and initial letters.

Miniature from an ancient Russian book.

And isn’t the scribe himself an artist! With what taste and skill he places lines on a white field. There is so much grace in each letter, written out separately with great care. The most ancient books written in the charter are especially beautiful and majestic: the letters are almost square, with regular lines and roundings, even pressure, they stand straight on the line, without tilting, one separately from the other, at an equal distance from each other.

The most ancient dated book that has come down to us was written by the Charter (1056-1057), rewritten for the Novgorod mayor Ostromir. That is why it is now called: “Ostromir Gospel.”

Starting from the 14th century, semi-ustav appeared - this handwriting is smaller than the charter, the letters are written with an angle, quickly and sweepingly. Therefore, the lines of the half-chart no longer have the same geometric precision as in the charter; the letters are not at the same distance from each other.

From the XV to the XVII centuries. The third type of handwriting is becoming more and more widespread - cursive. Despite the fact that the name itself suggests that this handwriting was used in business writing and did not seem to set itself aesthetic goals, nevertheless, many manuscripts written in cursive are surprisingly beautiful: there is a great variety in writing the same letters, freedom of pressure and strokes of the pen give cursive writing an intricate sophistication and a peculiar grace. In the hands of an experienced scribe, cursive writing was no less attractive than the charter. And although she did not have the statutory solemnity, she looked warmer and softer.

Finally, the scribe finished his work. The correspondence of the book sometimes continued for several months. The manuscript came into the hands of the artist. In the places left by the scribe, he wrote capital letters, drew headpieces and miniatures. Looking at the ornaments of ancient Russian initial letters and headpieces, it’s as if we find ourselves in an unknown fairy-tale world with amazing plants, animals and birds.

Here you can meet a dragon or a monstrous serpent, curved like the letter B, and the magical bird Sirin. Here is a fish - O. No less amazing is floral ornament from intricately intertwined stems, herbs, leaves and flowers of the most varied shapes and colors.

Sometimes from the world of wonder we find ourselves in the very thick of ancient Russian life. Here is a hunter who caught a hare (letter P), here he is gutting this hare (letter L), here is a hunter with a falcon and prey (H), and here is some drunkard with his legs spread like the letter X. Very often the letter D was depicted as guslyar - “buzzer”. Finally, before us is the scribe himself. In one hand he holds a manuscript, in the other - a pen. This is the letter B. Since the 14th century, ligature has appeared in Russian books - a special way of writing a title, in which several letters are combined into one, or some letters, written small, are placed inside others, written large. All this creates a special, elaborate ornament in which you cannot immediately discern the outlines of individual letters. To do this, the book must be raised to the same horizontal plane as the eyes, and then you can hardly read what is written. Here are examples of Old Russian script.

While scribes and artists are working on the book, there is no book as such yet. She imagines a pile separate sheets. Sometimes, to speed up the work, several scribes work on a book. It happens that for this purpose it is necessary to divide the text into its component parts, from which it must be copied. Each scribe learns his lesson. In this case, something like this can happen: the individual parts do not match. One scribe finished at the beginning of one sheet, and the next began the continuation from the beginning of another sheet. This way there will still be free space.

Finally, both the scribe and the artist will put down their pen and brush with relief: it’s done. Now you can give the book to the bookbinder. In ancient times, a board was placed as the basis of the binding (it’s not for nothing that they say: read from board to board). The board was covered with leather, fabric, sometimes brocade or velvet. Sometimes especially valuable books were decorated with gold, silver, precious stones, then the jeweler put his hand to it.

In the Armory Chamber, the Historical Museum and other collections we can see books that are high examples of jewelry art. The book was thick. Therefore, fasteners were necessarily attached to the binding. Not closing a book with clasps was considered a great sin. Now the book is ready. What is her future fate?

If the scribe was a serf, the book went to his master's library. If the copyist was a monk, the book remained in the monastery library. If it was written to order, the customer received it. On one book we find the following note: “The notebooks of Vasily Stepanov, but they were written to Vasily Olferyev, and he did not pay anything for them, and (I) did not give him the notebooks.”

In the 17th century In Moscow there was a “book row” where handwritten and printed books were sold. There was also a brisk trade in books in the vegetable aisle, along with overseas fruits and engravings. What was the price of the book in ancient Rus'! In the 13th century, Prince Vladimir Vasilkovich paid 8 hryvnia kun for a small prayer book. Around the same time, he bought the village for 50 hryvnia kuna. On one of the books of the late 16th century, an entry was made in 1594: three rubles were given. In those same years, 4 rubles were paid for a gelding. Chronicle books were very expensive - in the 17th century they cost 4-5 rubles, a very considerable amount at that time.

It is clear that very few people could afford to collect a library. We have reached some information about ancient Russian libraries. The largest collections of books in those days were most often located at monasteries. There was a large library in the Kirillovo-Belozersky Monastery in the 17th century. There were 473 books here. There were 411 books in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and 189 in the Joseph-Volokolamsk Monastery. Among the boyars, the largest library was owned by Prince V.V. Golitsyn, the favorite of Princess Sophia.

The book enjoyed special respect in ancient Rus'. In The Tale of Bygone Years we find a real panegyric to books; “These are the rivers that water the universe, these are the sources of wisdom!” - exclaims the chronicler. The love for books was also reflected in the fine arts of ancient Rus'. A man writing, a man with a book are very common subjects in ancient Russian painting.

In the middle of the 16th century, the first printing house, the first Moscow printed book, appeared in Moscow. But for a long time, throughout the 17th and even 18th centuries, the work of a copyist remained a living, undying profession. Only in the 19th century did the printed book finally replace the handwritten one, and only works that, for some serious reason, were not published, like Griboyedov’s “Woe from Wit,” Pushkin’s ode “Liberty,” and Lermontov’s “On the Death of a Poet” continue to be listed.

Writing on the territory of Rus' arose much later than it happened on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. At the time when the calligraphers of Egypt, Rome, and Greece honed their art on papyri and parchment, the endless steppes and forests of the Central Russian Upland were not yet even populated. The tribes of hunters and herders who came here at the beginning of the first millennium AD also did not need either an alphabet or writing. As a result, the most ancient handwritten monuments of Russian history date back to a time when the culture of Western Europe had already reached its peak, experienced decline due to the arrival of the barbarians, and again rushed towards revival. As one would expect, the first books of Rus' turned out to be related to religious themes.

The most ancient Russian handwritten book

The most ancient Russian handwritten books that have reached us date back to the beginning of the 11th century. Although scientists believe that such books could have appeared in Rus' already in the 9th century following the invention Slavic writing. According to rough estimates by the historian N.K. Nikolsky, who devoted his life to compiling a card index of ancient Russian written publications, the number of handwritten books dating from the 11th to 18th centuries in our repositories ranges from 80 to 100 thousand manuscripts. According to academician Likhachev D.S. this estimate is inaccurate in the sense that it is too modest. Old Russian literature is truly enormous, and today they speak of it as a separate branch of Old Russian art.

The oldest handwritten book written by an East Slavic scribe in the Old Russian language is the church book "Ostromir Gospel", published in 1056. This is a unique masterpiece of ancient Russian book art. The 294 parchment pages are lavishly illustrated - they are decorated with magnificent images of the evangelists, colorful headpieces and initial letters. The text is written in straight lines of the Old Church Slavonic Cyrillic alphabet. Byzantine traditions are traced in the ornaments. The "Ostromir Gospel" was written in a single copy.

It is obvious that a whole manuscript workshop took part in its creation. Unfortunately, we know only one of the masters - Deacon Gregory. He probably did most of the work. The postscript to the manuscript says that work on it lasted seven months. In the same colophon, Deacon Gregory also reports on the time and circumstances of the writing of the ancient Russian book - the manuscript was commissioned by the Novgorod mayor Ostromir, who was sent to rule Novgorod lands prince of Kyiv Izyaslav Yaroslavich in 1054.

The "Ostromir Gospel" of Deacon Gregory and his unknown comrades is a most valuable monument of ancient Russian writing, language and fine arts. It is written in large, beautiful letters, and the size of the letters gradually increases towards the end of the book (from 5 to 7 millimeters). The text of the ancient book is written in two columns of 18 lines on pages measuring 20x24 centimeters, decorated with colorful initial letters, headpieces, images of evangelists, and cinnabar is used in places. The manuscript consists of 294 sheets of good quality parchment. There are several sheets with sewn-up cuts and holes (in places where gadflies have bitten), which appeared even before the text was written.

Unlike other monuments of the 11th century, in the “Ostromir Gospel” there is a correct rendering of reduced vowel sounds in the letters ъ and ь. This phonetic feature was common to Old Church Slavonic and other Slavic languages, therefore, the Russian copyist, according to tradition, conveyed it well in writing, although by that time it had already disappeared. Where in the 11th century there were differences between Old Church Slavonic and Russian features, the scribe unwittingly mixed them up. This allows us to identify the “Ostromir Gospel” as one of the first monuments of the Old Church Slavonic language of the Russian edition.

Like any such ancient book, the Ostromir Gospel has its own fascinating story. Until the beginning of the 18th century, however, its history is shrouded in darkness. In 1701, the manuscript was mentioned in the inventory of the property of the Resurrection Church as part of the Verkhospassky Cathedral. In 1720, by order of Peter I, the book was sent (along with other old books) to St. Petersburg. After the death of Catherine II, the manuscript was found in her chambers by Ya.A. Druzhinin, who served under the Empress, who in 1806 presented it as a gift to Emperor Alexander I, who, in turn, ordered the book to be transferred for storage to the Imperial Public Library (now the Russian National Library). library in St. Petersburg), where it is kept today.

The manuscript of the “Ostromir Gospel” was decorated with a binding with precious stones, which is why it almost died: in 1932, a plumber stole it after breaking a display case. The attacker, tearing off the binding, threw the manuscript into a closet (according to other sources, onto a closet), where it was soon found. They no longer began to rebind the old book.

WITH early XIX century, the scientific study of the manuscript began. The Ostromir Gospel was first published by Vostokov A.Kh. in 1843 with an appendix short grammar, dictionary and Greek interlinear text. For this typesetting edition, a special Slavic font was made that accurately reproduces the handwriting of the original (there is even a reprint made in Wiesbaden in 1964). Later, facsimile editions were also published: black and white - in 1883; color gift in original format - in Leningrad in 1988.

Excerpts from the Ostromir Gospel were included in the compulsory curriculum of pre-revolutionary schools. In 1955, Trey E.H. carried out the restoration of this manuscript. On the basis of this ancient Russian book, modern grammars and dictionaries of the Old Church Slavonic language were created. A lot of research has been devoted to the monument and its language, but the language of this manuscript still requires thorough study.

The most ancient books of Rus': Novgorod Codex

Speaking about the oldest handwritten book compiled in Rus', one cannot ignore this manuscript. The Ostromir Gospel, of course, holds the lead among the oldest books in the Russian language, for which the exact date of their writing has been reliably established. However, on July 13, 2000, during excavations (which had been going on there for the twenty-eighth year) by the Novgorod archaeological expedition led by Academician V.L. Yanin. In the layers of the first quarter of the 11th century, three wooden (linden) planks measuring 19x15x1 centimeters were discovered.

Each board has a rectangular recess (15x11.5 cm), filled with wax; On the middle plank, such indentations are made on both sides. The boards have holes at the edges into which wooden pins are inserted to connect them into a single set. Thus, the ancient wooden book contained four wax pages (ceras). The outer sides of the first and last tablets acted as the covers of the codex.

The Novgorod Codex consists of linden tablets with four pages (ceras) covered with wax for writing with a stylus. According to stratigraphic, radiocarbon and paleographic data, the wax codex was used in the first quarter of the 11th century and possibly from recent years 10th century, so it is several decades older than the Ostromir Gospel, which was considered the most ancient book in Rus' with exactly set date writing. Thus, the Novgorod Codex (or “Novgorod Psalter” - according to the highest quality readable text) is the oldest book of Rus'.

Cera is well preserved thanks to the marshy conditions in which it remained for about a thousand years. The uniqueness of the situation lies in the fact that the boards were thoroughly saturated with moisture and there was no access to oxygen; as a result, there were no living conditions for microorganisms that cause decay processes.

The dating of the Novgorod Codex is determined by the fact that it lay half a meter from the edge and 30 centimeters below the frame, which received a reliable dendrochronological date - 1036. This is the upper limit of the likely time for the planks to hit the ground. It is reasonable to consider the baptism of Rus' in 988 as the lower chronological limit of the creation of the code. At Uppsala University (Sweden's oldest university), radiocarbon dating of the wax was carried out, which with 84% probability indicates the year 1015 (plus or minus 35 years).

Earlier Slavic dated documents are only some ancient Bulgarian and Croatian inscriptions of the 10th century, but they cannot be classified as “books”. Consequently, today the Novgorod Psalter is the earliest monument to the Russian version of the Church Slavonic language and the oldest of the books of ancient Rus' that have come down to us, which do not have an exact dating.

In addition to the main text of the ancient book, researchers report the “reconstruction” of part of the previous (“hidden”) texts based on imprints and scratches of the stylus on wooden tablets under wax. The problem of restoring these texts lies primarily in the fact that very faint imprints of tens of thousands of letters are superimposed on each other, hardly distinguishable from random strokes and cracks on wood.

For example, among the “hidden texts” a worn-out inscription was read, which says that in 999 the monk Isaac was made priest in Suzdal in the church of St. Alexander the Armenian. It is possible that the monk Isaac was the author of the Novgorod Code and belonged to a heretical religious movement.

Handwritten ancient books of Kievan Rus of the 11th century

Collection of Svyatoslav 1073. An ancient Russian book that was copied in Kyiv for Prince Svyatoslav Yaroslavich. The ceremonial edition, which is an encyclopedia of various information, contains more than 400 sections from history, mathematics, natural science, grammar, philosophy and other areas. The book is written in Cyrillic script on parchment. The original, which served as the basis for the rewriting of the “Svyatoslav Collection”, is considered to be a Bulgarian collection created in the 10th century for Tsar Simeon. One of the largest ancient books in size. The frontispieces are especially decorative - there are two of them in the book.

Collection of Svyatoslav 1073. An ancient Russian book written by two scribes, one of whom worked on the Izbornik of 1073. In the text, the authors report that the manuscript was compiled “from many princely books.” The small-sized reference book also has encyclopedic content. There are no ceremonial illustrations in it. Compared to the Izbornik of 1073, the composition of the ancient book has been changed - here more articles religious content. Among the new texts is “A Word on Reading Books,” where the author teaches how to read a book.

Arkhangelsk Gospel of 1092. This ancient manuscript is unique from the point of view of linguistics, paleography and bibliology. It follows Old Russian spelling. Artistically, the publication is more than modest. The charter is written on parchment, without drawings or miniatures. But what is good are screensavers that are laconic in color, but harmonious in proportions and decorations. Dense, even lines are separated by a cinnabar line with initial letters only on rare pages. In 2000, the “Arkhangelsk Gospel” was included by UNESCO in the international Memory of the World register.

Novgorod service menaia for September 1095, October 1096 and November 1097. Menaions are liturgical books and books for reading, containing the “lives of the saints,” stories about church holidays and teachings. Menaions for the service of menstruation contain texts for one month, arranged according to the days of each month, respectively, with holidays and days of remembrance of saints. The most ancient menaia have not reached us completely - each one is missing several leaves. The books are quite large for the 11th century: two of them contain more than 170 sheets, the third - more than 120 sheets. The Menaions were written for the Novgorod Lazarus Monastery. Today they are considered the oldest monuments of the Church Slavonic language, conveying the features of Old Russian northern dialects.

The very first printed Russian books

The Russian word “book” (originates from the Church Slavonic “knigy”) was well known to Slavic chronicle scribes back in the 14th century. However, at that time all ancient Russian books were handwritten. In Rus', the beginning of typographical book printing, as is known from school textbooks, dates back to the 16th century. It is connected with the names of the remarkable Russian master Ivan Fedorov and Belarusian Peter Mstislavets.

The first Russian printing house was founded near the Moscow Kremlin, on Nikolskaya Street (then Nikolsky Krestets). Unlike the first European printing house of Johannes Gutenberg, who became the first printer of his own free will, the Moscow printing house was built by order of the tsar. Moreover, this construction lasted for almost ten years.

By the time of its creation, craftsmen in Rus' already had some experience in producing printed books. Back in 1553-1557, Russian masters, whose names have not yet been established, published two printed books. They are the first Russian publications published under printing press. Their printing was not yet very skillful, the lines were not aligned, the pages were not numbered. There is a hypothesis that the first books in Rus' were printed by a certain Marusha Nefediev. He is mentioned in two letters from Ivan the Terrible as a “printing master.” It is possible that Ivan Fedorov knew about these first books. But, of course, his famous “Apostle” incomparably surpassed them in all his qualities.

So, when the printing yard was erected, on April 19, 1563, “the cunning masters of printing” began work on their first book, “The Acts and Epistles of the Holy Apostles.” This work lasted about a year. Ivan Fedorov did a huge amount of editorial work and designed the book according to all the rules of the printing art of that time. Now this antique book is a rarity!

On March 1, 1564, at the behest of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible, with the blessing of Metropolitan Macarius of All Rus', the first Russian precisely dated book “The Apostle” was published - Ivan Fedorov went down in Russian history as the first printer. Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Mstislavets began printing the Apostle on April 19, 1563. It was published in an unprecedented circulation for that time - about a thousand copies. Not a single foreign European printing house at that time printed its books in such quantities.

Ivan Fedorov also managed to surpass foreign printing technology - he printed his book in two colors, which foreign masters had not yet been able to do. After the canonical church text "Apostle" Ivan Fedorov added his afterword. In it he told how and when the book was created. The publication of "The Apostle" earned recognition even from such famous typographers and publishers of the 16th century as the Nuremberg master Anton Koberger and the Venetian scribe Aldus Manutius.

However, new trends in the book business caused a protest from the monastic scribes - their work was simply becoming financially unprofitable. The printers were accused of spreading heresy. In 1566, for an unknown reason, a fire occurred in their printing house, and they decided to urgently leave the capital of Muscovy. The pioneer printers fled to Lithuania, taking with them 35 engraved boards. Having been warmly received by the Polish king Sigismund, Ivan Fedorov found refuge with the Polish hetman Chodkiewicz, a philanthropist and educator, who founded a printing house on his estate.

But the book printing founded by Ivan Fedorov could no longer be stopped. In the 17th century, the Moscow printing house was already producing quite a lot of books, and some of them - “Psalter”, “Apostle”, “Service Book”, “Grammar” by Smotritsky - were published in several editions, and their circulation reached six thousand copies.

It is curious that Russian book publishers were the first in the world to print books for children - in 1692, the first Primer was published for them in Moscow, compiled by the outstanding teacher Karion Istomin. The “Primer” contained many drawings that attracted the attention of “youths and young women,” as stated in the dedication. The book could really teach children, as Istomin called, “not by resorting to the rod, but by amusing.”

Tsar Peter the Great understood the meaning of the printed word well. He contributed greatly to the development of Russian book printing. With his participation, a civil script was introduced on January 1, 1708. Russian books of general education content, textbooks, and artistic works appeared. Books on new subjects began to differ from church books, which were printed in Cyrillic. From that time on, the number of church books began to steadily decrease, and the number of publications of secular literature increased.

New printing houses began to open in the Russian Empire. To the only Moscow printing house in the country in 1711, the St. Petersburg one was added, and ten years later - the Senate one. Russian printed books began to be sold in shops. In Moscow in the 17th century, the center of the book trade was Kitai-Gorod. According to the inventory of 1695, in Kitay-Gorod there were “...up to 72 rows of small shops, forming small narrow streets. There were rows for sash, mittens, stockings, shoes, boots, soles, fur, beaver, sable, and among them there was a row for icons and books." Maxim the Greek, the most educated man of the 16th century, mentioned these rows - apparently, they were the first Russian “marketplace” where you could buy a book.

Codex Sinaiticus is the oldest manuscript codex of the Bible and the oldest complete text of the New Testament, written by Christian monks on parchment in the 4th century AD. For many centuries it was kept in Greek St. Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai. The Codex Sinaiticus is considered the most outstanding monument of Christian writing that has survived to this day.

Back in the Middle Ages, the Codex Sinaiticus was divided into parts, and its discovery also did not occur at one time. Currently, the Codex Sinaiticus is stored in several places: 347 leaves - in British Library, 43 sheets - in University Library in Leipzig, 12 sheets and several fragments miraculously survived in the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai and 3 fragments in Russian National Library in St. Petersburg.

However, the London part - in fact, what was called the Codex Sinaiticus in the 19th century - is the greatest value: it is in it that 199 leaves with the New Testament are preserved; and this most valuable part until 1933 belonged to the Public Library in Leningrad.

From this we can conclude that the fate of the manuscript, even after its acquisition, was non-trivial.

First of all, the issue of priority in opening the code is discussed. The first 43 sheets, with fragments of texts Old Testament, discovered in 1844 in Sinai by a German theologian and hunter of biblical manuscripts Konstantin Tischendorf. He published them in Leipzig in 1846 as a separate album and called them the Codex Friderico-Augustanus in honor of the King of Saxony, Friedrich Augustus II, whose subject was Tischendorf.

And in 1845, a Russian scientist-monk - Archimandrite Porfiry (Uspensky) discovered there, on Sinai, the main part of the codex, including the complete New Testament.

On his next visit, in 1850, he described this manuscript in detail, and in 1857 he facsimilated several lines as a sample of the interesting handwriting of the codex. However, despite his primacy, Porfiry could not appreciate the dignity of the find: the Russian monk did not like the “non-canonical” parts of the manuscript and he considered it spoiled, cutting off a piece from it as a keepsake.

In 1859, the same Tischendorf went on a trip with the money of the Russian government to collect biblical manuscripts. Permission for the trip and the decree on the allocation of money were given personally by Emperor Alexander II. And then, as someone who had the patronage of the Russian sovereign, the Sinai monks showed Tischendorf the “damaged” manuscript of the New Testament - the same one that the Russian monk Porfiry had studied twice. But since Tischendorf was primarily a scientist, and also a Lutheran, he turned his attention to the antiquity of the manuscript - precisely what, due to insufficient paleographic and theological knowledge, Porfiry, who dated the manuscript to the 5th or even 6th century, could not correctly understand.

Tischendorf convincingly proved that the manuscript was written in the 4th century (between 325 and 360), that is, before him was the earliest surviving manuscript of the New Testament in the world.

But it’s one thing to find a manuscript, and quite another to transport it to Russia. If in 1845 or 1850 the Russian monk Porfiry had wanted to take her with him, this would have been possible almost without hindrance. When the manuscript was discovered in February 1859 by Tischendorf, who was also a great PR master, he immediately proclaimed to “the city and the world” that he had discovered the oldest biblical manuscript! After such statements, the matter became much more complicated. Moreover, being a Lutheran, for the Greek monks of the Sinai monastery he remained an infidel and could not expect either concessions or leniency. In order not to let the manuscript out of his hands, Tischendorf undertook to make a copy of it and thereby gain time at the same time. For this purpose, the manuscript was transported by the monks to the capital Ottoman Empire Constantinople.

And for good reason: Tischendorf knew that soon a very important Russian traveler would be in the Holy Land - the brother of the Russian Emperor Alexander II Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, with whom Tischendorf was not only familiar, but also quite close. Taking the Grand Duke into account, the scientist used him as the driver of his interests. The calculation turned out to be highest degree correct: the Russian embassy in Constantinople became much more interested in helping the traveling German, and as a result the Russian envoy to the Ottoman Porte, Prince Alexey Lobanov-Rostovsky issued an official receipt to the monks on behalf of Russian Ministry Foreign Affairs is that the manuscript is taken by Tischendorf for scientific publication, and the Russian Empire guarantees the return of the Codex Sinaiticus to its rightful owner.

In the same year, 1859, the Christian shrine left its monastery forever, arrived in St. Petersburg in November and was shown to the emperor and empress, and in 1862, a four-volume (!) facsimile edition of the Bibliorum Codex Sinaiticus Petropolitanus was published, which was simultaneously presented as one of the main achievements on the occasion celebrating the millennium of Russia.

Everything would be fine, but the oldest biblical manuscript in the world was de facto in St. Petersburg in the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and de jure belonged to the brethren of the Sinai Monastery. This question was of concern to both the Sinai monks and Emperor Alexander II. In addition, many not only believed, but also expressed the opinion out loud that “a German stole a biblical manuscript from a monastery.” Actually, this point of view became established, and even in the twentieth century they continued to believe that the Codex Sinaiticus was taken from the monastery illegally, and storing it in St. Petersburg was a violation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ obligation to return the treasure to its rightful owner. That is why, after the revolution of 1917, the Sinai monastery laid claim to the manuscript, but did not succeed. And only recently it was possible to prove it thanks to archival finds Anna Zakharova that the manuscript was officially handed over in 1869 by the Sinai brethren: the new Russian envoy to Constantinople, General Nikolay Ignatiev arranged this business at a cost of 9 thousand rubles. silver

Of course, the brethren were forced to sign this act by the circumstances themselves, because after the manuscript left Sinai, no one doubted that it would never return there again.

As for the amount of 9 thousand rubles, then for comparison let’s say: the facsimile edition of 1862 cost the treasury 20 thousand. That is, the legitimacy of the transfer was achieved, but the historical truth was also obvious to everyone. But the deed was done, the paper was signed by the brethren of the monastery and received by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and from that moment the Codex Sinaiticus was the property of the Russian Empire. From the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it was then transferred to the Public Library for eternal storage.

This manuscript would have remained the pearl of the manuscript collection of the library in St. Petersburg, but now only pitiful remains are preserved there - a few pitiful fragments and not a single complete page. The fact is that in 1933 the British government bought the Codex Sinaiticus for £100 thousand, which at that time, at the height of the Great Depression, was half a million dollars. The manuscript was placed in the British Museum, and part of the money spent was reimbursed by popular subscription.

The euphoria of the British over the acquisition of the oldest manuscript of the New Testament was overshadowed by the fact that the era of the Great Depression made such a purchase challenging for the huge army of British unemployed, who even staged protest demonstrations about this. And no symbolism of this act, when “a godless people renounces Christian shrines” in favor of the English believers, did not smooth out the impression of a gigantic waste in a difficult time.

But, of course, no government could buy this precious manuscript if soviet government didn't want to sell it. And it not only wanted, but also officially agreed to the specified amount, which was offered by the British government in 1933. The decision to sell was made by the final authority - by voting at a meeting of the Politburo, and on one of the extracts the name of the “chief” is listed - Joseph Stalin.

Archive photo

When the British Museum library gained independence in 1970, the Codex Sinaiticus became one of the main treasures of the British Library; it is still on display in the treasure gallery in a special display case. Visit there - you will get a very strong impression.

Considering the outstanding significance of this monument for humanity, an international project began in 2005 Codex Sinaiticus, founded by the British Library and the remaining holders of the manuscript fragments.

If this international project made the text of the manuscript itself available on the Internet, then to the history of Codex Sinaiticus, despite the publication of several books under this auspices, almost nothing has been added since then: the most important discoveries of recent decades were made by the German theologian Kurt Aland and the Russian Byzantinist Anna Zakharova, took place before the start of the project.

What could we do if everything had already been accomplished by our predecessors, and the international project, in general, decided to draw a line under the study of this outstanding monument of writing? It turned out that the history of the famous manuscript in the twentieth century remains completely unexplored - how it was sold by the Soviet government in 1933.

The fact is that the well-known decision of the Politburo of 1933 is only the tip of the iceberg, while its entire invisible part is not just history, but a genuine detective story. We realized this several years ago, when in one of the Moscow archives we looked through archival files from the 1930s in a row with the same name “Current Documents.” In one of the volumes, information was found about the direct participants in this historical transaction. A further search showed that they were all repressed, and the investigative files of these unfortunates in the FSB archive testify: one of the accusations was the fact that they underpriced when selling the “famous Sinai Bible.”

Further - more. The work in the English archives, which was done in 2013 thanks to the help of the Mikhail Prokhorov Foundation, brought us a lot of interesting things. Combining together materials from Russian and English archives made it possible to see a holistic picture of the events that preceded the historical sale. And although this was very interesting, it was still too “official”: there was a noticeable lack of preparatory documents, intelligence correspondence - in a word, real historical truth... Unfortunately, we were never able to find anything on our topic in the state archives.

But chance helped. Trying to reconstruct the biographies of all participants in the transaction, we found some relatives. And so the son of one of them gave us a folder with the inscription Maggs Bros. for publication. This is the name of an English antiques firm that still exists today, but in 1933 the firm brokered the sale of Codex Sinaiticus to the British government. Inside the folder is genuine correspondence regarding the sale of the manuscript.

If the sale had taken place not in the early 1930s, but several years later, when secret documents could no longer even be removed from government agencies, then these papers would either have been transferred to secret archive, or destroyed. But they survived, and their repressed family preserved them, despite all the dangers. I hope that quite soon they will be published in a separate work on the sale of Codex Sinaiticus, the writing of which is now nearing completion.

What do these unknown documents say? In addition to the official papers on the negotiations regarding the final price that were conducted with Maggs Bros, there is a lot of more interesting information there.

It turns out, for example, that Codex Sinaiticus was not only offered to the British Museum, but no one emphatically believed that Communist agents were actually authorized to sell the famous manuscript. Now we can name all the states, as well as the largest libraries and even private individuals who refused to purchase: a list of them is available among the documents, and the reasons for the refusals are also indicated.

Archive photo

Equally important full description negotiations between Russian diplomats and representatives of the British cabinet, which were conducted with the knowledge of British Prime Minister James MacDonald. But direct negotiations on the trade issue could then be conducted anywhere, but not in London, because in 1927, as a result of the Anglo-Soviet crisis, both trade and diplomatic relations USSR and England, and in 1929 only diplomatic ones were restored: parliament did not want to “feed the communist regime.” It is for this reason that all negotiations regarding the Codex Sinaiticus took place in Paris. And thanks to the fact that the Soviet representative at these negotiations not only kept a diary, but also left transcripts of each meeting, we have exceptional details regarding this negotiation process, which ended with a deal.

For example, the main question at first was not the amount itself, but rather the time frame within which this amount would need to be paid. Great Britain insisted on installment plans, but when the installment plan was rejected - we had to fulfill the state plan - it began to strictly reduce the price.

The initial price of the code was set at £200 thousand - the Soviet government asked for exactly $1 million at the exchange rate of that time. We agreed halfway through. Is it a lot or a little? No one could say, because no one could remember precedents for the sale of ancient manuscripts of comparable exceptional value. On the one hand, it’s a huge amount: it could buy, for example, 40 Rolls-Royce cars (it’s worth considering how expensive the cars themselves were at that time). On the other hand, treasures such as the oldest manuscript of the New Testament are sold once in a lifetime.

It was the last circumstance that became decisive, because there was a man in England who made the purchase of the codex the main business of his life. This is a member of the board of trustees of the British Museum, director of the British Museum in 1909-1930, an outstanding specialist in biblical manuscripts, Sir Frederick Kenyon. It was to him that Great Britain owed the acquisition of the precious manuscript; it was his meetings and conversations with Prime Minister MacDonald, with the head of the Anglican Church, Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Gordon Lang, with influential members of the English Parliament that led to the fact that the Treasury of His Majesty King George V agreed to pay the required amount for treasure that belonged to him before 1917 cousin- Emperor Nicholas II.

However, the fact that the British managed to buy the manuscript at half the original price turns out to be not so much a consequence of the skill of the British, although one cannot help but appreciate their talent as negotiators, but rather the result of the complete failure of Soviet diplomacy and the disunity in the actions of the participants in the process. A detailed description of this incident, its causes and consequences is presented in these papers in full detail.

In any case, if we manage to complete the work on the documents, then it will be possible to present an unprecedented recent history of the oldest manuscript of the New Testament, truly detective, but also certainly truthful.