Small travel book. Historical and bibliographic review of translated and original akathists, handwritten and printed, that existed in Russia before the establishment of the Holy Synod
The time when the first akathists were translated from Greek into Slavonic is not exactly known. Their first translators are also unknown. Akathists appear in Slavic manuscripts from the 12th century, and in print from 1491. Printed Slavic akathists were brought to Russia from the southern and western Slavs. For the period of time from the appearance of the first akathist in the Slavic language and the following ones, brought to Russia or compiled in it, to the establishment of the Holy Synod, are known in manuscripts and old printed books ah the following akathists: to the Most Holy Theotokos, to the Lord Jesus the Sweetest, to the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, St. John the Baptist, St. Michael the Archangel and the Disembodied Powers, Sts. the apostles Peter and Paul, the Holy Trinity, the Holy Cross, the Holy Sepulcher, the Resurrection, the Passion of Christ, all the saints, St. John Chrysostom, St. Peter, Alexy and Jonah, St. Sergius of Radonezh, St. Great Martyr Barbara and St. Alexy, man of God.
1. Akathist to Our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary
The oldest Slavic akathist and the most common both in manuscripts and in early printed books is the akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos, introduced by the Church Charter into the rite of worship on the fifth week of Great Lent and as a rule before Communion of the Holy Mysteries.
The Akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos is found in Slavic manuscripts of the 12th century. So, it is placed on sheets 264–271 of the Triodion of Lenten, parchment manuscript No. 319 of the Moscow Synodal Library. Placed in the Lenten Triodion, followed by the Psalter, the common Menaion, the Canon, the Book of Hours, sometimes in the Octoechos, this akathist is also included in the manuscript collections of akathists. Let us indicate some of the handwritten copies of the akathist.
In the collection of manuscript books of the St. Sophia Cathedral of the library of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, we find an akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos in the following books: Psalter with resurrection (semi-ustav of the 16th century, No. 55, fol. 288), Psalter (XVI century, No. 58, fol. 317), Psalter (XVI-XVII centuries, No. 65, fol. 108), Psalter (semi-ustav of the 16th century, No. 74, fol. 324), Psalter (semi-ustav of the 1st half of the 16th century, No. 76, fol. 454), Octoechos (XIII century, No. 122, l. 70), Book of Hours (half-charter of the XV-XVI centuries, No. 1121), Book of Hours (half-charter of the 16th century, No. 1122), Book of Hours (half-charter of the 16th century, No. IZO, l. IZ), Book of Hours (half-charter of the XVI century, No. 1131, sheet 85).
In the Kirillo-Belozersky Library of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, the akathist in question is found in the manuscripts: Psalter with resurrection (half-rule of the 15th century, No. 4/261), Canon (half-rule of the 16th-17th centuries, No. 164/421, fol. 59v. - 80 ob.), Canon (XVI-XVII centuries, No. 165/422, fol. 27-46), Canon (XVI-XVII centuries, No. 170/427, fol. 19v. - 29), Canon (XVI century, No. 171/428, fol. 28v – 44), Canon (XVI-XVII centuries, No. 172/429, fol. 81v – 92v), Canon (XVI century, No. 186/433, fol. 31v . - 41v.), Canon (XVI century, No. 188/445, fol. 30–48), Canon (semi-ustav 1614, No. 194/451, fol. 17v. - 23v.), Canons of the 17th century ( No. 233/490, sheets 31–41v, 234/491, 235/492, sheets 28v–39, 236/493, sheets 25v–41, 241/498, sheets 129–146 ), Saints (semi-ustav of the 17th century, No. 497/754, fol. 340v. - 357).
In the Moscow Synodal Library: The Charter of the Siya Monastery (No. 814 (404), fol. 325), the Lenten Triodion (XVI century, No. 319/423, fol. 264–271), Prayer Canons (semi-scriptural of the XVI century, No. 430, fol. 33 ff.), Services, Canons and Prayers (No. 773/500), Prayer Canons (No. 470/503, fol. 330), Collection of Services and Canons (No. 467/505, fol. 111v.).
In the Moscow Diocesan Library: Canons and Akathists (semi-ustav of the 16th century).
Without dwelling on the manuscripts of other libraries, since from the above list we see that there are many akathists to the Most Holy Theotokos in manuscripts, we note only two more manuscripts containing an akathist:
a) interesting in appearance is the manuscript that belonged to Tsarina Natalya Kirillovna (No. 1 of the State Ancient Repository in the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). This manuscript is miniature: a page of text in it is less than an inch square;
b) the manuscript of the Solovetsky Library (No. 416/396) is curious in the sense that the akathist in question in one manuscript was carefully written four times in the charter. Placed on sheets 19-32 "in the week of the evening", it is repeated on sheets 67v. - 81 rev., 115 rev. - 128 about. and 162 about. – 175 (Monday evening, Tuesday evening and Wednesday evening).
The akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos has appeared in printed Slavic editions since 1491, namely in the book Lenten Triodion, printed in Krakow (parchment manuscript of the 12th century No. 319 of the Moscow Synodal Library). An akathist was printed in the book "A Psalter with Responsibility" (Cetina, 1495; notebook 14, l. 8 et seq.) (copy of the Imperial Public Library). An akathist was placed in the edition of the Small Travel Book, printed by Francis Skaryna in Vilna around 1525. Then the akathist is printed many times in the Lenten Triodion, the Psalter with resurrection, in the Canons and Akathists.
The text of the akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos is the same in both manuscripts and early printed books. There are peculiarities in spelling and a change in only some places in the text of the akathist. We place the text of the 1st kontakion according to one manuscript and three early printed editions of the akathist:
Lenten triode:
The chosen voivode is victorious. but having escaped ѡt zl of thanksgiving. write off your city bce. But even if you are drzhavou, you are invincible, all the troubles of freedom and call you joyous, it’s unbearable.
"Psalter with reverence":
The chosen voivode is victorious. How can you get rid of the trouble. thanks to you, your slave bce. no matter how dry you are invincible. ѡt vysachsky me bѣd freedom. Yes, call you radowise the bride is not the bride.
"Small travel book":
The beginning of the Akathist to the most radiant maiden of the Mother of God Mary.
To the chosen voivode is victorious. Thank you for getting rid of the evil ones, let us recount thee, your servants. you ꙋ for them ꙋ give an invincible power. There are all of us troubles of freedom. let us sing to you, rejoice, the bride is not bride.
“Akathists, in them there are canons, stichera and verses for the whole week”:
Chosen Governor is victorious. ѧkѡ getting rid of the evil ones, thankfully resurrect you by your servants btse. but ѧkѡ imꙋshchaѧ powersꙋ invincible ꙋfrom all of us troubles of freedom. Yes, we call you: rejoice in the unbearably unbearable.
We do not give the text of the 1st kontakion of later editions, since [they] literally reproduce the same text<...>.
We give a comparison of the akathist in those editions where we noticed the appearance of a modified text, which was usually reprinted for a long time later in subsequent editions without change. We take akathists published before the establishment of the Holy Synod and after its establishment before [the publication of our publication].
In the list of akathists placed in the work "Russian Books" by S. A. Vengerov, the existence of a handwritten akathist composed by the hieromonk of the Chudov Monastery Karion (Istomin) († 1713) is indicated. But the indication is not accurate. The printer's director, Hieromonk Karion (Istomin), as the surviving akathists with his name show: one dedicated to the Empress Praskovya Feodorovna, wife of Tsar John Alekseevich, the other, written for Grand Duke Alexei Petrovich, was not the writer of a new akathist.
The text of the akathist, dedicated in 1695 to Empress Praskovya Feodorovna, is the usual for the Most Holy Theotokos (Victory Chosen Voivode). But many pictorial images are inserted into the text of the akathist, such as: immersion in the sea of the Blachernae robe of the Mother of God (before the 1st kontakion), the Annunciation (two images - before the 1st ikos and before the 2nd kontakion), Holy spirit of the virgins to conception(before the 3rd kontakion), the meeting of the Mother of God with Elizabeth (before the 3rd ikos), etc. Picturesque images are accompanied by poetic inscriptions. For example, the painting “Immersion in the Sea of the Blachernae Robe of the Mother of God” is accompanied by the inscription:
Virgin Virgin Governor, everywhere ꙋ all Christian kind
She protects faithful people, she completely defeats tricky enemies etc.
Before the first picture of the Annunciation there is an inscription:
The angel Gabriel was sent to the maiden,
Appear babble in human faces.
Please bring her a kiss
Christ is brought into her and beaten.
Before the second picture of the Annunciation:
Virgo says Gabriel ꙋ dare,
It is not comfortable to eat the words of your business.
In the purity of the flesh, children do not give birth,
They begin nowhere.
In addition to the inscriptions, there are also captions under the images. For example, at the 9th kontakion, the Mother of God is depicted on the throne, and on the right and left are the faces worshiping Her. Above is the inscription:
Polyverb rhetorician
About the virgin stasha in Christmas ꙋterrible.
Signature added below:
Bring back the sacraments ꙋ God will follow
Irresistible mother always and ꙁvest.
The original in the akathist with the name of Karion (Istomin) is the decoration of his book with pictorial images and the poetic inscriptions and signatures attached to them, and the akathist itself is the usual to the Most Holy Theotokos.
2. Akathist to Our Sweetest Lord Jesus Christ
The akathist to Our Sweetest Lord Jesus Christ, printed in the Canon and akathist, is less common in manuscripts than the other, inscribed as an akathist "To the Most Sweet Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ."
Here is the 1st Kontakion and the 1st Ikos according to the manuscript of the Moscow Synodal Library "Canons and Prayers".
He begins to speak to the most sweet name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Give us, Jesus son of God, the mind. and ѡtverꙁand ousta is ours. Yes, we can carry out the praise of your name. You gave the skin a slouch and a rumor deaf and a rotten verb effeta. hedgehog is raꙁverꙁisѧ and abіe raꙁъverꙁostasѧ of his slouha. and resolve the language of his language and speak the right of allluia.
Enlighten the eyes of our hearts, Jesus, with the light of your divine Sian. You have enlightened the skin of the son of Timothy Bartimaeus the blind. to you crying son of David Jesus, have mercy on me. the same way we cry out to you. jesus God the eternal. Lord Jesus is long-suffering. jesus the merciful savior. jesus enlighten mine and don't let me die in death. jesus ѡtvrꙁand my mouth. Yes, you can glorify you. Jesus cleanse everything. Jesus forgive all my sins. Jesus, my hope, do not leave me. Jesus, my Creator, do not kill me. Help me poor Jesus. jesus repenting with the blessings of me. Jesus, the great man, open my mouth.
An akathist to the most sweet name of our Lord Jesus Christ is available in the manuscripts of: the Moscow Synodal Library - Collection (semi-ustav of the 17th century, No. 850, fol. 337 et seq.); Moscow diocesan library - "Canons and akathists" (semi-ustav of the 16th century, fol. 249 et seq.); Kirillo-Belozersky Library - Trefology (semi-ustav of the 17th century, No. 481/738, placed after the prayers of Cyril of Turov, fol. 494-513); Joseph-Volokolamsk Library - Canon (XVI-XVII centuries, No. 295, fol. 9-19); Solovetsky Library - collection (No. 916/1026, sheet 468v. - 477).
Of the old printed editions, this akathist was printed in F. Skaryna's "Small Road Book" around 1525.
The peculiarity of the “akathist to the most sweet name of our Lord Jesus Christ” is that the final invocations in the ikos are different (the chorus is not the same, as happens in other akathists).
The final invocations of the ikos, beginning with the words of Jesus the great-loving of mankind, end with petitions: in the 1st ikos - open my mouth, in the 2nd hear my prayer, in the 3rd - cleanse my sinful soul, in the 4th - forgive my bacon soul, in the 5th - save my sorry soul, in the 6th - pamper my belly, in the 7th - do not reject me, in the 8th - have mercy on me, in the 9th - vöri on mѧ, in the 10th - help me now, in the 11th - forgive me, in the 12th - Jesus, the most loving of mankind, may I glorify your name forever and ever.
In early printed books, excluding F. Skaryna's "Small Road Book", we meet the usual akathist to our Sweetest Lord Jesus Christ, beginning with an invocation. Of the oldest editions, we note the akathists printed in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in 1625, in Vilna in 1628, and others. 4–19), “Canons and Akathists” (manuscript on sheet, charter, Solovetsky Library, No. 416/396).
The content of the akathists to our sweetest Lord Jesus Christ, the beginning of which Chosen Voivode and Lord, hell to the winner, and the most sweet name of our Lord Jesus Christ, beginning with the words Give us, Jesus, the Son of God, reason, - different, although in a few places there is a similarity between them, indicating the dependence of one akathist on another.
Magnifications are similar: Jesus is the best day, angelic surprise. Powerful Jesus, forefathers and addition. Sweet Jesus, patriarchal greatness. Glorious Jesus, strengthening kings. Beloved Jesus, prophetic fulfillment. These first five invocations in the 1st ikos of the Akathist to the Sweetest Lord Jesus Christ correspond, with minor changes, to the first five invocations in the 8th ikos of the akathist to the most sweet name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first four invocations of the 2nd ikos akathist to the Sweetest Lord Jesus Christ: Jesus God of eternity. Jesus the King of all might. Lord Jesus, long-suffering. Jesus Savior, merciful- correspond to the first four invocations of the 1st ikos in the akathist to the most sweet name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And further appeals in the 2nd ikos of the 1st akathist: Jesus, cleanse my sins. Jesus, take away my beacon. Jesus, forgive my iniquity- are found in the 1st icos of the akathist to the most sweet name of the Lord Jesus Christ in such a change: Jesus, cleanse everything from me. Jesus, take away all my sins.
Appeals 1, 2, 6, 7 and 9 in the 8th icos of the Akathist to the Sweetest Lord Jesus Christ: Jesus, sweetness of the heart. Jesus the fortress of the body. Jesus is hopeful and good. Jesus in eternal memory. Jesus, my exalted glory- correspond to appeals 1 (with a change), 2, 3 and 4 of icos 2 in the akathist to the most sweet name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. Akathist to the Assumption of Our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary
In the manuscripts there are two akathists to the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos, and in the old printed editions - one, the same one that was printed until later, namely: Chosen from all relatives of the Mother of God and the Queen, ascending from the earth to heaven, reverent singing of your honorable repose, we bring your servants, Mother of God.
When comparing early printed books containing an akathist to the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, we see that its text in the oldest editions was subject to changes, albeit small ones, consisting in rearranging words, in replacing some expressions with others. For example, in an akathist published in 1625 in Kyiv (in the book Akathist to the Most Pure Theotokos, to Jesus the Sweet and the Assumption of Our Lady Theotokos), the 9th invocation of ikos 1 reads: glad. royal ovѧꙁenїe and the king of powers about; later editions corrected it as follows: glad. tsar's approval and power(Kyiv, 1677, 1731, etc.). 2nd proclamation of the 3rd ikos glad. in the pre-peace come to partake of the glory of the sons(Kyiv, 1625) replaced by the expression glad. to the exceedingly entered enjoyment of his glory etc.
A significant difference is noticed in the text of the akathist, especially in the second half of it (for example, icoses 8.11), between the editions of the akathist made in Kyiv (1677, 1706, etc.), and the editions printed in Vilna (1628), in Lvov ( 1699) and in other Uniate printing houses.
Here are a few lines for comparison from the 8th ikos according to the editions of "Honorable Akathists" (Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, 1677) and "Akathists from Stichera" (Lvov, 1699):
"Honorable akathists":
Blizzard's already Mountains are not leaving the Bogomati, Rokama Sonovnika VNOSIMA ONNEMENTLY ON VNDIDE, END HOLDERY AND WELL AND LIVE OERSALIM VYNIY, HERRIVIMA ѡBSTOYM, EXTENSION SIME SIME:
Joy, her pure soul in the Most High, all-bright Siѡn, dwells. R. her and the imperishable body there with the soul is greatly glorified. R. entered the throne city of the Almighty himself. R. has entered the beautiful paradise of the High Planter. R. brought to the city founded from the stones of the all-luminous.
"Akathists from stichera":
Having been raised in the heavenly Mother of God, the hand of the filial was brought in, in the impassable entrance, into that city of the all-luminous and beautiful Jerusalem, Cherepim were standing with the powers of the world and heard thou these singing:
Happy to the queen of the kingdoms of the Mother of God. R. with your son and reigning God. R. even a beautiful soul from the Highest all-bright Sїѡna is there. R. in the luminous walls, then the walls are lightly omnipresent. R. above heaven in ꙁѧtaѧ in the grace of God.
In the Kiev edition of 1677, the ikos ends with the refrain Happy is happy in your retirement not setting us up, and in the Lvov edition of 1699 - Happy is the bride is not a bride.
In the handwritten lists of this akathist, the final appeal is usually kept in ikos Happy is the bride is not a bride. The same appeal in ikos is also used in the oldest editions of the akathist: Kiev 1625, Vilna 1628. In later Kiev editions, the final appeal of the ikos is Pleased with joy in your retirement, not leaving us.
Akathist to the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos, beginning with the words Chosen from all relatives of the Mother of God, found in manuscripts and attributed to Isidore, Patriarch of Constantinople.
Let us point out the manuscripts: of the Moscow Synodal Library - “Canons and Prayers” (semi-ustav of the 16th century, No. 774/504, fol. 730 ff.), “Canons of Prayer” (semi-statute of the 16th century, No. 470/503, fol. 205 ff.). ); Trinity-Sergius Lavra - Canon (manuscript No. 284, fol. 325); libraries at the Holy Synod - "Canons and Akathists" (manuscript of the 16th century, No. 251, fol. 80-86).
In addition to the akathist under consideration, there is another akathist to the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos in the manuscripts, which is inscribed as the creation of the Metropolitan of Kiev and All Russia Theodosius.
Here is the 1st kontakion and the beginning of the 1st ikos according to the manuscript of the Solovetsky Library (collection No. 916/1026, fol. 406–415):
Your most pure and glorious Assumption, let us glorify your servants, the Mother of God. but ko imashi rubbish to your son is pure. And we send songs of thanksgiving to you, mother of God. but ko imashi drzhavou invincible. freedom from all our troubles, yes, we welcome you, joyfully unmarried.
Archangel Gabriel was sent quickly to the city of Naꙁaret to the virgin Mary to proclaim the gospel of the words of the beginning. now the apostles have descended from the end of the universe. to the glorious Assumption of the Mother of God. thanksgiving and prayers bringing the most pure Mother of God. with verbal verbs, ѡ the most pure virgin of the Mother of God to the son of this and God ꙁ and the world pray ѧ save the world. we sinners joyfully accept you. radisѧ mistress ꙁastoupnitsa mirou. even betray your most pure and all-blameless soul in the routs to the son of this God. in ꙁ yde ѡt ꙁ in heavenly celestials, rejoice with the angel of joy and the apostles with the most honorable crown. rejoices with the saints a wonderful approval and unshakable approval of the churches ...
The akathist in question, in addition to that indicated from the manuscript of the Solovetsky Library No. 916/1026, is also in the manuscripts of: the Moscow Synodal Library - "Canons and Prayers" (semi-charter of the 16th century, No. 774/504, fol. , No. 850, sheet 368 et seq.); Moscow Printing Library - a collection (manuscript of the 16th century, No. 388 (according to the description of V. A. Pogorelov, vol. 1, issue 2, No. 26), fol. 138v.).
4 Akathist to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker
When comparing the akathists of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in early printed books and manuscripts, we notice that there are two akathists to this saint, and both akathists were subjected to repeated alteration. The akathist, placed in F. Skorina's "Small Road Book" and in manuscripts after corrections that were at different times, has been preserved in church use and is printed in the Canons and the akathist.
In the akathist printed by F. Skorina in the Vilna edition of 1525, although its text is in general the same as it is printed today, there are significant features. So, the 1st kontakion of Skaryna's akathist reads:
Compassionate Christ's divine ꙋ year, miraculously inexhaustible sea, we praise your love Nicholas, you ꙋ because you have the strength to the Lord. free us from all troubles, let us sing to alleluia.
The same kontakion is found in the manuscripts, sometimes verbatim, as in the manuscript “Canons and Akathists” (semi-ustav of the 16th century of the Moscow Diocesan Library), and in most manuscripts (manuscript collection of the 16th century of the Solovetsky Library, No. 916/1026, fol. 429v.); "Canons and Prayers", manuscript of the Moscow Synodal Library, No. 774/504; Volokolamsk Library, No. 295; Canons of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, No. 262-263, 285; Manuscript of the Library at the Holy Synod, No. 251, fol. 102-107) kontakion is reworked in this way:
Compassionate is Christ's divine gardener. miraculous inexhaustible world. Let's praise your love Nicholas. but what a name is rubbish to the Lord. from all the misfortunes of us and ꙁ bavi. yes ꙁ ovem ti radii ѧ all ꙁ stouplenie.
In the manuscript of the Moscow Synodal Library (No. 470), instead of the word compassionate, the kontakion begins with the words All-merciful Christ's divine gardener. The akathist begins in the same way in the book Akathists in them are canons, stichera and stikhivny for the whole week(Vilna, 1628).
End of the 1st Kontakion welcome to everyone in manuscripts and in the Vilna edition of 1628 it is used as the end of all the ikos of the akathist. In other early printed books, even in the Little Road Book, the same ending of the ikos is printed as now: Raduis Nicholas, the great miracle worker.
Kontakion 1, printed by F. Skaryna and used in manuscripts, was already replaced in early printed books by another, which bears some resemblance to the 1st kontakion of another akathist to the saint, printed in Kyiv in 1629. The newly composed kontakion reads: Chosen hꙋdo-creator, and ꙁdnye pleasing to Christ, peace to all ꙋ exuding many-valued mercy to the world .
When comparing akathists, we see that their text has changed. A strong change in the text is seen in the 6th, 11th and 12th ikos. Particularly interesting is the 6th ikos, the beginning of which is given according to the manuscript of the 16th century of the Moscow Synodal Library “Canons of Prayer” (No. 470/503, fol. 264):
And the addition of a nose with a stratilate unrighteously die to those who accept it, or better to those who have received it, the king's soul will be terrified. and these are utterly twisted with encouragement, but you hear from them this:
Rejoice in the nature of the krylat riders.
R. bird fast flying.
R. from the unrighteous ꙁa generation of men and ꙁbaviv.
R. from flattering oaths save ѧ.
Raduisѧ all ꙁ stouplenie.
For comparison, the first two appeals of the 6th ikos are given according to different manuscripts:
Rejoice with the wings and the rider is the essence. R. ptak fast flying (manuscript of the Moscow Synodal Library No. 774/504, fol. 216v);
Rejoice winged rider nature. R. bird fast flying (manuscript of the Volokolamsk library No. 295);
Rejoice winged rider by nature. R. bird fast flying (manuscript of the Moscow diocesan library, XVI century, fol. 105);
Rejoice with the winged and horseman being. R. ptak fast flying (manuscript of the Moscow Printing Library No. 388);
Glad. krilati rider by nature. R. birds of fast flight (Canon of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra No. 285, fol. 445);
Glad. winged horseman is. Glad. fast flying birds (collection of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra No. 768 (1201), fol. 57);
Glad. wings and horsemen are. Glad. bird fast flying (collection of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra No. 797 (1638), semi-status);
Glad. winged and gardener by nature. R. bird fast flying (Canon of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra No. 263 (1194), fol. 41);
Rejoice, the winged horseman is the essence. Rejoice in the fast flying bird (collection, manuscript of the Solovetsky Library No. 916/1026, fol. 433).
In the "Small road book" F. Skaryna: Happy with winged nature. R. bird fast flying. In the Vilna edition of the akathist of 1628, the 1st appeal was left unchanged: Radꙋ is winged and rider by nature. But the 2nd invocation is changed: Happy taco flying fast. In the 2nd proclamation, the epithet bird or bird is released. But in the 8th ikos, the 9th invocation reads: Raduis winged in nature and aerial bird.
Both of the above proclamations were issued in later editions. In order to take the place of the retired 1st and 2nd proclamations, they were rearranged: the 5th proclamation was placed first, the 3rd - the second, the 4th - the third. Then the invocations follow in the same order: the 6th becomes the fourth, the 7th becomes the fifth, the 8th becomes the sixth, the 9th becomes the seventh, the 10th becomes the eighth. Appeals 9 and 10 in the corrected akathist are compiled again: Rejoicing to the bringer of truth: rejoicing to the detractor of untruth. The remaining two appeals were left unchanged.
In the history of text processing in the akathist of St. Nikolai needs to point out another curious feature regarding the initial words of kontakia and ikos. In the manuscripts and in the most ancient early printed editions (by Skaryna in the Vilna edition of 1628), the initial words of the ikos and kontakov do not agree with the initial words of the akathists to the Most Holy Theotokos, the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos and the Sweetest Lord Jesus Christ. In later editions (for example, in a book printed in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in 1677), this consistency was made, which remains in subsequent editions until modern times.
Let's make a comparison of the initial words of the akathist, on the one hand, according to the manuscript of the Solovetsky Library No. 916/1026 and ancient printed books, on the other hand, according to editions Reverend Akathist all-weekly(Kyiv, 1706) and Akathists and Kansny(Kyiv, 1731).
Ikos 1 and kontakion 2 in both groups of akathists have a homogeneous beginning.
Manuscript:
Be in Nicea with the holy fathers companion. the holy faith of confession is equal to the father of the son you confessed.
Be in touch with the reverend fathers, a haste of the holy faith of confession, equal to the father of the son, right-believing and the throne led you.
Vilna edition of 1628:
Thou wast in Nicea with the holy fathers a champion of the holy faith. confession. equal to bo father ꙋ son confessed thou.
Raꙁꙋm not ꙋraꙁꙋmѣnnye vraꙁꙋmlѧѧ ѡ st ѧtѣ ѣtnіtsѣ, thou wast in nikei with the holy fathers the champion of the confession of the Orthodox faith: equal to ѡttsꙋ You confessed the Son.
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
Sleꙁꙋ take everything away from the face of fierce souls.
The next ꙁꙋ take everything away from the face of God-bearing fierce suffering souls.
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731:
By the power of this from above, after all, you have departed from the face of the fiercely suffering God-bearing Nicholas.
Manuscript, "Small Road Book" by F. Skorina and the Vilna edition of 1628:
It is better to sing songs from heaven, and not from man.
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731:
It is truly better to hear Nicholas from heaven, the song is sung to you by being, and not from earth.
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
Death is coming soon, once sailing on the sea.
Manuscript and Vilna edition of 1628:
Death is more common than sometimes floating lute.
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731:
Bogotechna ѧ v da ѩvils ѧ instructed the sea of floating lutes.
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
Yes, indeed, the word of the gospel is done, most blessed Father Nicholas, the one elder ꙋ three breasts of the plate were given away.
Manuscript and Vilna edition of 1628:
Yes ѩvishi with a word truly ꙋ performed by the most blessed old man ꙋ at night oueltsy filed three lats taѧsѧ.
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731:
Seeing the promises for marriage of filthy poverty for the sake of preparedness, your great mercy to the poor (1731 - mercy) is more blessed than Nicholas, when the old man gave their parents three lats taѧsѧ at night.
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
Praise the whole world to you, blessed Nikolai, who is soon in trouble ꙁastꙋpnika.
Manuscript and Vilna edition of 1628:
The world will praise you blissfully in debt ꙋ quick in trouble ꙁastꙋpnika.
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731:
Preach the whole world to you, Blessed Nicholas, quick in trouble ꙁastꙋpnik.
Manuscript and Vilna edition of 1628:
And the addition of a nose with a stratilome. die unrighteously to the recipient.
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
The coming and the addition of the unrighteous recipients with the stratilate.
The Vilna edition of 1628 is similar to the manuscript.
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731:
In ꙁсіѧl you are the Light of animals and ꙁadding noses to governors, unrighteous hosts to them.
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
Mѵro truly ꙋ good-smelling Taino you ѩvisѧ. drive away the heretical stench.
Manuscript and Vilna edition of 1628:
Mѵrѡ truly ꙋ fragrant, Taino you ѩvisѧ ꙁsmradie ward off heretical.
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731:
If you want to drive away the blasphemous heretical ꙁlosmradie, the world is truly fragrant, mysterious, thou Nicholas.
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
A divine marvel hangs in those who flow to you, Blessed Nicholas.
Vilna edition of 1628:
Than the Divine visѧ flowing blissfully consecrated your church is God-bearing.
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731:
A strange thing is coming to you, Blessed Nicholas, sacred to your church.
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
Truly be all helpers, God-bearing Nicholas.
Manuscript and Vilna edition of 1628:
In truth, everything was God-bearing.
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731:
Ves (1731 - All) are truly all ꙋ assistant to God-bearing Nicholas.
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
Relieve pain ꙁand my great ꙁastꙋpniche.
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731:
All sickness, our great priests Nicholas.
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
Fortune-telling is many-woven, hedgehog from the wicked, we see you put to shame by Father Nicholas.
Manuscript and Vilna edition of 1628:
Vѣtіѧ many-woven ѧ from the unclean we see you put to shame.
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731:
Vѣtіѧ with ꙋemꙋ the wicked wicked see you put to shame.
Kondak 10:
Manuscript:
The flesh of the spirit of the father is subject to the truth.
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
Thou hast truly conquered thy flesh, our Father Nicholas.
Vilna edition of 1628:
The flesh of the spirit of the father subdued thou in truth.
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731:
Save your souls at least, you truly subdued your spirit and flesh.
Manuscript:
All morals run by the praise of your most blessed miracles.
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
The whole temper runs with praise of the blessed ones of yours.
Vilna edition of 1628, like Skaryna's.
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731:
Thou art a wall to those who praise the most blessed of your wonders.
Kondak 12:
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
Pleased with your memory, eat according to custom.
Manuscript and Vilna edition of 1628:
Pleased with your memory, eat according to your dignity.
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731:
Grace given to you from God, who is blessed, rejoicing in your memory, we eat in debt.
In kontakia 2, 4, and 11 and in ikos 1, 4, 7, 11–12, no additions were made at the beginning, since their initial words had previously coincided with the corresponding words of kontakia and ikos of the akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos.
Above, we presented what corrections were made in the initial words of kontakia and ikos. Let us point out the more important changes among the text of the akathist by comparing the originals of F. Skorina's "Small Road Book" and the Vilna edition of 1628 with the text of the above-mentioned editions of the Holy Akathist of the All-Seventh (Kyiv, 1706) and Akathist and Cannula (Kyiv, 1731).
In the Vilna edition of 1628 of the Akathist, they also contain canons, stichera, compared with F. Skaryna's edition of the akathist to St. Nicholas is not particularly heavily reworked. The language has been corrected in it, but the order of invocations in the ikos has been preserved almost everywhere, and only a few of them have been replaced by others. In the Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731, a significant revision of the text is already visible, especially in the appeals of the ikos. In the editions of 1706 and 1731, the following corrections were made to the ikos of the akathist printed by Skaryna:
In the 1st ikos 1-2, 11-12th appeals are left the same; the rest are rearranged in a different order: the 3rd appeal is placed fifth, 4th - ninth, 5th - seventh, 6th - eighth, 7th - third, 8th - fourth, 9th - tenth, 10th - sixth.
In the 2nd ikos, the 1st invocation is paraphrased; 2nd - placed fourth; in the rest of the appeals, the order is preserved.
In the 3rd ikos, in the first six invocations, the order is the same; Proclamations 7, 8, 9 and 10 are changed; the last two are rearranged one in place of the other.
In the 4th icos, the order is preserved; the 7th and 12th invocations have been corrected.
In the 5th ikos, the first two invocations are the same; 3rd and 4th released; then the order is the same; the end of the icos has been redesigned.
The revision of the 6th ikos has already been indicated above.
In the 7th ikos, the 1st and 2nd invocations are preserved; third placed 9th; from the 4th to the 7th order of invocations is the same; 8th and 12th are omitted; new invocations are inserted at the end of the ikos.
In the 8th ikos, the text of the invocations has been corrected.
In the 9th ikos, instead of the 1st invocation, two new ones are inserted; further the order is kept the same; The 11th proclamation has been changed.
In the 10th ikos, the 1st and 2nd invocations are withheld; 3rd, 4th and 5th are omitted; further the order of appeals remains the old; The 11th and 12th proclamations have been recomposed.
In the 11th ikos, the 1st and 2nd invocations are paraphrased; 3rd - taken by the eighth, 4th - by the seventh, 5th - by the ninth, 6th - by the tenth; 7th and 8th proclamations issued; the last two proclamations are newly composed.
In the 12th ikos, the 4th invocation is taken by the third; the rest of the appeals are all newly composed.
Here are some examples of processing the text of appeals.
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
Rejoice with all not wise great kindness.
Vilna edition of 1628:
Raduisѧ to all of them ꙋdrympremꙋdraѧ kindness.
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731:
Glad ꙋisѧ God of all ꙋdryh premꙋgreat kindness.
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
Raduіsѧ vꙁor and the rule of meekness. R. honest worldview of spirituality.
Vilna edition of 1628:
Radius is similar to the rule of meekness. R. honest
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731:
Rejoicing in the rule of the pious faith. R. ѡbraꙁe spiritual meekness.
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
Raduіsѧ hꙋ desem God-given source.
Vilna edition of 1628:
Happy ꙋisѧ hꙋthese God-given sources.
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731:
Radꙋisѧ hꙋdesy pꙋchino Bogom iꙁlіѧnnaѧ.
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
Raduіsѧ triem virgin husbands giver.
Vilna edition of 1628:
Rejoicing in the Trinity of the virgins who are not hostile.
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731:
Congratulations to the three virgins without blemish and the bridegroom.
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
Pleased with the representative of the earth, waiting for every traveler.
Vilna edition of 1628:
Pleased ꙋisѧ companions for others ꙋforeign for ꙁearth.
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731:
Radꙋisѧ shone all the ends of the earth enlightening.
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
Please renew the old trends.
Vilna edition of 1628:
Happy telesem old ѡnovlѧѧ flow.
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731:
Radꙋisѧ old gray-haired forcesꙋ ѡnovlѧѧi.
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
We rejoice that we exalt our heads with you.
Vilna edition of 1628: (omitted).
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731:
Thankfully, with your teaching, heretical chapters are reduced.
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
Joy to the giver, feeder and servant. R. to an amateur, a supporter and a teacher. R. bylіe curative for all those honestly attracted.
Vilna edition of 1628:
Radꙋisѧ to the giver, representative and servant. R. byliye curative with warmth.
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
Raduіsѧ Aaron the priest of God Nicholas. R. Levi shone fresh.
Vilna edition of 1628:
Rapporteur of Aaron the Second Bishopric, blessed Nicholas. R levіi premier hierarch.
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731: (omitted).
"Small travel book" F. Skaryna:
The joy of the praying debtor is plentiful.
Vilna edition of 1628:
Raduis ѧ celebrating ꙁdays ꙋ the debtor ѡbilnyi.
Kiev editions of 1706 and 1731: (omitted).
In addition to the one under consideration, another akathist of St. Nicholas. We give the 1st kontakion and the 1st icos according to the Kiev edition of the akathist of 1629.
MITA ASSEMBER MRODY MUCH POINT ISTAKAѧI, AND MNѣ LIVE ONE, AND PAZIA CONDUCTION CONTRIBUTION BUY NI NІKOLAY, AND ѩKѡ IMAY DRAꙁNOVENIEY CHABS OVERAYA MOD SQUARD, YES ꙁOVI: Radꙋisѧ IRRHѡM.
Ѩvlsѧ in a dream to the Pious Tsar ꙋ, and the death of the warriors ѡnѣh ꙁaprѣtiv ꙋ, soon your command Nicholas after ꙋ let them command. the same joy and fear, we are alive, with them and crying out to Nicolae:
Radꙋisѧ, sacred chapter. R. head of the cross with demonic prayers. R. Tsar to the servant. R. the king of faithful help. Repudiation of Orthodoxy. R. wicked consumer. R. bꙋreѫ of the Holy Spirit ѡbꙋ tormented. R. I use a lot. R. Angel's messenger. R. besm to the chaser. R. verb of Divine words. R. ousta heretіkѡm ꙁagrazhdaai. R. Nicholas the great miracle worker.
This text of the akathist is found in the publications: Most Honorable Akathist to Our Most Sweet Lord Jesus Christ, Most Pure Mother of God and Holy Hierarch Nicholas (Kyiv, 1654), Most Honorable Akathist (Kyiv, 1663), Prayer Book (Chernigov, 1714).
5 Akathist to St. John, Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord
To St. John, the Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord, there are three different akathists in manuscripts and early printed books.
In the "Small travel book" F. Skaryna placed
Akathist to the honorable and all-loving prophet of the forerunner and baptist of the Lord Izhan.
Worthy is the witness of the rhists (Christ), about you ꙋbecause the evangelist speaks, be a man sent from God to him by John, so come as a witness, let him testify about the light, and have all the faith in him. In the same way, we believers in Christ, according to your testimony, we sing that ꙋ All Allluіѧ.
About the last day of your beginning, John the Wonderful Reader, hang ꙋ for your father, the angel of the Lord is standing at the right hand altar of the censer. and they were embarrassed when they saw him, and the fear of an attack nan. the angel of heaven spoke to him ꙁakhariѧ...
1st invocation:
A joy to many givers.
Final:
Raduis ѧ honest forerunner and baptist of the Lord.
The akathist in alteration was published in the book of the Holy Akathist of the All-Seventh (Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, 1677).
Chosen to the witness of Christ іѡanna, ѡ more the evangelist says to you: Be a man sent from God, I eat іѡann, they come to testify, but testify ѡ ѣtѣ, yes we all have ꙋt. Similarly, we also believe in Christ according to your testimonies, ꙁ we say to you: Joy of Jesus, the Great Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist of the Lord.
The angel of the Lord is your father's father, standing at the right hand of the altar of the censer, bless your good news, the Baptist of the Lord Іѡanna, ꙁ beginning of the verb: heavenly Zachary.
1st invocation of the ikos:
A joy to my giver of joy.
Final:
R. Ivan the Great Prophet Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord.
The cited akathist is in the book Kansny and Akathists(semi-charter of the 16th century, Moscow Diocesan Library). The manuscript contains the text of the akathist and the final invocation of the ikos Joy of honorable forerunners to the Baptist of the Lord corresponds to the edition of Skaryna, and not to the later modified text.
Second Akathist to St. Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John reads as follows:
Ikos of the saint in the prophets, the forerunner and baptist of the Lord Isannou. Emouzh krastikhovna. like an akathist. creation of the holy patriarch of the new Rome. Konstantin ꙋ field. Kir. Sidor.
Vábrannomou and teplomou ꙁastoplenie yourmou. and amend you all from sorrow. you should cry out thank you. but ѩko name ѣѧ drənovenіe to lordsꙋ. free us from every passion. yes ꙁ ovem tee. radisѧ honest forerunners.
Angel representative of the Aggel officials to the Іѡanna the prophet. divine for shining light. ѡꙁareshi all singing your divine memory. and praising love and warmth in crying words:
Raduisѧ ꙁvѣꙁda luminiferous world. R. holy luminiferous creature.
Final appeal:
Raduis ѧ honest forerunner.
Kontakion 1 and the beginning of the 1st ikos are given according to the manuscript of the Volokolamsk library No. 295 (sheet 73v - 84).
In the edition of the Akathist, they also contain canons, stichera and verses for the whole week (Vilna, 1628), where the akathist is also recognized as the work of His Holiness Patriarch Cyrus Isidore of the New Rome, the words of the 1st kontakion should be crying out thanksgiving, literally retained in other manuscripts, are replaced in a clearer expression: due to you, let us thank you.
In addition to the manuscript of the Volokolamsk Library (No. 295), we find this akathist in the manuscripts of: the Moscow Synodal Library - “Canons of Prayer” (semi-ustav of the 16th century, No. 470/503, fol. 149), “Canons and Prayers” (No. 774/504, sheet 250v.), “Canon with Prayers” (semi-ustav of the 16th century, No. 468, sheet 4); Moscow Printing Library - collection (No. 388, l. 108); libraries of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra - (No. 284/1196, sheet 346), collection (No. 768/1201, sheet 18), collection (No. 797/1638, sheet 170v.); libraries at the Holy Synod - (No. 251, fol. 62v. - 68); Kirillo-Belozersky Library - Canon (No. 247/504, sheet 58v - 84).
The peculiarity of the akathist under consideration is (in some lists of it) a peculiar designation of kontakia and ikos. Their usual designation is as follows: after the 1st kontakion, the 1st ikos is indicated, after the 2nd kontakion, the 2nd ikos, etc. In the manuscripts of the Moscow Synodal Library (No. 470/503) and the Library of the Moscow Synodal Printing House (No. 388 ) the score is non-repeating: the 1st ikos is indicated by the sign "2", the 2nd kontakion - by the sign "3", the 2nd ikos - by the sign "4", etc., the 13th kontakion - by the sign "25".
Third Akathist to St. The Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John is placed in the manuscript "Canons of Prayer" (semi-ustav of the 16th century, Moscow Synodal Library, No. 470/503, fol. 248v.).
Kѡndaki ikosa to the honest and glorious prophet and forerunner and baptist of the Lord Іѡanna like an akathist. the creation of the all-country holy patriarch kvar Isidor Kostentinopolia.
Even in all the truly saints more than all, and more than all, I sin without having changed, I offer singing to Іѡanna, because of my own and others to the Lord. freedom from all my troubles. yes ꙁowu ti glad. preacher of grace.
I begin the song of the God-fearing, and blissfully hold it with joy and remember with fear that I will be delighted with you, and not knowing the words of the fearful forerunner. give yourself a chance to speak worthily. rejoice in it for the sake of joy ѩvisѧ, r. for the sake of an oath, perish<...>.
Final appeal:
Raduis preacher of grace.
The akathist is found in the manuscripts of: the Moscow Synodal Library - "Canons and Prayers" (No. 774), a collection (semi-ustav of the 17th century, No. 850, fol. 358); libraries at the Holy Synod - manuscript (No. 251, fol. 71v. - 76); Volokolamsk Library - manuscript (No. 295, sheets 96-106v.); libraries of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra - Canon (semi-ustav of the 16th century, No. 262/1227, l. 45), Canon (No. 263/1194, l. 26).
6 Akathist to St. Archangel Michael and the Disembodied Forces
"Akathist to St. To the Archangel Michael and the Disembodied Powers” there is only one in manuscripts and early printed books, although there are discrepancies in the text.
We give the beginning of the akathist, printed in the "Small Road Book" by F. Skaryna.
Akathist with the Holy Archangel ꙋ Michael ꙋ and all the heavenly ranks with sympathy we begin to sing.
We bring songs to the Archangel Michael, and we bring songs to all the heavenly ranks, they always add us from sorrow, for this sake we praise those archangels, with all the spirits of light, serving the Lord Almighty, you free him from all troubles ahead of us, yes, we drink .
You are the chief angel with a fiery rank, Michael, shining with divine light, bless all those who sing to you with love. Rejoice ꙁvѣꙁto the world luminiferous, r. candle ꙁakonu light ꙁarnaѧ.
Final appeal:
R. Archangel Michael with all the heavenly powers.
In the Akathist book, they also contain the Canons, Stichera and verses for the whole week (Vilna, 1628), the 1st kontakion is corrected as follows:
Archangel ꙋ Michael ꙋ song creation from mournful dreams and ꙁ additions sing of you with sweet singing.
Archangel of the Lord Almighty, who is named after the tree to the Lord. free from all my troubles, yes ꙁovꙋ ti.
Radꙋisѧ the pillar is flammable.
The Akathist is inscribed in the book as a creation of the Ecumenical Patriarch Isidore.
In manuscripts, the text of the akathist approaches the Vilna edition of 1628.
The final appeal of the ikos adopted the words Radꙋisѧ the pillar is flammable.
Akathist to St. We find Archangel Michael in the manuscripts of: the Moscow Synodal Library - "Canons of Prayer" (No. 470/503, fol. 229), "Canons and Prayers" (No. 774/504, fol. 161); libraries of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra - Canon (No. 262/1227, l. 24), Canon (No. 285, l. 370), Canon (No. 263/1194, l. 15), Collection (No. 768/120, l. 3 vol.), collection (No. 797/1638, fol. 148); Volokolamsk Library - (No. 295, sheets 47-58); Kirillo-Belozersky Library - manuscript (No. 162/419, sheets 261-268), Canon (No. 247/504, sheets 32-50); libraries at the Holy Synod - "Canons and akathists" (No. 251, fol. 53-58); Moscow diocesan library - "Canons and akathists" (semi-ustav of the 16th century, fol. 46v.).
In this last manuscript, the text of the akathist corresponds to that placed in the "Small Road Book".
Kontakion 1 ends with the word allilꙋia ikosy - an invocation Congratulations to Michael with all the powers of heaven.
The old printed editions retain the final appeal Happy Michael the Great Archangel, with all heavenly powers(see: Reverend Akathists of the All-Seventh (Kyiv, 1677, 1706)) .
7 Akathist to the Life-Giving Sepulcher of the Lord
The Akathist to the Life-Giving Sepulcher of the Lord is the first in F. Skorina's "Small Road Book".
Akathists are honored for the whole week of the first life-giving ꙋ sepulcher of the Lord in the week.
To the chosen voivode, to the resurrected and the dead, a victorious song, we sing to you, the eternal king Christ, that you have risen almighty and the grave, we, having added eternal aphids from the aphids, bring joy to your honest grave. Raduis the life-bearing tomb and Christ is risen from him.
The angel representative of heaven, having gone out of the stone from the tomb, roll away in your resurrection, Christ God, and to the myrrh-bearing gospel of your resurrection, go preach as a disciple that you have risen from the dead, they rejoice at your salvation resurrection and praise the holy tomb crying out. Raduis the most beautiful tomb in you ꙋ for Christ is dead in bed and risen three days, Raduis the most glorious bed in you ꙋ for Jesus the lion sleeps and wakes up omnipotent ...
In the Vilna edition of 1628, the 1st kontakion of this akathist is again composed:
From above on the earth, good will, send the Son and the Word of God and live from the people ...
The ikos ends with invocation 7:
Joy to the life-giving Grebe and to him, Christ is risen.
In the book of the Holy Akathist of the All-Seventh (Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, 1677), the 1st kontakion corresponds to the edition of Skaryna, the further text is closer to the Vilna edition of 1628.
Final Invocation of the Ikos:
Joy to the life-giving Grѡbe and to him, Christ is Risen.
8 Akathist to the Passion of Christ
Compiled later than the akathist to the Holy Sepulcher and the Resurrection of Christ: it is not in the edition of F. Skaryna, nor in the Vilna one - 1628.
In handwritten form, the akathist is found in manuscripts of the 17th century (see, for example, the manuscript of the Moscow Synodal Library - collection of the 17th century, No. 642, fol. 231).
An akathist by the Passion of Christ is placed in the Treakathist Prayer Book, published by the diligence of Lavrentiy Krshchonovych (1691).
Here is the 1st kontakion and the beginning of the 1st ikos.
Voꙁbrannyi Voevѡdѡ, and the Lord of the heavens and ꙁemli, you tsarѧ beꙁsmertnago ꙁrѧ oumersha on drevѣ tvar iꙁmѣnisya, nebѡ ꙋzhasesѧ, ѡsnѡvanіѧ kolѣbashasѧ and aꙁ thank poklonenіe tvoemꙋ mene for stradanіyu prinoshꙋ, Sh raꙁbѡinikom molѧsѧ: Pomѧni mѧ Oh my, when thou prіideshi unto tsarstvіi BBC.
Aggel's fall was fulfilled, you did not perceive it from the Aggel, but for the sake of God, the son of man was for me. Thou hast given life to a man who has died with life-giving bodies and blood; Jesus, setting angels in the mountain, but descending to the people. Jesus, the darkness of the fallen Angelic face filled the place.
Final appeal:
Jesus, my God, remember me always before you in this kingdom.
9 Akathist to the Holy and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord
Published by F. Skorina in the "Small Road Book".
Chosen voivode, life-giving Christ, victory over our enemies is our weapon until ꙁal thou art, great crosses made with light and honest, the same and added from ꙁlyh, thank you we sing to your holy cross, saying: Radius of the cross of our Lord Christ, the blood of our Lord Christ, the blood of Christ
Angels, with the intercession of the pre-eternal ranks, cruciformly stand on the throne of the king of glory, singing to the cross of your great strength and praising your body. Raduis ѧ cross ѩko christ rassasѧ on you, r. how the Lord God has nailed you ...
Final appeal:
Raduis, the cross of honor, sparkled with the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Vilna edition of 1628, the akathist was significantly revised.
In the 1st and 2nd ikos, the number of invocations was increased to 14, counting the final Happy Holy Cross, in other ikos - 13; Skaryna's akathist in all ikos has 13 invocations with a final one.
Then, as a feature of the akathist of the Vilna edition of 1628, it is necessary to note the high prevalence of speech in appeals, while in the akathist printed by Skaryna, the appeals of ikosov are brief.
In the manuscripts in the text of the akathist, there are numerous alterations. The closing invocations of the ikos are usually the words Radiant Cross of the Most Honorable or Radius Cross of the Most Honorable.
There is often an akathist in manuscripts: the Moscow Synodal Library - "Canons of Prayer" (No. 470/503, l. 313), "Canons and Prayers" (No. 774/504, l. 232), collection (No. 850/571, l. 417); Volokolamsk Library - manuscript (No. 295); Kirillo-Belozersky Library - Canon (No. 247/504, fol. 169-190); libraries at the Holy Synod - manuscript (No. 251, fol. 110-117); Moscow Diocesan Library - "Canons and Akathists" (XVI century, No. 322, fol. 177); libraries of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra - Canon (No. 262/1227, sheet 135), Canon (No. 263/1194, sheet 82), collection (No. 797/1638, sheet 190), collection (No. 768/1201, sheet .72 rev.); Solovetsky Library - collection (No. 916/1026, fol. 437-447).
In Uniate publications, there is another akathist to the Holy Cross. In the book "Different Akathists" (1776) it reads as follows:
About the blessed cross, and all-honorable to you, we bow to you, and magnify, rejoicing in your Divine exaltation.
The 1st kontakion and ikos ends with an invocation of Raduis, the blessed tree.
10 Akathist to St. Apostles Peter and Paul, together with all the holy apostles
The Akathist to the Holy Apostles is found both in manuscripts and in early printed books. Starts with words Ah, I am the good shepherd, said the Lord Jesus. Published in the "Small travel book". In the Vilna edition of 1628, it is reprinted with changes and signed as a creation of the Ecumenical Patriarch Isidore. Akathist is available in the manuscripts of: the Moscow Synodal Library - "Canons of Prayer" (No. 470, fol. 287), "Canons and Prayers" (No. 774/504, fol. 189v.); Trinity-Sergius Lavra - Canon (No. 262/1227, sheet 86v.), collection (No. 768/1201, sheet 34), collection (No. 797/1638, sheet 212); Moscow Diocesan Library - "Canons and Akathists" (No. 322, fol. 133v.); libraries at the Holy Synod - "Canons and akathists" (No. 251, fol. 89-98); Kirillo-Belozersky Library - (No. 247/504, sheet 114v. - 145); Solovetsky Library - collection (No. 916/1026, fol. 416-429).
Akathist to the Holy Apostles has some features in its construction:
a) the initial words of kontakia and ikos follow the alphabetical order: the 1st kontakion begins with the words Ah, I am the good shepherd... 1st ikos - Blessed be Simone... 2nd kontakion - Vern uveris... 2nd ikos - I heard a voice from above ... 3rd kontakion - Marvel at the horror...(and further in the initial words of kondaks and ikos the alphabet is maintained), the 11th ikos - Tabor mountain... 12th kontakion - Cherubim are equinoxious... 12th ikos - From God and ꙁ bran sos ꙋ to be honest ...
b) usually in all ikos one final appeal is repeated. In the akathist under consideration, four invocations are repeated in ikos, starting from the 10th:
Celebrate the God-seers of the Apostles in vkꙋpѣ, vі and with the other seven tens. Welcome the God-seers of the Apostles, Vі, the savior of the universes, and merciful providence for my salvation. Rejoice the Divine two luminaries from the sun of Christ, the enlightening universe. Welcome Apostles Peter and Paul.
When reworking the akathist to the holy apostles, the image of the apostle Peter as the “goalkeeper” and “keymaster” of the Kingdom of Heaven and as the “supreme primate” is especially shaded by corrections. The Akathist is accepted and published in Uniate publications.
11 Akathist to all saints
The Akathist to All Saints, printed in the Akathist book in them, the canons, stichera and verses for the whole week (Vilna, 1628), is recognized as the creation of Martyrius, a sacred monk of the Pechersk monastery.
With minor changes, the akathist is found in the manuscripts of: the Moscow Synodal Library - "Canons of Prayer" (No. 470/503, fol. 352v.), "Canons and Prayers" (No. 774/504, fol. 299); Volokolamsk Library - (No. 295); libraries at the Holy Synod - "Canons and akathists" (XVI century, No. 251, fol. 121-129); Trinity-Sergius Lavra - Canon (No. 285, sheet 429), collection (No. 768/1201, sheet 103); Kirillo-Belozersky Library - (No. 247/504, fol. 197-221); Solovetsky Library - (No. 916/1026, fol. 447v. - 459).
Kontakion 1 begins with the words:
To all the Saints from the ages who have been well-pleasing at the end of the earth, asking for the singing of unworthy gifts.
The construction of an akathist to all the saints represents the peculiarity that the appeals in each ikos follow in such a monotonous order: the 1st appeal is addressed to the all-praised patriarchs, who pleased God before the law and according to the law; then - to the prophets, heralds of the Divine coming; then - to the apostles, witnesses and ministers of God's word; further - to the martyrs of Christ; then - to the saints, the monks, the righteous and all the saints. Ikos ends with an invocation Celebrate the holy natives.
In later printed editions, for example in the book Holy Akathists of the All-Seventh with stichera and canons(Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, 1677), the akathist has been significantly altered, the ikos ends with an invocation Radiate all the saints to God ꙋ ѡ all the prayer books of the world.
12 Akathist to the Holy Trinity
IN“The Treakathist Prayer Book”, published with the blessing of Lazar Baranovich by the care of Lavrentiy Krshchonovych in 1691, an akathist to the Most Holy Trinity was printed.
Kontakion 1 reads:
Chosen warriors, and Lord of all visible and invisible creatures, to you in the Trinity of the Holy Glorious ꙋ God bows down threefold knee: heavenly and earthly and underworld ...
The final invocation of the kontakion and ikos:
Holy, Holy, Holy are you, O Lord my God, have mercy on me and your unworthy creature, for the sake of your holy name.
Ikos 1 begins with the words:
Archangels, Angels, Principles, Powers, Thrones, Dominions, Forces, you cannot be worthy of praise.
IN edition of the Treakathist Prayer Book (1697), the akathist was corrected in language. The akathist was printed and is being printed in Uniate publications. Accepted by the Russian Orthodox Church at the present time, but in the processing and correction of it by the Archbishop of Kherson Innokenty.
13 Akathist to St. John Chrysostom
Recognizing the author of the akathist to St. Barbara Archimandrite Iosaph (Krokovsky), we see that the first edition of it could not have been made in 1639. The assertion that this akathist was published for the first time in 1698 is also false. Akathist to St. Great Martyr Barbara was published in Chernigov in 1691 in the book Treacathist Prayer, published with the blessing of Lazar Baranovich and the care of Lavrentiy Krshchonovych.
When comparing different editions of the Akathist to St. Varvara, we find that his text has undergone some changes. In the book Akathist to the Holy Glorious and All-Praise Great Martyr Barbara, published in 1698, the text is the same as in the 1691 edition. The same akathist without change was placed in the book Crown in honor of the ancient ꙋ Godꙋ(Chernigov, 1712). But in the publication Honorable Akathists of the all-weekly from the stichera and canna, printed in Kyiv under Iosaph (Krokovsky), archimandrite of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, in 1706, the text of the akathist was corrected, probably by the author himself. Here are some examples.
Akathist editions of 1691, 1698 and 1712:
Appeal 2: Glad. the virgin Jesus Christ brought the darkness and the darkness into the daily light of Faith and His grace.
Invocation 5: Glad. heavenly ꙋ bridegroom ꙋ Christ ꙋ yourself in the bride ꙋ clean sheep
Invocation 10: Glad. the beauty of Aggelskih there
Invocation 4: Glad. ѩkѡ to you the true theology, the Holy Spirit himself began to eat.
Invocation 5: Glad. maiden of all ꙁvѣꙁdochetsov raꙁꙋmom si exceeding.
Appeal 2: Glad. at the same time they sang water and the Holy Spirit to themselves and washed.
Proclamations 3 and 4: Glad. ѩkѡ three ѡkontsy tmꙋ mnѡgodozhіѧ raꙁorila thou. Glad. Thou hast shown us through the three lights of the Trinity.
Call 8: Glad. feelings of one's own from the whole world with the presence of a firmament that has turned on.
Invocation 10: Glad. with those three signs of the Holy Trinity ꙋ ouꙁrѣvshaѧ.
Proclamation 11: Glad. As the gates of heaven open to you.
Edition of the akathist of 1706:
Glad. The Son of God, the light from the light of the bath and the darkness in the black light of the Faith and his grace.
Glad. Born ꙋ from the Virgin bridegroom ꙋ Christ ꙋ Maiden ꙋ tѧ pure
Glad. reddened more than the sons of human ꙁrenie there is outrageous.
Glad. ѩkѡ to you the true theology God himself has learned the Word.
Glad. all ꙁvѣꙁdochetsѡ in the mind of Christ transcended.
Glad. they sang water and the Spirit to your family and blood, martyred to you and washed.
Glad. ѩkѡ three windows tmꙋ many gods the Trinity of saints opposing you drove away. Glad. ѩkѡ three windows of light trinity ѩsnѡ ouꙁrel thou art.
Glad. your feelings in front of the battle of the three enemies of the flesh, the world and the devil are strong and turn on.
Glad. With those three windows at the Trinity Deity and three days in the moving body of Christ, the church was examined by you.
Glad. How heaven for you from the three hierarchies of the Aggelian openings.
The above excerpts, we think, are enough to see the nature of the correction of the original text of the akathist. In later editions, the akathist to St. Varvara is printed identically with the text published in 1706. There are only corrections of a grammatical nature, for example, instead of “erected” - “erected”, etc.
16 Akathist St. Sergius, hegumen of Radonezh, miracle worker
The oldest akathist to St. Sergius of Radonezh, as pointed out by His Grace Filaret, Archbishop of Chernigov, was written by Pachomius Logothetes. Then they were compiled prp. Sergius and other akathists. In the manuscript collection of the Moscow Synodal Library (XVII century, No. 3, fol. 224 et seq.), there is an akathist to St. Sergius of Radonezh, whose 1st kontakion reads as follows:
Vozhibranyyii Voevodo Sergіe, and BѣSѡm Potor, ѩko IꙁBavlshesѧ ѧ ꙁ ѩ ѩko ꙁ ꙁ и оли то то товина товой, but ѩko IMAYS DERYOVENIE KO LORDꙋ, OTHER VYA BѣD SVETODY, YES: TI: Radꙋisѧ Sergia Bogomud.
Beginning of the 1st ikos:
An angel of the intercessor of God was sent to bring you the coming of the Mother of God.
In the historical part, appeals of St. Sergius to the Most Holy Theotokos, and in the glorification there are appeals to the reverend himself on behalf of the worshipers. Here is the 4th invocation from the 3rd ikos:
Glad. Holy Hierarch Aleiyu is always friendly. From him, you were named for the priesthood by the position on your neck of your naked ꙁlaty with aromas. but you humbly wisely rejected the lofty residence and advertised you to the positor. yoko and ꙁmlada not ꙁlat-bearer "howl am - and the 10th invocation of the 5th ikos:
glad. patronymics ꙋ his ꙋ city ꙋ rostov ꙋ and all ꙋ afetorossіiskom ꙋ people ꙋ fun.
In the 12th appeal of the 7th ikos, when pointing to the greatness of the monk, it is said:
As from a single source, many sweats flow, so from your teaching Sergius many and many abode of the former boss.
The manuscript of the Moscow Synodal Library (No. 2) contains Kontakions and kosy to the reverend and God-bearing ꙋ father ꙋ to our hegumen Sergius of Radonezh ꙋ miracle worker ꙋ.
Taken from the Tsar's forces of the Lord Jesus, these Russian voivodes and miracle workers, the Reverend Father Sergius ...
Final appeal:
Happy is Sergius, quick helper and glorious worker.
The same akathist is placed in the manuscripts of the Moscow Main Archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (semi-status of the new time, No. 517/998), but with the peculiarity that the final appeal of the 1st kontakion is different: glad. Sergius is rich.
The considered handwritten akathist to St. Sergius corresponds to the akathist, now printed. In the printed akathist, compared to the handwritten one, there are some corrections to the text, albeit small ones, consisting in the rearrangement of words (ic. 3, b, 9, cond. 8), in changes in the grammatical nature (ic. 1, 4, 7, 9-10, cond. 4), in omission (cond. 2, 7, 11), change (ic. 3, 5, 10–12) and insertion (ic. 9) of some words.
In every kontakion and ikos there are such small corrections. As an example, let's point out some changes in the printed text compared to the handwritten one.
Manuscript No. 2 of the Moscow Synodal Library:
Appeal 2:
Glad. having gathered your good flock, instructed it for salvation.
Invocation 6:
Glad. while still alive, you were able to see the Blessed Virgin Mary from the two apostles.
Ꙁa hedgehog glorifying and ѡ such is yours on agarin Orthodox ꙋ hosts ꙋ and now help God ꙋ cry out.
Ikos 11, invocation 11; Kontakion 12:
Our king and our king...
Printed edition of the akathist:
Glad, good flock, gathered by you, instructed in salvation.
Glad, even in your life you were able to see the Most Holy Theotokos with two apostles.
For hedgehog glorifying and ѡ such as yours on the resisting Orthodox ꙋ armies ꙋ ask for help, God ꙋ cry.
іmperatorꙋ to ourꙋ...
There is a third Akathist to St. Sergius, beginning with the words:
Chosen voivode warriors in dꙋhovnyh, under the name of the cross of the warriors ꙋ those who fight against the invisible enemy, Sergius dotvorche...
Final appeal:
Glad. reverend do-worker, Our Father Sergius.
17 Akathist St. Alexy, man of God
We will finish our review of the akathists that existed and appeared before the establishment of the Holy Synod with an examination of the akathist of St. Alexy, the man of God, composed by the bonded man Prince Alexei Dolgorukov Kosma Lyubimov. Prompted by some visions and dreams, Kuzma Terentyev Lyubimov compiled a canon for Mark Thrachesky and an akathist to Alexy, the man of God. In order to win the favor of Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, the author dedicated his work to him. To present an akathist with a canon to the prince, he turned to Alexei Ivanovich Naryshkin, a former governor in Uglich. Naryshkin sent Lyubimov's letter with his work to Prince Feodor Yuryevich Romodanovsky in the Preobrazhensky order. Romodanovsky did not attach any importance to the papers and returned them back to Lyubimov. But according to some denunciation of Lyubimov, that he was composing prayers and akathists for the prince, a case was initiated in the Secret Chancellery.
After the trial and death of the unfortunate Alexei Petrovich, Lyubimov was brought with his manuscripts to the Office of Secret Investigations. The case in the Secret Office on March 9, 1721 was considered in the presence of Peter the Great himself. The outcome of the case was the saddest for the author. The compiler of the akathist, accused of falsely fabricating visions, was ordered to inflict a severe punishment: to beat him with a whip and, tearing out his nostrils, send him to hard labor for eternal work.
The akathist in question is currently kept in the library of A. I. Khludov (No. 176). Manuscript of the Akathist to St. Alexy, the man of God, with a service to Mark, was written in a semi-ustav of the 18th century on 94 sheets. First placed a preface to the pious reader, to the noble Sovereign Tsesarevich and Grand Duke Alei Petrovich of All Russia.
The preface says, among other things:
I will create these akathists in faces with the prescription of utterances of verses, so that not only can you hear it, but it will always be from the faithful so much pleasing his life ꙁretis.
26 engravings are attached to the text of the akathist; on one of them the name of the master is indicated - Grigory Tepchegorsky.
Akathist composed quite skillfully.
Begins with the words:
Chosen and glorious servants of Christ ѩkѡ and ꙁblessed by you from ꙁlykh, thankfully we will describe you as a servant of God ꙋdre Aleiye.
Final appeal:
Happy Reverend Red Approval.
In the akathist preserved in the Khludov library, unfortunately, the text of kontakia 9 and 10 is lost, and there are only pictures for them, and the images at ikos 9 and 10 are lost.
In the text of the akathist there is no sharply expressed protest against the innovations introduced into Russian life by Peter, but this protest is found in the paintings and signatures. After the akathist follows. During prayer, a picture of such content is placed. A radiance with the inscription Theos and a triangle in the radiance are depicted. From the radiance rays diverge. One beam goes to the depicted prince with the words in it my shrines will flourish, and from the lips of the prince come the words that in the Lord's dam ѡ all. Another beam from the radiance with words the enemies of siѧ ѡblackꙋ stꙋdom directed towards a person who is wearing a wig on his head and behind whom are other faces - also in wigs.
Stefan (Yavorsky) was brought to justice in the case of the akathist Alexy, the man of God. During the interrogation, Lyubimov stated that he presented the akathist and other works to Stefan, who allegedly treated him approvingly. But at the request of Feofan (Prokopovich) and Theodosius (Lopatinsky), who conducted an inquiry in the case of the akathist to St. Alexy, Stefan (Yavorsky) replied that he had indeed accepted the notebooks from Lyubimov, but he himself did not carefully look at them, therefore, he could not praise them, but sent them to the teaching monastery to the teachers so that they would consider if there was something contrary to the Orthodox faith, but whether the works of Lyubimov were considered, he does not know. By the way, Stefan, in his answer to Theophan's accusatory request, writes: "At that time (that is, when he entrusted the consideration of the akathist to teachers) there was still no prohibition not to write any letters, to the praise of God proper."
The case of the Akathist to St. Alexy, the man of God, stands at the turn of the pre-Synodal period of the Russian Church to the Synodal.
And Van Fedorov is revered in Russia as the first printer. But Francis Skorina "from the glorious city of Polotsk" published his "Russian Bible" fifty years before Ivan Fedorov. And in it he clearly indicated that this book was "written for all Russian people." Francysk Skaryna is a Belarusian and East Slavonic first printer, translator, publisher and artist. The son of a people living on the European border, he brilliantly combined in his work the traditions of the Byzantine East and the Latin West. Thanks to Skaryna, Belarusians received a printed Bible in their native language before Russians and Ukrainians, Poles and Lithuanians, Serbs and Bulgarians, French and British...
In general, the first books in Church Slavonic were published by Schweipolt Fiol in Krakow in 1491. These were: “Oktoih” (“Osmoglasnik”) and “Hourist”, as well as “Lenten Triode” and “Color Triode”. It is assumed that the triodie (without a designated year of publication) was issued by Fiol before 1491.
In 1494, in the town of Obod on Lake Skadar in the Principality of Zeta (now Montenegro), the monk Macarius in a printing house under the auspices of Georgy Chernoevich printed the first book in the Slavic language among the southern Slavs, “Oktoih the First Voice”. This book can be seen in the sacristy of the monastery in Cetinje. In 1512, Macarius printed the Gospel in the Ugro-Wallachia (the territory of modern Romania and Moldavia).
In 1517-1519, in Prague, Francysk Skorina printed in Cyrillic in the Belarusian version of the Church Slavonic language "Psalter" and 23 more books of the Bible translated by him. In 1522, in Vilna (now Vilnius), Skaryna published the Small Travel Book. This book is considered the first book printed on the territory that was part of the USSR. In the same place in Vilna in 1525, Francysk Skaryna printed "The Apostle". Fedorov's assistant and colleague, Pyotr Mstislavets, studied with Skaryna.
Francysk Skaryna - Belarusian humanist of the first half of the 16th century, medical scientist, writer, translator, artist, educator, first printer of the Eastern Slavs.
Far from all the details of Skaryna's biography have survived to this day, there are still many "white spots" in the life of the work of the great enlightener. Even the exact dates of his birth and death are unknown. It is believed that he was born between 1485 and 1490 in Polotsk, in the family of a wealthy Polotsk merchant Luka Skorina, who traded with the Czech Republic, with Moscow Russia, with Polish and German lands. From his parents, the son adopted love for his native Polotsk, whose name he later always used with the epithet “glorious”. Francis received his primary education at his parents' house - he learned to read the Psalms and write in Cyrillic. It is assumed that he learned Latin (Francis knew it brilliantly) at school at one of the Catholic churches in Polotsk or Vilna.
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Skaryna, the son of a Polotsk merchant, received his first higher education in Krakow. There he took a course in "liberal sciences" and was awarded a bachelor's degree. Skaryna also received a master's degree in arts, which then gave the right to enter the most prestigious faculties (medical and theological) of European universities. Scientists suggest that after the University of Krakow, during the years 1506-1512, Skaryna served as a secretary to the Danish king. But in 1512, he left this position and went to the Italian city of Padua, at the university of which “a young man from very distant countries” (as the documents of that time say about him) received the degree of “Doctor of Medicine”, which was a significant event not only in the life of young Francis, but also in the history of the culture of Belarus. Until now, in one of the halls of this educational institution, where there are portraits of famous men of European science that came out of its walls, there is a portrait of an outstanding Belarusian by an Italian master.
About the period 1512-1516 centuries. F. Skaryna's life is unknown to us yet. Modern scientists have suggested that at that time Skorina traveled around Europe, got acquainted with printing and the first printed books, and also met with his brilliant contemporaries - Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael. The reason for this is the following fact - one of Raphael's frescoes depicts a man who is very similar to Skaryna's self-portrait in the Bible he later published. Interestingly, Raphael wrote it next to his own image.
From 1517 Skaryna lived in Prague. Here he began his publishing business and began printing Bible books.
The first printed book was the Slavic "Psalter", in the preface to which it is reported: "I, Francis Skorina, the son of the glorious Polotsk, a doctor in medicinal sciences, ordered the Psalter to be embossed in Russian words, and in Slovenian." At that time, the Belarusian language was called “Russian language”, in contrast to Church Slavonic, called “Slovenian”. The Psalter was published on August 6, 1517.
Then, almost every month, more and more new volumes of the Bible were published: the Book of Job, the Parables of Solomon, Ecclesiastes ... In two years in Prague, Francysk Skaryna published 23 illustrated Bible books, translated by him into a language understandable to the general reader. The publisher supplied each of the books with a preface and an afterword, and included almost fifty illustrations in the Bible.
Around 1520 or a little later, the first printer returned to his homeland and founded the first East Slavic printing house in Vilna. Here the “Small Road Book” was published, which is considered the first book published in the Belarusian lands (there is no exact release date for the book). Here, in 1525, "The Apostle" was printed, which turned out to be the last book of the first printer - during the fire in Vilna, the printing house of Francis died. It was with this book that 40 years later Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Mstislavets, both natives of Belarus, began Russian book printing in Moscow.
The last fifteen years of Francysk Skaryna's life are full of adversity and deprivation: for some time he serves with the Prussian Duke Albrecht the Elder in Koenigsberg, then returns to Vilna, where his family lives. For the debts of her deceased brother, Skaryna is imprisoned in Poznań. The Polish king Sigismund I releases him from trial with a special letter. Around 1535, Francysk Skaryna moved to Prague, where he became the personal doctor and horticulturist of King Ferdinand I of Habsburg, who would later become Holy Roman Emperor. 1540 is considered the year of the death of the great enlightener.
Before the appearance of the well-known Ostroh Bible, Skaryna's editions were the only printed translations of the Holy Scriptures made in the territories of the Eastern and Southern Slavs. These translations became the subject of inheritance and alterations - all East Slavic publishing activity in the field of biblical texts was somehow oriented towards Skaryna. This is not surprising - in many respects his Bible was ahead of similar publications in other countries: before the German Martin Luther, not to mention Polish and Russian publishers. It is noteworthy that the Bible was published in the Old Belarusian language, which largely determined the development of the Belarusian press. The famous "Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania" were printed in the language of Belarus.
A noticeable increase in attention to the heritage of antiquity is also associated with the name of Skaryna. He was perhaps the first in our area to attempt to synthesize antiquity and Christianity, and also proposed an educational program developed in Ancient Greece - the system of the "Seven Free Sciences". Later, it was adopted by the fraternal schools of Ukraine and Belarus, developed and improved by the professors of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy and contributed a lot to the convergence of national culture with the culture of the West.
Only four hundred copies of Skaryna's books have survived to this day. All editions are very rare, especially the ones from Vilna. Rarities are stored in libraries and book depositories in Minsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, Vilnius, Lvov, London, Prague, Copenhagen, Krakow.
Francysk Skaryna has long been revered in Belarus. The life and work of F. Skorina is studied by a complex scientific discipline - scoring studies. His biography is studied in schools. Streets in Minsk, Polotsk, Vitebsk, Nesvizh, Orsha, Slutsk and many other cities of Belarus are named after him. The Gomel State University bears the name of F. Skaryna. Monuments to the outstanding scientist were erected in Polotsk, Minsk, Lida, Vilnius. The last of the monuments was recently installed in the capital of Belarus, next to the entrance to the new National Library.
All schools in Polotsk introduced a special subject - Polotsk studies, in which F. Skorina occupies a worthy place. Events dedicated to the memory of the pioneer printer are held in the city according to a separately drawn up plan.
Special awards have been introduced in Belarus - the Skaryna medal (1989) and the Order of Skaryna (1995).
Biography
Francysk Skaryna was born in the second half of the 1480s in Polotsk (Grand Duchy of Lithuania) in the family of a merchant Luka. Researcher Gennady Lebedev, relying on the works of Polish and Czech scientists, believed that Skorina was born around 1482.
He received his primary education in Polotsk. Presumably, in 1504 he becomes a student at the University of Krakow - the exact date is unknown, since the record, which is traditionally referred to - “In [the period] of the rectorship of the venerable father Mr. Jan Amitsin from Krakow, doctor of arts and canon law, by the grace of God and the apostolic throne of the Bishop of Laodicene and the suffragan of Krakow, as well as the pleban [church] of St. Nicholas outside the walls of Krakow, in the winter semester in the summer of the Lord 1504, the following [persons] are inscribed [...] Francis son of Luke from P[o]lotsk, 2 grosz, "can also refer to any Francis from the Polish city of Plock, especially since the amount of 2 grosz contributed by the "applicant" Francis, at that time was small even for a merchant's son.
In 1506, Skaryna graduated from the faculty of "seven free arts" (grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music) with a bachelor's degree, later received the title of licentiate of medicine and a doctorate in "free arts", as evidenced by a clear act record: "Francis of Polotsk, Litvin".
After that, for another five years, Skaryna studied in Krakow at the Faculty of Medicine, and defended the degree of Doctor of Medicine on November 9, 1512, having successfully passed the exams at the University of Padua in Italy, where there were enough specialists to confirm this defense. Contrary to popular belief, Skaryna did not study at the University of Padua, but arrived there precisely to pass the exam for a scientific degree, as evidenced by the university record dated November 5, 1512: “... a very learned, poor young man arrived, a doctor of arts, originally from very remote countries, perhaps four thousand miles or more from this glorious city, in order to increase the glory and splendor of Padua, and also the flourishing assembly of philosophers of the gymnasium and our holy College. He turned to the College with a request to allow him, as a gift and a special mercy, to undergo the grace of God for trials in the field of medicine at this holy College. If, Your Excellencies, if you permit, I will introduce him himself. The young man and the aforementioned doctor bears the name of Mr. Francis, the son of the late Luka Skaryna from Polotsk, Rusyns ... ”On November 6, 1512, Skaryna passed trial tests, and on November 9 he brilliantly passed a special exam and received medical dignity.
In 1517, he founded a printing house in Prague and published the Psalter, the first printed Belarusian book, in Cyrillic. In total, during the years 1517-1519, he translated and published 23 books of the Bible. Skaryna's patrons were Bogdan Onkov, Yakub Babich, as well as the prince, voivode of Trok and the Grand Hetman of Lithuania Konstantin Ostrozhsky.
In 1520 he moved to Vilnius and founded the first printing house on the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL). In it, Skaryna publishes the Small Travel Book (1522) and The Apostle (1525).
In 1525, one of the sponsors of the Vilna printing house, Yuri Odvernik, died, and Skaryna's publishing activity stopped. He marries Odvernik's widow Margarita (she died in 1529, leaving a small child). A few years later, other patrons of Skaryna died one by one - the Vilna steward Yakub Babich (in whose house there was a printing house), then Bogdan Onkov, and in 1530 the Trok governor Konstantin Ostrozhsky.
In 1525, the last master of the Teutonic Order, Albrecht of Brandenburg, secularized the Order and proclaimed instead a secular Prussian duchy, vassal to the king of Poland. The master was fascinated by reformist changes, which primarily concerned the church and school. For book publishing Albrecht in 1529 or 1530 invited Francysk Skaryna to Königsberg. The duke himself writes: “Not so long ago we received the glorious husband Francysk Skaryna from Polotsk, doctor of medicine, the most respected of your citizens, who arrived in our possession and the Principality of Prussia, as our subject, nobleman and beloved faithful servant. Further, since the affairs, property, wife, children whom he left with you - hence his name, then, leaving there, he humbly asked us to entrust our guardianship with our letter ... ".
In 1529, the elder brother of Francysk Skaryna, Ivan, dies, whose creditors put forward property claims to Francis himself (apparently, hence the hasty departure with a letter of recommendation from Duke Albrecht). So, Skorina did not stay in Königsberg and after a few months returned to Vilnius, taking with him a printer and a Jewish doctor. The purpose of the act is unknown, but Duke Albrecht was offended by the “stealing” of specialists and already on May 26, 1530, in a letter to the Vilna governor Albert Gostold, he demanded that these people be returned to the duchy.
On February 5, 1532, the creditors of the late Ivan Skaryna, having filed a complaint with the Grand Duke and King Sigismund I, sought the arrest of Francis for his brother’s debts under the pretext that Skorina supposedly hides the property inherited from the deceased and constantly moves from place to place (although in fact in fact, Ivan's son Roman was the heir, but the creditors, most likely, did not lie about the frequent relocations). Francysk Skaryna spent several months in a Poznan prison until his nephew Roman got a meeting with the king, to whom he explained the matter. May 24, 1532 Sigismund I issues a decree on the release of Francysk Skaryna from prison. On June 17, the Poznan court finally decided the case in favor of Skaryna. And on November 21 and 25, King Sigismund, having sorted out the case with the help of Bishop Jan, issues two privileged charters (privileges), according to which Francysk Skaryna is not only declared innocent and receives freedom, but also all kinds of benefits - protection from any prosecution (except for royal decree), protection from arrests and complete inviolability of property, exemption from duties and city services, as well as "from the jurisdiction and power of each and every one - governor, castellan, elders and other dignitaries, judges and all sorts of judges."
In 1534, Francysk Skaryna made a trip to the Principality of Moscow, from where he was expelled as a Catholic, and his books were burned (see the letter of 1552 from the King of the Commonwealth, Zhygimont II August, to Albert Krichka, his ambassador in Rome under Pope Julius III).
Around 1535, Skaryna moved to Prague, where, most likely, she worked as a doctor or, unlikely, as a gardener at the royal court. The widespread version that Skaryna held the position of royal gardener at the invitation of King Ferdinand I and founded the famous garden on Gradchany has no serious grounds. Czech researchers, and after them foreign historians of architecture, adhere to the canonical theory that the "garden on the Castle" (see Prague Castle) was founded in 1534 by invited Italians Giovanni Spazio and Francesco Bonaforde. The proximity of the names Francesco - Francis gave rise to a version of Skorina's gardening activities, especially since in the correspondence between Ferdinand I and the Bohemian Chamber it is clearly noted: "master Francis", "Italian gardener", who received a payment and left Prague around 1539. However, in the letter of 1552 of Ferdinand I to the son of the then deceased Francysk Skaryna Simeon, there is the phrase "our gardener."
What did Francysk Skaryna really do in Prague? last years life is unknown. Most likely, he practiced as a doctor.
The exact date of his death has not been established, most scholars suggest that Skaryna died around 1551, since in 1552 his son Simeon came to Prague for an inheritance.
Fonts and engraved headpieces from the Vilna printing house Skaryna were used by book publishers for another hundred years.
The language in which Francysk Skaryna printed his books was based on the Church Slavonic language, but with a large number of Belarusian words, and therefore was most understandable to the inhabitants of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. For a long time, there was a heated scientific dispute among Belarusian linguists about which language, out of two options, Skaryn translated the books into: the Belarusian edition (excerpt) of the Church Slavonic language or, under another version, the church style of the Old Belarusian language. Currently, Belarusian linguists agree that the language of translations of the Bible by Francysk Skaryna is the Belarusian edition (excerpt) of the Church Slavonic language. At the same time, the influence of the Czech and Polish languages was noticed in the works of Skaryna.
Skaryna's Bible violated the rules that existed when rewriting church books: it contained texts from the publisher and even engravings with his image. This is the only such case in the history of Bible publishing in Eastern Europe. Because of the ban on self-translation of the Bible, Catholic and Orthodox Church did not recognize Skaryna's books.
Sourced from the Internet
The general title page for the entire book is not known. Dated according to a copy with paschalia - a kind of calendar calculated from 1523 to 1543 (copy of the Copenhagen Royal Library). Releasing a calendar for years that had already passed did not make any sense. It was a kind of calendar in which the dates of the so-called "movable" holidays are indicated, which in different years fall on different days. The dates on which the eclipses of the sun and moon will occur are also calculated. The average height of the copies is 14 cm. the miracle worker Nikola, the Akathist to the miracle worker Nikola, the Canon to the Apostles Peter and Paul, the Akathist to the apostles Peter and Paul, the Canon to the Theotokos, the Akathist to the Mother of God, the Canon to the sweetest name of Jesus, the Akathist to the sweetest name of Jesus, the Canon to the Cross of the Lord, the Akathist to the Cross of the Lord, the Follow-up of the church assembly and a general afterword. Some solemn hymns - akathists and canons Skaryna composed himself. We can consider Skaryna the first Belarusian poet whose works were published during his lifetime. The name “Small Road Book” (more precisely, “book”), which has been established in the literature, is based on the preface of Francysk Skaryna: “Written speeches in this Small Road Book are briefly summarized in a number of ways.” Format: 8°, set 102x65, 20 lines, 10 lines - 53. No custod and signatures, printing in two colors. Pagination front, by sheets, multiple, in the upper or lower right corner: 1-Znn., 1-140, 1_28, 1-4 nn., 1-28, 1-12, 1-8, 1-12, 1- 8, 1-12, 1-8, 1-12, 1-8, 1-16, 1-8, 1-12, 1-8, 1-16, 1-8, 1-12, 1-8, 1-36, 1-4, 1-4nn., 1-20 =435 ll. in full copy. Ornament: in the full copy of the Small travel book there should be 487 initials from 104 boards, 251 headpieces from 28 boards. Engravings: 1) 9 p., 1 a, “St. John the Baptist to baptize our Lord Jesus Christ in the Jordan”, 80x72; 2) 10 pag., 1 a, “Gabriel Announcement to the Blessed Virgin Mary”, 87 x 64; 3) 18 pag., 1a, without signature (Virgin and Child), 64x41; 4) 19 pg., 1 a, “Our Lord Jesus Christ in the temple to teach Jewish lawyers”, 81x72. The title pages of the Psalter, the Six Days, the Sobornik are designed in the form of border frames (of 4 boards), inside of which the title is printed. Original frame tit. sheet of Akathists for the whole week (4 pg., 1 a), especially the left vertical woodcut depicting the crowned Virgin with a baby (some researchers consider this engraving as the fifth illustration of the Small Travel Book). No complete copies of the Small Travel Book have been preserved. The most complete copies are available in the following libraries: RNB 1.5.8, 1.5.86; RSL No. 2044, 2045; GIM Smaller. 1430, Chertk. 479; Royal Library, Copenhagen. Francysk Skaryna intended his miniature edition, first of all, for merchants and artisans - people who were often on the road. The edition is elegant, its ornament is beautiful, the fine print is clear, in its design it resembles the font of the Prague Bible. Headpieces are used not only as an element of decorative decoration, but also for better organization of the text ("for the best separation, the readers are given the essence"). Paleotype, the first-born printing on Belarusian soil!
Bibliography: Sopikov, 1813, No. 517, 930; Koeppen, 1825, p. 482, no. 33; Stroev, 1829, No. 13; Undolsky, 1848, No. 6; Sakharov, 1849, No. 11, Karataev, 1861, No. 15, Undolsky, 1871, No. 18, Karataev, 1878, No. 16, Karataev, !883, No. 19. Titov A.A. has undoubted commercial interest. Early printed books according to the Catalog of A.I. Kasterina, with the designation of their prices. Rostov, 1905, No. 6 ... 550 r.!!! Looking to buy. Our desire. Report by P.P. Shibanova. Publication of JSC "Mezhdunarodnaya kniga". Moscow, Mospoligraf, type-zincography "The Thought of a Printer", , No. 19. ... 300 rub., Catalog of books from the GPB collection. St. Petersburg, 1993, No. 13.
The history of Belarusian book printing is an important part of the general history of the Belarusian people. Cyrillic printing was the leading type of Belarusian book publishing. Printing houses that used Cyrillic fonts published publications in book Slavonic, as well as Belarusian literary language, used the Cyrillic alphabet inherent in Old Russian, later Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian writing. The Cyrillic book connected Belarusian and Ukrainian book printing with Russian, where the Cyrillic alphabet occupied a monopoly position. Progressive Cyrillic printing performed an important historical mission in the development of Belarusian culture, in preserving the cultural community of the East Slavic peoples, in raising the liberation struggle of the masses in the 16th-17th centuries. against social and national oppression. At the end of the XV - beginning of the XVI century. all European countries became familiar with the technology and art of printing directly or indirectly (Belarus, which at that time was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, from 1569 almost until the end of the 18th century was part of the federal state of the Commonwealth). Cultural life in the country was complicated by socio-political, class, socio-economic and national-religious contradictions. The process of spreading book printing, which continued at that time, was associated with the maturation of its social prerequisites in Belarus and Lithuania, the development of productive forces and production relations. The increased social activity of various strata of society in connection with this, a certain economic and cultural upsurge, and the expansion of international relations contributed to the development of all forms of book writing. In the formation of Belarusian book printing, the main role was played by the commercial and entrepreneurial strata of the urban population, the petty bourgeois, who supported the ideas of developing national culture, schooling, and education.
Between 1512 and 1517 the doctor of "free sciences" Frantisek Skaryna appeared in Prague. According to the hypothesis of J. Dobrovsky, he could be among the people who accompanied King Sigismund I (aka Zhigimont the Old) to the Congress of Vienna in 1515. Well, he stayed in Prague to perform some official duties under the young Czech King Louis. Here he ordered printing equipment and set about translating and commenting on the Bible. The first book of Skaryna (Psalter) was published on August 6, 1517. From that time to 1519, Skorina translated into Church Slavonic (with a significant admixture of Old Belarusian vocabulary), commented on and published 23 books of the Bible with prefaces and afterwords. In 1520-1521 he moved to Vilna, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Burgomaster Yakub Babich set aside a place for Skaryna's printing house in his house in one of the Russian quarters in the Rynok area. The Vilna merchant Bogdan Onkov financed the publishing activity of Skaryna. Around 1522, the first printer published the Small Travel Book, and in March 1525, his last book, The Apostle. Somewhere around this time, perhaps, he participated in Vilna in a dispute with the famous Paracelsus. In 1525, he is believed to have traveled to the German city of Wittenberg, the center of the Reformation, where he met with Martin Luther. On the basis of one of the diplomatic documents of 1552, A.V. Florovsky and S. Braga developed a hypothesis that in the middle of 1520 Skorina could visit Moscow, assuming to master the Moscow book market. But there, during the reign of Grand Duke Basil III, his books were publicly burned, because they were published by a Catholic and in places subject to the authority of the Roman Church. Between 1525 and 1528, Skorina married the widow of the Vilna merchant Yuri Odvernik Margarita, improved his financial situation and, together with his wife, took part in the trading business of his elder brother Ivan Skorina, who led wholesale trade skins. But at the end of 1529, brother Ivan died in Poznań. And at the beginning of 1530, Margarita also died, leaving his young son, Simeon, in the arms of Skaryna. For Skaryna, the era of litigation began. First, Margarita's relatives sued, demanding the division of her property. At this time, Skorina visited Koenigsberg (until May 1530), where he tried to enlist the patronage of Duke Albrecht of Hohenzollern, who, carried away by the ideas of the Reformation, wanted to organize book printing. Then Skaryna became a family doctor and secretary of the Vilna Catholic Bishop Jan. But here the Warsaw creditors began to demand from him the payment of the debts of his late brother. The Jewish merchants Lazar and Moses (to whom he owed 412 zlotys) in February 1532 secured the arrest of Skaryna - and he spent about 10 weeks in a Poznań prison. Rescued by his nephew - Roman, who achieved an audience with King Sigismund I and proved that Skaryna had no direct relationship to his brother's affairs. On May 24, 1532, the king ordered the release of Skaryna and issued him a safe-conduct (immunity), according to which only the royal court could judge him. Finally, in the mid-1530s, Francysk Skaryna took the position of physician and gardener to the Czech king Ferdinand I of Habsburg in the royal botanical garden in Prague. The first printer died no later than January 29, 1552.
The "Small Road Book" is shrouded in an aura of mysticism and mystery. What Belarusian book is considered the first printed one? The one that Skaryna printed in Prague in 1517, or the one in Vilna - in 1522? Prague then definitely had nothing to do with Belarus. And Vilnius - now ... Interesting arithmetic. E.L. Nemirovsky we read: Under the name "Small travel book" is known a set of publications printed by Francis Skaryna around 1522 in Vilna. The name was given by the Belarusian educator himself. It is mentioned only once - in the title of the afterword to the entire set of publications: "WRITTEN AND SPEECHES IN THIS SMALL ROADBOOK, the essence is laid out in a number of brief ways." With the light hand of Ivan Prokofievich Karataev, the name “Small Road Book” was established in historiography, which later became generally accepted and common noun. Meanwhile, Francysk Skaryna himself speaks of a “book”. As Yaroslav Dmitrievich Isaevich rightly pointed out, “the form “in the book” is a prepositional case from “book”. Therefore, the correct name is “Small travel book”. It is fair to point out that it was in this form that the name was used by the Czech Slavist Josef Dobrovsky, who first introduced this collection of Vilna editions of Francysk Skaryna into scientific circulation. “Small travel book” is a rare edition. The total number of currently known convolutes and separately bound editions that are part of the “Small Travel Book” was 22 until very recently. which is included in the “Small travel book”, was introduced into scientific circulation by Yu. A. Labyntsev in 1978. Therefore, the discovery made in 2004 by the Moscow bibliophile Mikhail Evgenievich Grinblat can be considered truly sensational. He purchased an envelope containing the Vilna Psalter, the Canon to the Holy Sepulcher, the Akathist to the Holy Sepulcher, the Canon to the Archangel Michael, the Akathist to the Archangel Michael, the Canon to John the Baptist, the Akathist to John the Baptist, the Canon to the Wonderworker Nicholas, the Akathist to the Wonderworker Nicholas, the Canon to the Apostles Peter and Paul , Akathist to the Apostles Peter and Paul, Canon to the Mother of God, Akathist to the Mother of God, Canon to the sweetest name of Jesus, Akathist to the sweetest name of Jesus, Canon to the Cross of the Lord, Akathist to the Cross of the Lord, Follow-up of the Church Assembly. That is, almost the entire "Small travel book", with the exception of only the Book of Hours, Six Days and most of the Follow-up of the church meeting. In the last edition, only sheets 1-11 were preserved in the copy of Greenblat, after which 11 sheets were woven, reproduced in cursive of the 17th century. There is no Paschalia and a general afterword to the Little Travel Book in this convoy. Paschalia in its entirety was preserved only in the convoy located in Copenhagen, and the general afterword in the St. Petersburg copy. There is no information about where Greenblat's convoy was earlier and to whom it belonged. The volume is bound in planks covered with smooth leather. The book block is fastened with copper clasps. On the back of the top cover there is a hard-to-read owner's note dated May 13, 1900. Three blank sheets are woven into the beginning of the book; on the back of the last of them is a pencil entry “1722”. On the margins of the sheets are reader marginalia. Among the latter is the entry “This book of Fedorov”, made on the left. 12 Akathist to the most sweet name of Jesus. On some sheets there is a handwritten Cyrillic foliation: in the Akathist, the cross on fl. 1 - horn, on l. 4 - pos and in the Canon a cross on l. 5 - rcg. This, in our opinion, indicates that these publications were previously included in the convolute, the volume of which exceeded 193 sheets. In conclusion, let us say that in 2005 another find by Skarynin was made - a convolute containing many Prague editions of the Belarusian educator. He was found in the library of the city of Görlitz (Germany). However, we do not yet have information about the composition of this convoy. The small road book, like other editions of Francysk Skaryna, has invariably attracted the attention of researchers since the second half of the 18th century, but only in recent decades has its “detailed description” been made (V. I. Lukyanenko, in 1973), as well as the implemented "based modern methodology"(E. L. Nemirovsky, in 1978) and "the most complete and accurate bibliographic description" (E. L. Nemirovsky, in 1988), i.e., that foundation was created, without which in modern science a full-fledged studying an old printed book is simply impossible. Meanwhile, if we compare the descriptions of V. I. Lukyanenko and E. L. Nemirovsky, it is easy to notice significant differences in them, which make it possible to understand that the indecision of bibliographers, who put off this task for many years, was associated not only with the insufficiently good preservation of extant us copies of the publication (often representing, moreover, only separate parts of it), but also with the need to decide how to describe it, which in turn is connected with the need to find out how the entire publication was printed and in what form it went on sale . In the description by V. I. Lukyanenko, the Small Travel Book appears as a single publication with many separate folios, but at the same time a single sequence of unsigned notebooks, each of which contains 4 sheets. At the same time, the description is accompanied by a cautious reservation about the possible appearance of the book on sale in separate editions. E. L. Nemirovsky considers Skaryna's book as a collection of a number of separate publications, each of which has its own sequence of notebooks or contains one notebook, sometimes of 8, sometimes of 12 sheets. In favor of both points of view, there are quite serious reasons. The unity of the book was first of all pointed out by Francis Skorina himself in a special table of contents, in which, in addition to the title of the book, a detailed description of all its constituent parts is found. home use. A serious problem here is only a slight discrepancy between the table of contents and the actual composition of the book, which is found in the content and order of the services of the Book of Hours and which just made V.I. with the features of the implementation of these books, etc. specifications ". One can hardly agree with such an explanation. It must be thought that this discrepancy reflected the difference between what the Book of Hours should have been and how it was actually printed, since the Sunday Midnight Office, printed at the end of the Book of Hours, i.e., at a distance from the daily and Saturday Midnight Offices, with which the Book of Hours begins, gives the impression of being accidentally omitted, as, indeed, the canon of the Theotokos, which is probably why the sheets on which it is printed did not receive foliation. Therefore, it can be assumed that when typing the table of contents, Francysk Skaryna decided to correct the imperfection of this part of the book, not being able to reprint even part of its circulation, apparently due to lack of funds. Consideration of the Small Road Book as a “set of Skorinin’s publications”, which includes 21 separate editions: the Psalter, the Book of Hours, 17 canons and akathists, the Shestodnovets, the Follow-up of the Church Assembly (i.e., Monthly Book with Paschalia), was proposed by E. L. Nemirovsky, who pointed out that "each of these small books has a separate pagination, imprint, and often its own title page", and also that "the principles for the design of individual parts of the Little Travel Book are different and reveal that different printers worked on them." E. L. Nemirovsky, however, are not at all indisputable.A special number of sheets for each of the parts of the publication, albeit infrequently, is found in Cyrillic books, especially in the early days of printing each with its own folio, but about this they do not become two separate editions, even though the principles of their design are different when printing Cha the engraved decorations of the footers and footers used throughout the Psalter were not used. The presence of several imprints and title pages within one book is also known in the early days of book printing, although this phenomenon cannot be recognized as frequent or widespread in Cyrillic editions. An example is the collection of works by M. Divkovich published in 1641 in the printing house of Bartolo Ginnami in Venice, each part of which has its own title page with imprints, moreover, not always the same (they indicate both 1641 and 1640). ). However, even what E. L. Nemirovskii calls imprint and title pages in the Small Travel Book should hardly be fully considered in this way. The “output information” found at the end of each part of the Skorinin edition does not indicate the place (with the exception of Books of Hours and Monthly Books with Paschalia) and the time of its publication and is more reminiscent of a kind of final formula, which at a much later time was reduced to the word “ the end", and now completely disappeared from printed books. In the "title pages" noted by E. L. Nemirovsky, it would be preferable to see titles that precede all 5 main parts of the book. Psalter, Book of Hours, Akathists and Canons, Shestodnevets, Monthly Book with Paschalia. This function of theirs is already indicated by the absence of any information on them about the time and place of the publication of the book, as well as the presence of formulas that are not at all characteristic of the actual title pages of publications. At the same time, the functional similarity of all 5 titles is emphasized by the unity of design, which consists in the fact that the text formulas are enclosed in engraved frames. Special titles precede each of the pairs, consisting of an akathist and a canon, connected by the unity of the remembered and glorified event, which creates a clear internal structure of this part of the Small Travel Book, the design of which seemed heterogeneous to E. L. Nemtsovsky. "Other elements that create this unusually harmonious internal structure of Akathists and canons, became the location of the column (in akathists - in the lower right corner of the sheet, in canons - in the upper right corner) and the use of cinnabar (akathists, unlike canons, are printed only in black ink). It is also supported by direct indications found in the initial and already mentioned final formulas.Thus, among the undoubted only evidence can be attributed to evidence of the Small Travel Book as a single publication, which included 6 parts: a preface (a table of contents and, possibly, a common title sheet of the book), Psalter, Book of Hours, Akathists and can ona, Shestodnovets and Mesyatseslov with paschalia, which by no means excludes the possibility of its distribution in the form of these separate parts, although the facts of such distribution should be considered not from the point of view of printing, but from the point of view of the existence of the book. And the surviving copies give us examples of such existence of the Psalter (separately and in combination with the Book of Hours), the Book of Hours, Akathists and canons, the Six Days. The incompleteness of the selection and the inconsistency of combining the texts of akathists and canons in some copies should be explained by the peculiarities of existence (the possibility of loss, the arbitrariness of bookbinders, etc.). etc.), as well as the unusual content of this part of Skorinin's edition. The combination in one book of the Canon and the Akathist, outlandish at that time, forced the reader of the book to decide on his preferences in relation to certain prayers, which, apparently, was reflected in the movement, within the mentioned pairs, of the canons to the beginning or in the appearance of selections only akathists, as in the copy of the library of Wroclaw University, which existed in this form, judging by the binding and notes, from the 16th century. See copy of State Historical Museum, Chertk. 480, which, however, does not contain one of the parts of the Six Days - the canon of repentance, printed together with the canon on Saturday at matins. It should be noted that the understanding of the need to consider this canon as part of the Six Days, obviously, did not come to Francis Skaryna immediately (it was already reflected in the table of contents and, apparently, in the process of printing the Shestoday), but at first it was printed as part of the Book of Hours. Returning to the problem of the bibliographic description of the Small Travel Book, it should be noted that, without a doubt, it should be described as a single edition, containing, however, not a single sequence of notebooks, but six, according to the number of main sections of the book.
The emergence of Belarusian book printing in the 1st quarter of the 16th century. associated with the activities of the outstanding humanist, educator, Belarusian and East Slavic printing pioneer Francysk Skaryna (circa 1490 - no later than 1551). The first stage of F. Skorina's book publishing activity took place in the "glorious place of Praz". Long-standing trade and cultural ties between the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, some features of the spiritual and socio-political life of the Czech Republic (the influence of the Hussite Reformation), as well as the privileges enjoyed by printing here (not constrained by guild restrictions), facilitated the organization of a new book publishing enterprise in Prague. Like many European pioneers, F. Skorina began his publishing activity with the books of the Bible. It is known that biblical books (complex in composition, heterogeneous and contradictory in their social motives a complex of literary works of ancient writing) were used in the Middle Ages not only by the church and the ruling classes for their own purposes, but also by the heretical, radical reformist movements opposing them, the revolutionary opposition to feudalism. The secular Renaissance editions of Skaryna sharply contradicted church canons and orthodox ideas about "holy scripture". Free translation of biblical texts into Belarusian literary language of that time, the humanistic interpretation of their content, the author's prefaces and comments on books, which deviated far from the traditions of the medieval Christian worldview, bordered, from the point of view of the church, on heresy. It is no coincidence that the Orthodox Orthodox Prince Andrei Kurbsky, who fled to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the Livonian War, attributed the books of Skorina Polotsky to blasphemous heretical publications similar to Luther's Bible. The enlightening and humanistic views of F. Skaryna were clearly manifested in his attitude to secular sciences, book knowledge, and spiritual achievements of the past. In his books, published in his native language, he propagated the need for a broad liberal education, the study of the seven "free sciences" (or "arts"), moral improvement, active personal and social activities“for the Commonwealth of kindness and the reproduction of wisdom, skill, care, reason and science” (Second Preface to the book “Jesus Sirakhov”, 1517). In the statements and comments of F. Skaryna, in his attitude to book publishing, educational and political activities, his civic patriotic feelings, the desire to promote the spiritual development of his people in every possible way are felt. The patriotism of F. Skaryna was organically combined with deep respect for other peoples, their traditions and customs, cultural and historical heritage. It is known that in the Prague printing house F. Skaryna published 23 books of the Old Testament with a total volume of about 1200 sheets. However, it is not possible today to accurately determine all of his products published in the Prague Printing House due to various historical circumstances that influenced the fate of many East Slavic, including Belarusian, books. Only one thing can be stated with certainty: F. Skorina intended to publish the entire collection of the Bible in Prague, "anyhow it was not reduced in the Russian language." This is evidenced by a common title page, a lengthy preface to the entire Bible, and commentaries on published books. Listing the books prepared for publication, F. Skorina mentions a number of books unknown to us or not yet found - "Ezra", "Tovif", etc. their names, broader in the prefaces, from me to the skin ward, are written out to know. There is no information about who worked in the Prague printing house of F. Skaryna.
The fonts, illustrative and ornamental materials of the Prague editions of F. Skaryna do not have direct parallels with the currently known Czech and other incunabula and paleotypes of the late 15th - early decades of the 16th century. It can be assumed that Czech typographers and compatriots of F. Skorina worked in the Prague printing house. A few years after the start of his book publishing activity, F. Skorina moved to Vilna - the largest political, economic and cultural center and the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the Vilna printing house of F. Skaryna, arranged in the house of the steward Yakub Babich, the Small Travel Book (circa 1522) and the Apostle (1525) were printed. Both books were published in an edition close to the linguistic and religious traditions of the Belarusian and East Slavic writings. However, in their social purpose and, to a certain extent, in their content, they differed from those rather rare works of handwritten book art, which were distributed mainly among the privileged strata of society. The "Small Road Book" introduced comparatively broad sections of the Belarusian population to certain ideas of Ptolemaic astronomy. The enlightenment tendencies of F. Skorina found a vivid expression in the perspective summary of solar and lunar eclipses for 1523-1530 published by him. This is the first accurate forecast of eclipses in all East Slavic literature, which the church declared beyond the control of human reason and unpredictable. In the "glorious place of Vilna" F. Skorina participated more widely than in Prague in the direct activities of the printing house, which is noted in his publications: "lined and embossed", "lined and supplanted by Dr. Francysk Skaryna's practice", etc. In Vilna editions new engravings were used, most of the ornamentation was updated, narrow “screens” were made with special skill, small initials with a variety of decorative and floral backgrounds, widely used different forms set in the endings, the technique of two-color printing has been improved. As noted by V. V. Stasov and other art historians, the publications of F. Skorina are mature, perfect works, bright and original in their artistic and typographic appearance. They organically combined the traditions of Belarusian and East Slavic art and writing with the experience of European, including Slavic, book printing, developing and enriching it.
But let us return to the first quarter of the 16th century. Vilna was in front of him. And the sun above her at its zenith - in the sky blue and clear, like his eyes. And either from his blue eyes the sky over Vilna turned blue, or from the blue sky over Vilna his eyes turned blue joyfully, glorious Vilnius people did not think very much under that clear, golden sun that shone over them. Skorina did not think about that either, excitedly experiencing her arrival in Vilna - under her such a blue and clear sky. Ave sol! Long live the sun! And this was Skaryna's most sincere greeting, born of the joy of his return to his homeland - returning with a dream come true, the return of a person who knew the value of the bright sun, thought it in a special way, connected with his fate, with his personality. And it doesn’t matter that after Wroclaw it was easier for horses harnessed to slow-moving wagons! The main thing is that the book belongings, acquired by his tireless three-year labor in Prague, were brought here, to Vilna. And now Skaryna will be next to Bogdan Onkov, Yakub Babich, Yuri Odvernik, because next to him - in front of him - was Vilna with all its beauty, attractiveness, celebrity. It was breathtaking, speech was also taken away by the fact that Skaryna was entering Vilna through the Krevo Gate. These gates will later be called Mednitsky, and even later - Ostrobramsky, now they were called Krevo. Olgerd's path from Polotsk to Vilna ended with these famous gates. Skaryna was at the very end of Olgerd's path, but his own path did not lead here through Kreva, although partly through the same Kreva, if you remember that the Krevo Union generally took control of the roads from the Grand Duchy not only to Krakow, but also to Prague . Yes, not about history, close or old, thought Skaryna, entering Vilna through the Krevo Gate. He knew that behind them he would immediately take a look at the triangular market square already known to him and the courtyard of Yakub Babich would see on it, and the stone house of Yuri Odvernik. Below the Kreva Gate - on the right - there is still a pub where, on the eve of his departure to Prague three years ago, he finally agreed on a business with Bogdan Onkov and Yakub Babich. An overpick did not come to that conversation, and Skaryna parting word I gave it to Yuri then through Onkov. He told me to think until this day why Yuri was absent then? .. Frantisek knew Vilna even thanks to his father, the merchant Luka Skorinich, since the regular Vilna fairs were fairs for the Polotsk merchants: one of them opened on Vodokreshcha, the other on the Assumption . Those fairs continued for two or even three resounding weeks, and Frantisek's father would stay here for two or more weeks, so that after a month or two, on occasion, he would tell his youngest son about Vilna. What didn't my father tell me about? And about the different settlements of this glorious capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, of which there were six here, as in Polotsk, only they were called floorboards - Lithuanian, Russian, German. Father, however, more readily recalled not about the floorboards, churches or churches of Vilna, but about its merchants' living yards, and above all about the one that the Novgorod merchants built here under Olgerd. He also liked to talk about the Gostiny Dvor, which grew up with the cares of King Alexander, adding that King Alexander nevertheless favored the merchant, did not forget about him. That royal attention, it is known, concerned, as the Vilna merchants themselves understood it, not so much visiting guests as they, local merchants. After all, it was not for them, the Vilna residents, but for visiting merchants, that they were sternly ordered to stop only at Alexander's courtyard and nowhere else. And the visiting merchants, having settled in the yard allotted for them, were also obliged to report about themselves to the city council. And before their departure, they had to do the same. In addition, it was strictly forbidden for visiting merchants to trade in Vilna with the same visiting merchants. They had the right to trade only with Vilna merchants, only with Vilna people. So Alexander's concern for the merchant was, first and foremost, concern for the Vilna merchant, Vilna. But what, however, Skaryna did not recall from his father's stories about this city, the first days of his meetings in Vilna could not but be joyful, festive. His friends - Bogdan Onkov, Yakub Babich - have seen the books printed by him, it is known, and still. But in order to consider them with Frantisek, they did not consider them. And it was such a showcase of printed books, as if all three had never seen them at all before, and had not held them in their hands, had not eagerly read them. And all because Frantisek told his friends at those bride-to-be, indeed, not only about what they already knew from the prefaces, but, above all, about what did not get into the prefaces, could not get into. Skaryna told and talked about all the complexities and subtleties of the work that he had already accomplished in Prague, about all the details and trifles that people usually remember not for very long, at least one of them is the very life of man in its elusiveness, transience, disappearance . Of beer, of course, during that long, long confession of Skorina, more than one mug was drunk, more than one garnet was scooped out of honey, and more than one fat gander was fried for that beer and honey, more than one quilted oxen chunks of red-purple lay on silver trays, seasoned thickly and savory with round green peas, and fragrant fiery saffron, and grated red beetroot, and overseas sweet raisins. But along with the first Vilna joys, the first Vilna worries also appeared. Skaryna's concerns were merchants' and trades'. What exactly they consisted of is not known today. From that time on, for example, the trading books of Bogdan Oikov or Yakub Babich have come down to us, and the Hanseatic merchants always had such books, because the Magdeburg Law obligated them to be kept - so, save those books, now lie down with their voluminous, leather covers, graphs, numbers, calculations and calculations on our table, and, like Bogdan Onkov or Yakub Babich, it would be clear to everyone today how much money the same Bogdan Onkov and Jakub Babich spent on the Prague Bible - on the paper on which it was printed, on the font , for engravings, for vignettes, for screensavers. And how much and on what did the Prague printer Francysk Skorina himself spend in his printing business in Prague, and what costs did it require at all, and what profit did he and his friends bring in general, and how many books were sold on one day or another, and even to whom on credit sold - everything, everything would be known from the trading books of Bogdan Onkov, Yakub Babich, if they only reached our time! Although it is clear that the trading book is not a magic mirror that fully reflects the life of the merchant in general and his trading activity in particular. After all, the same merchant activity, as usual, was conditioned for a trading person by rules similar to the laws of multiplication, when one number is written, and the other is kept in the mind: seven is seven - forty-nine, nine - we write, four - in memory. How many things did the merchants of different times have in their memory, who, when and where knew for sure about that?! Similarly, in the trading books, what remained in the memory of the merchant was never written down by the merchant. After all, the merchant's memory, the ability to estimate, the sharpness and fluency of thought were usually the key to the success of the merchant, the guarantee of his profit. Calculation on paper is one thing, invisible calculation, interior calculation is another. The merchants knew them before Onkov and Babich, and the merchants Onkov and Babich also knew them. But with all that knowledge, the merchants before Onkov and Babich stumbled, as surely as Onkov and Babich themselves - maybe often, maybe not very often - on a variety of thresholds. And if it weren’t for those rapids, then, as you know, not in 1522, but already in the year of his arrival in Vilna, Skaryna would calmly print his first Vilna booklet here in Vilna - “A Small Travel Book”. And since he did not print it here, in Vilna, right away, right there, soon, this meant that neither Skaryna, nor Onkov, nor Babich could succeed right away, right there, soon. Everything was not as simple as it might seem to Skaryna in the first days upon arrival. So what if Skaryna brought the font, vignettes, headpieces and any other belongings here, to the place? In Vilna, here already, on the spot, in what place did all this lie down, in the same place and continued to lie down for itself! After all, at first, apparently, there was a problem with paper: a paper workshop near Vilna had just started working, and paper was still unimportant. And what is the first thing to take in Vilna - what to translate? This, again, could not help but worry Skaryna, Onkov, Babich. After all, the merchant must know what kind of demand for his goods! Thus, it was necessary either to repeat in Vilna the printing of texts already printed in Prague, or to prepare for the printing of new ones ... There were a lot of issues that needed to be resolved, but raising money was put in the first place, as well as the need to secure guardianship, equal if and not a royal privilege, but at least some certainty that guarantees confidence that behind your back there is a force that is stronger than you and that will not offend you if something unforeseen happens. And yet, at first, these serious chores seemed not so difficult to Skaryna - partly because they were all divided into three - Onkov, Babich and him, Skaryna. But every day Skorina was more and more taken over in Vilna by another concern - little foreseen by Skoriya himself, by Onkov, Babich - too. And they listened to the mighty, broad-shouldered Yakub Babich and the stocky, squat Bogdan Onkov of their friend Frantisek Skaryna, when he came from Polotsk to the glorious place of Vilna and did not bring a penny with him, but only his brother and his family, and wondered why it would be Frantisek seemed to have rejuvenated, where did he get gaiety, energy and even more risk in plans and reasoning. It seems like not the son of a merchant! It seems like they have diminished in the cellars of books brought from Prague! Did he receive an inheritance, a royal privilege?.. Skaryna did not receive any inheritance, nor a royal privilege. -Music! he exclaimed. - Let's start all over again with music, with a golden-horned deer! .. Why with music, why with a deer, neither the reticent Babich, nor the eloquent Onkov understood. “Yes, from music and cinnabar,” Skaryna began to explain. - Akathists need to be embossed - printed, canons, so that the harpists sang, the lads sang, girls! Babich and Onkov didn't understand what guslars and guys, what girls. - And cinnabar, to attract the eye, like fire in the night! And now our merchant is the merchant who is on the road. With God, his mother, wife escorts him on the road, so let him take God's word on the road every day, every minute. And the merchant also loves to count, loves to calculate, count. So we will print and print Easter for him, and not just the hours, and let him calculate when Easter, when carols, let him, like God, calculate! And let any of our merchants sing akathists on the road - according to the "Small Road Book". He sings - one booklet in the twelfth part of the sheet, half the size of our Prague books, in the twelfth part of the sheet, so that it fits easily in the merchant's pocket, so as not to interfere with him in his pocket - when driving, when walking. The book is small, the expenses for it are small, and the joy from it to the merchant is great! his enthusiasm, and his faith, although, advancing, Skaryna the printer now retreated, for it was decided to print the "Book" in Old Church Slavonic. And all this for the sake of commerce? Not only because of her, but also because of inertia, because the reader got used, could not get used to the old Slovenian language over the centuries, which was also the language of Belarusians, but only a bookish one. The living, colloquial language seemed to the medieval Belarusian, if not lower, then, in any case, less mysterious and, most importantly, less sanctified by tradition. Skaryna had to go to the printing press, go to herself and through the labyrinths of linguistic circumstances. Printed Book Approval! Book mind! Morality! Above the Hellene and the Jew! But will he establish a living spoken language as authoritatively as Church Slavonicism is already established in the minds of his compatriots? Will confirm again! Will definitely approve! And the house of Yakub Babich in the glorious place of Vilensky near the market on the triangular square near the Kreva Gates became the new printing house of Francysk Skaryna. And at the same time, Skaryna's troubles with the Little Travel Book began no less than with the big Prague books, and maybe even more. Because in Vilna it was more difficult with paper, because such experienced engravers and servants had not yet appeared in Vilna, such as Skaryna had in the printing house of Pavel Severin in Czech Prague in the Old Town. But the work went like clockwork, as if the path itself spread like a tablecloth. And all because Skaryna worked obsessively, literally took on any job, did everything that was necessary: he prepared the text for printing, and typed it, adjusting fonts and initial letters, rubbing cinnabar to immediately grab the screw of the printing press. He really worked the hardest, furiously, because to stamp-print in a year as many as the pages were stamped-printed in the printing house of Yakub Babich in the year 1522 - this is not something to be done, it is difficult to imagine. Akathists and canons flew like birds from a nest, and not about two wings - about eight, about twelve: akathists - about twelve, canons - about eight. There were, however, akathists and 16 sheets each - dedicated to the apostles Peter and Paul, the cross of the Lord. In total, 168 pages of akathists and canons were printed in 1522, "Book of Hours" - 60, "Shestodneva" - 36, the Vilna "Psalter" - 140, afterwords to the entire "Small Road Book" - 23. As a result, 427 pages of text for one year! Skaryna was happy: in Vilna things are going no worse than in Prague. Sing akathists, rising, standing, Russia! Rejoice, as he rejoiced, Francis, when he printed the "Psalter", "Book of Hours", "Shestodnev" and all the canons in two colors - not only everyday black, but also festive - red. And where he has red paint, there he has plenty of ornaments and plenty of initial initials. True, there are few illustrations in the akathists and canons - only three. Skaryna does not have the luxury with illustrations that he had in Prague, here in Vilna. And, of course, it was frustrating. But still, Francis rejoiced that at least so many ornaments, initial letters, font he brought from Prague and was finally able to continue his printing business. .. “So on the road, “Small travel book”, good luck!” - Having finished printing the “Small Travel Book”, on one, of course, a festive day for himself and his friends, Frantisek admonished her in the house of Yakub Babich or, perhaps, Bogdan Onkov, hardly, apparently suspecting that this new take-off of his as a printer It also began with a high Naddvinsk temple with a Kupala bonfire the year before last. - Gu-ha, gu-ha! - Pan Tvardovsky danced the Krakowiak, singing with a Polish-Oshmiany accent:
We were not
There was a lyas
We won't be
There will be lyas! ..
“Well, - Skorina was not surprised, - didn’t I myself leave the most precious Beautiful flowers here, in Vilna, so that they would fully enjoy the will and self-will. Now get it!” And indeed, whenever he crossed the threshold into the pub, which is on the right hand of the market on the triangular square below the Krevo Gates, Pan Tvardovsky is right there:
While I drink, until then I live!
And a glass of malvasia or alkermes instantly, as in a bottomless abyss, disappeared from the surprised eyes of Dr. Faust, and from the withered clay eyes of the Golem, and from the usually ironic eyes of Stanislav Stanchik. Meanwhile, the formidable Pan Tvardovsky was already towering over the massive oak table of the pub, as if with an oak dugout, with an invitation glass in his sweat-drenched hands! Dr. Faust and Golem sat freely at the oak table of the pub and did not slouch warily. Not that Stanislav Stanchik: pride did not allow him to even slightly twitch his numb left shoulder, but, not at all expecting indulgence from Pan Tvardovsky, he kept his mug to his lips. Doctor Faust has not had fun for the second year. For the second year now, he was sad for his Nemetchyna, sipping rare sips not of the glorious Gdansk double-beer, but of the local beer and snacking on the most delicious and alien Shon herring, while saying: “Great! Excellent!..” This did not satisfy Pan Tvardovsky in the least, and almost every evening he thundered in his deep voice:
For us to be alive
And they drank vodka with hats! ..
Being themselves owners of non-perforated hats, Dr. Faust, and Golem, and Stanislav Stanchik, as before, looked with apprehension at the flushed cheeks and not only the cheeks of the great mister Tvardovsky. Oh, how pan Tvardovsky began to hate this obvious precaution of theirs from some moment - and stamping his black heel with a silver spur, and throwing back his head, from which the four-cornered hat with a high peacock plume almost fell in front of her, and shouting:
If you walk
So, walk
Hug the girl
Give the belt!., (as a pledge)
Pan Tvardovsky's belt was, of course, neither Skaryna's doctoral robe, nor Faust's doctoral robe, except that there were always pockets in the belts, and penyazki in the pockets. Papa Tvardovsky's behavior here could not be an example to Dr. Skaryna, nor an example to Dr. Faust. But, perhaps, precisely because he did not find worthy followers either in Skaryna, or in Dr. Faust, or in Golem, or even in Stanislav Stanchik, distinguished by the gentry, Pan Tvardovsky soon became so angry that one evening in the same well-known He categorically declared to us in the pub and to the whole company of Beautiful Flowers, and to the most learned doctor and printer of various Little Travel Books, Francysk Skaryna, that it was time for them to finally hear his main thesis of life. And then in a pub near the famous Vilna market on a triangular square, the great creed of the great maestro sounded briefly, but in all its significance and strength: - Life is nothing but a game! A game, poor nerds! Game, university poor fellows! Game, beer-globs and clay heads! Ha? The great misters have a great game, as you know, but the Commonwealth scumbags have a Commonwealth squabble! The main thing is not to acquire and leave to posterity, but to squander everything that you have or have! Squander life, squander the serf, squander the woods, are you Croesus or not Croesus!.. And everything, everything, it seemed, could be expected from Pan Tvardovsky by Dr. Francisk Skorina, who was always tolerant of him, but what he heard after the above tirade of Pan Tvardovsky He apparently never intended to hear. And Pan Tvardovsky, going into a simply unheard-of rage, already looking only into the eyes of one Pan Frantishek, cut without a knife: - Yes, we are your brother, a petty bourgeois, a merchant, a pospolitchik, - yes, we will buy him and sell him and count the money! And to us, king, let's have a clean path - by water and by land! And save us, the gentry, and not just the merchants, from myta - throughout the Grand Duchy, throughout the Crown, which is not inferior in grandeur to the principality! And then we will fill France with life, we will pelt England with forest, and you will languish in your Vilna, Vitebsk, Polotsk! Your merchants will wither, and - a thousand devils! - none of them will buy your books! Will Glebovich buy?.. Scream!.. Korsakoviches?.. Scream!.. Hindriks! .. Hee-hee-hee! Yes, they have their gold-woven belts (oh, what a pity that these belts will be called Slutsk, and not Oshmyany, after all, Panov, it’s not for nothing that you noticed that it’s not for nothing that I sorcerer in Polish and sing and not with some , namely with an Oshmyany accent! ), - and so I say that these Gashtovty stumps, not only for a book, but also for the most beautiful Belarusian woman, will not leave their gold woven, blue cornflower embroidered belt, with which they wrap their belly bellies, - they will not leave, gu-ha, gu- ha! Skaryna thought, but his thoughts were annoyingly interfered with, like trinkets, a simple refrain, a simple rhyme: “it was lyas”, “it will be lyas”, “lyas - us”, “lyas - us”. It was unbearable! Skaryna thought. And yet, if a person thinks for a long time, he simply cannot help but think of the fact that he finally ceases to irritate him, smoothing out, as if covering with duckweed what irritated him. And gradually the “lyas” turned into a forest for Skaryna, and not a dark demon, but light green, like Belovezhskaya Pushcha, through which he passed several times, passed: even if it was high, high - pines, oaks, hornbeams, birches up to fifteen, and then and twenty fathoms, but the sunlight, making its way to the ground through the crowns of trees, becomes emerald green, caressingly bright. And Skaryna already sees in that light, on a grassy clearing, a deer - golden horns. And the blue of Skorina's eyes brightens both from the light of Belovezhye and from the golden deer antlers, giving birth to new melodies in his soul - poignant, but new... Skaryna thought... Faust, the most famous doctor, concluded his gaze on Francis Skaryna, who was sitting in thought, pronouncing each word and each sound separately. - If only I could think with my clay head, - the Golem began sincerely to be killed. “As a gentleman, I’m even ashamed to think here,” Stanchik said. “The brain knows no shame,” Skaryna disagreed with Stanchik in his soul, however, he didn’t say anything out loud and only again reminded himself that a calm conscience is an invention of the devil. Skaryna's soul could not be calm when the forces of the Black Book were at odds. But these were only flowers, because, as you know, the berries are not in front of the flowers, but behind them. Vilna is not Prague. Vilna, after all, for Frantisek Skaryna is the heart of the motherland, the heart of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Although Prague is very dear to him, Prague is aloof. In Prague, he was still far, far away from here and in his dreams he rushed to Vilna every minute, strove for it like a bird from the south in spring. And the fact that he is in the heart of the principality, in the heart of the motherland, he feels at every step. Frantisek is not a recluse in the house of Yakub Babich, in the rooms reserved for the printing house. Not a recluse, because through the open window voices are heard from their narrow street, from the buzzing market square, into which the street flows in a not very talkative stream. The crowd gathers there every day, crowded, because this is Vilna, and life in it is constantly seething - multi-colored, like differently-dressed residents of the city, multilingual, like alien people, flocking here from everywhere into the Lithuanian floorboard, into the Russian floorboard, into the German floorboard ... Who does not lives here today, whom you will not meet here! That a Lithuanian, a Zhmudin, a Litvin-Rusich, and a Pole, a Jew, a Tatar - what an incredible thing! But since the time when King Alexander married Elena, the sister of Ivan III, many Muscovites have been living here. Armenians also took root - from the time when Casimir, encouraging trade, invited both Jews and Armenians. There are also Karaites, who are pressed from Crimea by Krymchak-Tatars. There are gypsies whom the kings of all Western European countries expel, but the Commonwealth does not persecute, as well as strigolniks, "Judaizers", punished mercilessly by the synods of the Muscovite clergy. Frantisek Skaryna will not say that the house of Yakub Babich, his printing house within the walls of this house is the heart of Vilna, but that his heart beats to the beat of the turbulent Vilna life, he is ready to assert with all fervor, because in his printing house in the house of Yakub Babich he is in the center of everything that happens in the city for him. This is what he will hear from the market square himself, he will see something when he goes out to the same square, but the main news is brought to him from the town hall by Yakub Babich, the first burgomaster of the glorious place of Vilna, who almost every day meets with the Bishop of Vilna, Jan, with many lords radchiks, governors, priests, governors, voits. And events simply overwhelm Vilna - after all, the year 1522 is coming! Already at the very beginning of this year - in January - King Zhigimont issued a decree on the introduction of a general code of laws, about which it was long and loudly said in Vilna that it was being written in the grand duke's office. The first rumors about him originated at the time when the Vilna grand ducal office began to collect from all magnate castles and gentry estates, from places and towns by different kings to different lords and service people at different times, these letters, privileges, decrees and other documents with seals and not in print. In the January royal verdict, it was recognized that there had not been a law-statute in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania until now, since the courts were decided on the basis of customs, royal decrees and according to the wisdom and conscience of the judges themselves. Skaryna could not accept this royal opinion, because he knew about Yaroslav the Wise’s Russkaya Pravda, knew the history and the “Scroll of the Law of Grand Duke Yaroslav Volodymyrovich”, which Luka, then his lord of Polotsk, had brought to King Alexander twenty years ago. here in Vilna. The tradition of law was very old in Russia. And even if the “Scroll of Law” by Luke is indeed a fake of the original “Russian Truth”, then in this case it is a fake for a living tradition, because if it weren’t alive, the fake itself would not have arisen! But the main thing for Skaryna in the January verdict was the desire of King Zhigimont, so that equal justice would be established for everyone: for magnates, gentry, pospolitstvo - artisans and philistines. Neither Skaryna nor Babich could be against such a legal provision, just as neither the gentry in general, nor the Commonwealth of the entire Grand Duchy of Lithuania in general. The magnates opposed. To equalize their rights with the nobility? Never! Until now, they have squabbled among themselves, did not trust one another, intercepted each other's lands, forests, oak forests, meadows and lyady, took away each other's nominations, voivodeships, governorships, castellanships and bishoprics. And then - how reconciled. And in Gorodnya the project failed. The magnates - everyone: the Radziwills, Sapega, Ilinichi, even Prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky - stood up against the project with a wall. Zhigimont ordered to rework the project and submit it for discussion to the next Sejm - 1524. This Diet was awaited by Berestye, in which it was supposed to meet, but even more so by Vilna. Two new gostiny yards were being built here at that time - Moscow and German, and the Vilnius residents, as usual, were very interested in what was being built, by whom, how it was being built. This time, however, the Moscow and German hotels were not lucky - Vilna was looking not in their direction, but in the direction of the grand duke's office and Berestye. In that summer of 1522, Skaryna jumped to Gorodnya not only out of interest in the affairs of the Sejm. There was another reason, a more serious one: Skaryna was negotiating near Gorodnya with one of the local landowners about the possibility of opening a school - at first only in one of his estates, and then in others. The school, according to Skorinsky's plan, was not intended for monks - whether they were Dominicans, Bernardines or Orthodox. This should be his, Dr. Skaryna's, school. In it, he will begin to teach himself, having recruited for himself children and those of the adults whom it will only be possible to quickly call them bachelors themselves: and his dream is to teach his pupils in a secular way! But in general, in 1522 - during the printing of the "Small Travel Book", as in the first year after returning from Prague, as then in the third and fourth - Skaryna, one might say, found little in Vilna itself. He waited less for meetings than he himself sought them. He is like a meeting person. A whirlwind, not a person, although a solid one, a doctor of sciences, a most learned man, an authority. That is why they often take him as witnesses: where to write the contract, where to testify the sale and purchase. And now he is in Oshmyany, then in Kreva, Gorodnya, Berestye, and even further - in Warsaw, Krakow, Dresden. There are no books of honored guests in hotels, inns, and in the annals of history, the days of Skaryna - the hours of his stops, overnight stays, meals - will not be preserved, written in golden letters. Yes, Skorina is not worried about this! After all, he is on the road - with books that he would like to sell. Call him on the road and the sick. And, by the way, in Vilna, his fame is, first of all, the glory of a “patried”, that is, a husband who is judicious and far-sighted in his wisdom, a learned doctor, who prints books! But no matter how “dirty” he was to the outside human eye, in selling his books he seemed to be haunted by eternal failure. “There are doctors ...” - he once wrote in Prague. And how many doctors did he meet on the banks of the Polotsk Dvina? And when will those become doctors over the Neman, for whom the op has not yet established schools over the Neman? And in general, who, when and where bought a book, if it could burn tomorrow, because the glow in the night sky did not go out, and the ghosts of war continued to remain real, and not imaginary? .. But there was another circumstance due to which, if only nothing riveted Skaryna to Vilna - neither the grand duke's office, nor the printing press, nor medical or legal affairs - he always left Vilna, as if tired half to death here. Yury Odvernik continued to get sick, and Skorina, as soon as he remembered it, was ready to go even to the ends of the world. However, he felt with all his noble heart that he could not escape from sin anywhere, because he thought not so much about Odvernik, but about Margarita. But even the Apostle Matthew says - Skaryna knew: "Everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart." But is it a sin or not a sin, what does he think about Margarita? If he thinks, then it's a sin. Yes, and she’s not a maiden, she won’t sing, as the brown-eyed daughter of the owner, with whom he lodged, once sang in Mala Strana in Prague:
Don't come to us, well done,
When I don't call you
Yes, me and a wicket
I'll tie with ribbons.
He is not a good guy. And Margarita - does she really care about songs during the painful sufferings of Odvernik? But, as if it were a sin, Frantisek valiantly no-no, and yes, he will sing a stanza in his soul in response to the stanza of a brown-eyed girl from Malaya Strana. He will sing, because how can you not sing, repeat this in your soul:
Even if you tie them, girl,
blue ribbons,
I untie them
In a word, kind.
Oh yeah! He would have unleashed, if he could, the fate of Margarita with kind words. Didn’t he himself write in the first lines of the preface to his Psalter that “good is prepared for every evil”? But if the deed, then the word! There are so many good words in his soul! But what kind of complex knots does fate tie for him, and will he have enough or not enough kind words to untie them? And most importantly, do not say those kind words to Margarita, do not say! .. In Vilna, all the houses, even in the most extreme German floorboard, stand for him near the courtyard of Yuri Odvernik. But as soon as he leaves Vilna, the inn, already at the first turn of the road, seems to him far from Vilna, like Baghdad. Odvernik was ill, and Frantisek's escapes from Vilna to "Baghdad" continued. “For a lover, any Baghdad is not a distance,” they said in the Middle Ages, but for Frantisek, the house of Yakub Babich - behind the triangular market square - was the distance of Baghdad, although Odvernik's dwelling was within easy reach.
P.S. And once again we focus on the conclusions of A.V. Voznesensky: The small road book, like other editions of Francysk Skaryna, has invariably attracted the attention of researchers since the second half of the 18th century, but only in recent decades has its “detailed description” been made (V. I. Lukyanenko, in 1973), as well as the implemented “on the basis of modern methodology” (E. L. Nemirovsky, in 1978) and “the most complete and accurate bibliographic description” (E. L. Nemirovsky, in 1988), i.e., that foundation was created, without which in modern science a full-fledged study of an early printed book is simply impossible. Meanwhile, if we compare the descriptions of V. I. Lukyanenko and E. L. Nemirovsky, it is easy to notice significant differences in them, which make it possible to understand that the indecision of bibliographers, who put off this task for many years, was associated not only with the insufficiently good preservation of extant us copies of the publication (often representing, moreover, only separate parts of it), but also with the need to decide how to describe it, which in turn is connected with the need to find out how the entire publication was printed and in what form it went on sale . In the description by V. I. Lukyanenko, the Small Travel Book appears as a single publication with many separate folios, but at the same time a single sequence of unsigned notebooks, each of which contains 4 sheets. At the same time, the description is accompanied by a cautious reservation about the possible appearance of the book on sale in separate editions. E. L. Nemirovsky considers Skaryna's book as a collection of a number of separate publications, each of which has its own sequence of notebooks or contains one notebook, sometimes of 8, sometimes of 12 sheets. In favor of both points of view, there are quite serious reasons. The unity of the book was first of all pointed out by Francis Skorina himself in a special table of contents, in which, in addition to the title of the book, a detailed description of all its constituent parts is found. for home use. A serious problem here is only a slight discrepancy between the table of contents and the actual composition of the book, which is found in the content and order of the services of the Book of Hours and which just made V.I. with the features of the implementation of these books, etc. technical terms." One can hardly agree with such an explanation. It must be thought that this discrepancy reflected the difference between what the Book of Hours should have been and how it was actually printed, since the Sunday Midnight Office, printed at the end of the Book of Hours, i.e., at a distance from midnight everyday and Saturday, with which the Book of Hours begins, gives the impression of being accidentally omitted, as, indeed, the canon of the Theotokos, which is probably why the sheets on which it is printed did not receive foliation. Therefore, it can be assumed that when typing the table of contents, Francysk Skaryna decided to correct the imperfection of this part of the book, not being able to reprint even part of its circulation, apparently due to lack of funds. The consideration of the Small Road Book as a “set of Skorinin’s publications”, which includes 21 separate editions: the Psalter, the Book of Hours, 17 canons and akathists, the Shestodnovets, the Follow-up of the Church Assembly (i.e., Monthly Book with Paschalia), was proposed by E. L. Nemirovsky, who pointed out that "each of these small books has a separate pagination, imprint, and often its own title page", and also that "the principles for the design of individual parts of the Little Travel Book are different and reveal that different printers worked on them." E. L. Nemirovsky, however, are not at all indisputable.A special number of sheets for each of the parts of the publication, although infrequently, is found in Cyrillic books, especially in the early days of printing. each have their own foliation, but about this they do not become two separate editions, even though the principles of their design are different when printed. Assovets, the engraved decorations of the footers used throughout the entire Psalter were not used. The presence of several imprints and title pages within one book is also known in the early days of book printing, although this phenomenon cannot be recognized as frequent or widespread in Cyrillic editions. An example is the collection of works by M. Divkovich published in 1641 in the printing house of Bartolo Ginnami in Venice, each part of which has its own title page with imprints, moreover, not always the same (they indicate both 1641 and 1640). ). However, even what E. L. Nemirovskii calls imprint and title pages in the Small Travel Book should hardly be fully considered in this way. The “output information” found at the end of each part of the Skorinin edition does not indicate the place (with the exception of Books of Hours and Monthly Books with Paschalia) and the time of its publication and is more reminiscent of a kind of final formula, which at a much later time was reduced to the word “ the end", and now completely disappeared from printed books. In the "title pages" noted by E. L. Nemirovsky, it would be preferable to see titles that precede all 5 main parts of the book. Psalter, Book of Hours, Akathists and Canons, Shestodnevets, Monthly Book with Paschalia. This function of theirs is already indicated by the absence of any information on them about the time and place of the publication of the book, as well as the presence of formulas that are not at all characteristic of the actual title pages of publications. At the same time, the functional similarity of all 5 titles is emphasized by the unity of design, which consists in the fact that the text formulas are enclosed in engraved frames. Special titles precede each of the pairs, consisting of an akathist and a canon, connected by the unity of the remembered and glorified event, which creates a clear internal structure of this part of the Small Travel Book, the design of which seemed heterogeneous to E. L. Nemtsovsky. "Other elements that create this unusually harmonious internal structure of Akathists and canons, became the location of the column (in akathists - in the lower right corner of the sheet, in canons - in the upper right corner) and the use of cinnabar (akathists, unlike canons, are printed only in black ink). It is also supported by direct indications found in the initial and already mentioned final formulas.Thus, among the undoubted only evidence can be attributed to evidence of the Small Travel Book as a single publication, which included 6 parts: a preface (a table of contents and, possibly, a common title sheet of the book), Psalter, Book of Hours, Akathists and can ona, Shestodnovets and Mesyatseslov with paschalia, which by no means excludes the possibility of its distribution in the form of these separate parts, although the facts of such distribution should be considered not from the point of view of printing, but from the point of view of the existence of the book. And the surviving copies give us examples of such existence of the Psalter (separately and in combination with the Book of Hours), the Book of Hours, Akathists and canons, the Six Days. You can refer to a copy of the State Historical Museum, Chertk. 480, which, however, does not contain one of the parts of the Six Days - the canon of repentance, printed together with the canon on Saturday at matins. It should be noted that the understanding of the need to consider this canon as part of the Six Days, obviously, did not come to Francis Skaryna immediately (it was already reflected in the table of contents and, apparently, in the process of printing the Shestoday), but at first it was printed as part of the Book of Hours. Returning to the problem of the bibliographic description of the Small Travel Book, it should be noted that, without a doubt, it should be described as a single edition, containing, however, not a single sequence of notebooks, but six, according to the number of main sections of the book.
The book was published in Prague in 1517-1519 and became the first printed edition in the West Russian version of the Church Slavonic language and in the East Slavic world.
In Russia, Ivan Fedorov (and he, by the way, had Belarusian roots) is still revered as a pioneer printer. But Francis Skorina "from the glorious city of Polotsk" published his "Russian Bible" fifty years before Ivan Fedorov. And in it he clearly indicated that this book was "written for all Russian people." Francysk Skaryna is a Belarusian and East Slavonic first printer, translator, publisher and artist. The son of a people living on the European border, he brilliantly combined in his work the traditions of the Byzantine East and the Latin West. Thanks to Skaryna, Belarusians received a printed Bible in their native language before Russians and Ukrainians, Poles and Lithuanians, Serbs and Bulgarians, French and British...
In 1517-1519, in Prague, Francysk Skorina printed in Cyrillic in the Belarusian version of the Church Slavonic language "Psalter" and 23 more books of the Bible translated by him. In 1522, in Vilna (now Vilnius), Skaryna published the Small Travel Book. This book is considered the first book printed on the territory that was part of the USSR. In the same place in Vilna in 1525, Francysk Skaryna printed "The Apostle". Fedorov's assistant and colleague, Pyotr Mstislavets, studied with Skaryna.
Francysk Skaryna - Belarusian humanist of the first half of the 16th century, medical scientist, writer, translator, artist, educator, first printer of the Eastern Slavs.
Far from all the details of Skaryna's biography have survived to this day, there are still many "white spots" in the life of the work of the great enlightener. Even the exact dates of his birth and death are unknown. It is believed that he was born between 1485 and 1490 in Polotsk, in the family of a wealthy Polotsk merchant Luka Skorina, who traded with the Czech Republic, with Moscow Russia, with Polish and German lands. From his parents, the son adopted love for his native Polotsk, whose name he later always used with the epithet “glorious”. Francis received his primary education at his parents' house - he learned to read the Psalms and write in Cyrillic. It is assumed that he learned Latin (Francis knew it brilliantly) at school at one of the Catholic churches in Polotsk or Vilna.
Skaryna, the son of a Polotsk merchant, received his first higher education in Krakow. There he took a course in "liberal sciences" and was awarded a bachelor's degree. Skaryna also received a master's degree in arts, which then gave the right to enter the most prestigious faculties (medical and theological) of European universities. Scientists suggest that after the University of Krakow, during the years 1506-1512, Skaryna served as a secretary to the Danish king. But in 1512, he left this position and went to the Italian city of Padua, at the university of which “a young man from very distant countries” (as the documents of that time say about him) received the degree of “Doctor of Medicine”, which was a significant event not only in the life of young Francis, but also in the history of the culture of Belarus. Until now, in one of the halls of this educational institution, where there are portraits of famous men of European science who came out of its walls, there is a portrait of an outstanding Belarusian by an Italian master.
About the period 1512-1516 centuries. F. Skaryna's life is unknown to us yet. Modern scientists have suggested that at that time Skorina traveled around Europe, got acquainted with printing and the first printed books, and also met with his brilliant contemporaries - Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael. The reason for this is the following fact - one of Raphael's frescoes depicts a man who is very similar to Skaryna's self-portrait in the Bible he later published. Interestingly, Raphael wrote it next to his own image.
From 1517 Skaryna lived in Prague. Here he began his publishing business and began printing Bible books.
The first printed book was the Slavic "Psalter", in the preface to which it is reported: "I, Francis Skorina, the son of the glorious Polotsk, a doctor in medicinal sciences, ordered the Psalter to be embossed in Russian words, and in Slovenian." At that time, the Belarusian language was called “Russian language”, in contrast to Church Slavonic, called “Slovenian”. The Psalter was published on August 6, 1517.
Then, almost every month, more and more new volumes of the Bible were published: the Book of Job, the Parables of Solomon, Ecclesiastes ... In two years in Prague, Francysk Skaryna published 23 illustrated Bible books, translated by him into a language understandable to the general reader. The publisher supplied each of the books with a preface and an afterword, and included almost fifty illustrations in the Bible.
Around 1520 or a little later, the first printer returned to his homeland and founded the first East Slavic printing house in Vilna. Here the “Small Road Book” was published, which is considered the first book published in the Belarusian lands (there is no exact release date for the book). Here, in 1525, "The Apostle" was printed, which turned out to be the last book of the first printer - during the fire in Vilna, the printing house of Francis died. It was with this book that 40 years later Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Mstislavets, both natives of Belarus, began Russian book printing in Moscow.
The last fifteen years of Francysk Skaryna's life are full of adversity and deprivation: for some time he serves with the Prussian Duke Albrecht the Elder in Koenigsberg, then returns to Vilna, where his family lives. For the debts of her deceased brother, Skaryna is imprisoned in Poznań. The Polish king Sigismund I releases him from trial with a special letter.
In 1534, Francysk Skaryna made a trip to the Principality of Moscow, from where he was expelled as a Catholic, and his books were burned (see the letter of 1552 from the King of the Commonwealth, Zhygimont II August, to Albert Krichka, his ambassador in Rome under Pope Julius III).
Around 1535, Francysk Skaryna moved to Prague, where he became the personal doctor and horticulturist of King Ferdinand I of Habsburg, who would later become Holy Roman Emperor. 1540 is considered the year of the death of the great enlightener.
Before the well-known Ostroh Bible appeared in Ukraine, Skaryna's editions were the only printed translations of the Holy Scriptures made in the territories of the Eastern and Southern Slavs. These translations became the subject of inheritance and alterations - all East Slavic publishing activity in the field of biblical texts was somehow oriented towards Skaryna. This is not surprising - in many respects his Bible was ahead of similar publications in other countries: before the German Martin Luther, not to mention Polish and Russian publishers. It is noteworthy that the Bible was published in the Old Belarusian language, which largely determined the development of the Belarusian press. The famous "Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania" were printed in the language of Belarus.
A noticeable increase in attention to the heritage of antiquity is also associated with the name of Skaryna. He was perhaps the first in our area to attempt to synthesize antiquity and Christianity, and also proposed an educational program developed in Ancient Greece - the system of the "Seven Free Sciences". Later, it was adopted by the fraternal schools of Ukraine and Belarus, developed and improved by the professors of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy and contributed a lot to the convergence of national culture with the culture of the West.
Fonts and engraved headpieces from the Vilna printing house Skaryna were used by book publishers for another hundred years.
What Francysk Skaryna actually did in Prague in the last years of his life is not exactly known. Most likely, he practiced as a doctor.
The exact date of his death has not been established, most scholars suggest that Skaryna died around 1551, since in 1552 his son Simeon came to Prague for an inheritance.
Only four hundred copies of Skaryna's books have survived to this day. All editions are very rare, especially the ones from Vilna. Rarities are stored in libraries and book depositories in Minsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, Vilnius, Lvov, London, Prague, Copenhagen, Krakow.
The language in which Francysk Skaryna printed his books was based on the Church Slavonic language, but with a large number of Belarusian words, and therefore was most understandable to the inhabitants of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. For a long time, there was a heated scientific dispute among Belarusian linguists about which language, out of two options, Skaryn translated the books into: the Belarusian edition (excerpt) of the Church Slavonic language or, under another version, the church style of the Old Belarusian language. Currently, Belarusian linguists agree that the language of translations of the Bible by Francysk Skaryna is the Belarusian edition (excerpt) of the Church Slavonic language. At the same time, the influence of the Czech and Polish languages was noticed in the works of Skaryna.
Skaryna's Bible violated the rules that existed when rewriting church books: it contained texts from the publisher and even engravings with his image. This is the only such case in the history of Bible publishing in Eastern Europe. Due to the ban on independent translation of the Bible, the Catholic and Orthodox Church did not recognize the books of Skaryna.
Francysk Skaryna has long been revered in Belarus. The life and work of F. Skorina is studied by a complex scientific discipline - scoring studies. His biography is studied in schools. Streets in Minsk, Polotsk, Vitebsk, Nesvizh, Orsha, Slutsk and many other cities of Belarus are named after him. The Gomel State University bears the name of F. Skaryna. Monuments to the outstanding scientist were erected in Polotsk, Minsk, Lida, Vilnius. The last of the monuments was recently installed in the capital of Belarus, next to the entrance to the new National Library.
All schools in Polotsk introduced a special subject - Polotsk studies, in which F. Skorina occupies a worthy place. Events dedicated to the memory of the pioneer printer are held in the city according to a separately drawn up plan.
Special awards have been introduced in Belarus - the Skaryna medal (1989) and the Order of Skaryna (1995).
The general title page for the entire book is not known. Dated according to a copy with paschalia - a kind of calendar calculated from 1523 to 1543 (copy of the Copenhagen Royal Library). Releasing a calendar for years that had already passed did not make any sense. It was a kind of calendar, which indicated the dates of the so-called "transitional" holidays, which fall on different days in different years. The dates on which the eclipses of the sun and moon will occur are also calculated. The average height of the copies is 14 cm. the miracle worker Nikola, the Akathist to the miracle worker Nikola, the Canon to the Apostles Peter and Paul, the Akathist to the apostles Peter and Paul, the Canon to the Theotokos, the Akathist to the Mother of God, the Canon to the sweetest name of Jesus, the Akathist to the sweetest name of Jesus, the Canon to the Cross of the Lord, the Akathist to the Cross of the Lord, the Follow-up of the church assembly and a general afterword. Some solemn hymns - akathists and canons Skaryna composed himself. We can consider Skaryna the first Belarusian poet whose works were published during his lifetime. The name “Small Road Book” (more precisely, “book”), which has been established in the literature, is based on the preface of Francysk Skaryna: “Written speeches in this Small Road Book are briefly summarized in a number of ways.” Format: 8°, set 102x65, 20 lines, 10 lines - 53. No custod and signatures, printing in two colors. Pagination front, by sheets, multiple, in the upper or lower right corner: 1-Znn., 1-140, 1_28, 1-4 nn., 1-28, 1-12, 1-8, 1-12, 1- 8, 1-12, 1-8, 1-12, 1-8, 1-16, 1-8, 1-12, 1-8, 1-16, 1-8, 1-12, 1-8, 1-36, 1-4, 1-4nn., 1-20 =435 ll. in full copy. Ornament: in the full copy of the Small travel book there should be 487 initials from 104 boards, 251 headpieces from 28 boards. Engravings: 1) 9 p., 1 a, “St. John the Baptist to baptize our Lord Jesus Christ in the Jordan”, 80x72; 2) 10 pag., 1 a, “Gabriel Announcement to the Blessed Virgin Mary”, 87 x 64; 3) 18 pag., 1a, without signature (Virgin and Child), 64x41; 4) 19 pg., 1 a, “Our Lord Jesus Christ in the temple to teach Jewish lawyers”, 81x72. The title pages of the Psalter, the Six Days, the Sobornik are designed in the form of border frames (of 4 boards), inside of which the title is printed. Original frame tit. sheet of Akathists for the whole week (4 pg., 1 a), especially the left vertical woodcut depicting the crowned Virgin with a baby (some researchers consider this engraving as the fifth illustration of the Small Travel Book). No complete copies of the Small Travel Book have been preserved. The most complete copies are available in the following libraries: RNB 1.5.8, 1.5.86; RSL No. 2044, 2045; GIM Smaller. 1430, Chertk. 479; Royal Library, Copenhagen. Francysk Skaryna intended his miniature edition, first of all, for merchants and artisans - people who were often on the road. The edition is elegant, its ornament is beautiful, the fine print is clear, in its design it resembles the font of the Prague Bible. Headpieces are used not only as an element of decorative decoration, but also for better organization of the text ("for the best separation, the readers are given the essence"). Paleotype, the first-born printing on Belarusian soil!
Bibliography: Sopikov, 1813, No. 517, 930; Koeppen, 1825, p. 482, no. 33; Stroev, 1829, No. 13; Undolsky, 1848, No. 6; Sakharov, 1849, No. 11, Karataev, 1861, No. 15, Undolsky, 1871, No. 18, Karataev, 1878, No. 16, Karataev, !883, No. 19. Titov A.A. has undoubted commercial interest. Early printed books according to the Catalog of A.I. Kasterina, with the designation of their prices. Rostov, 1905, No. 6 ... 550 r.!!! Looking to buy. Our desire. Report by P.P. Shibanova. Publication of JSC "Mezhdunarodnaya kniga". Moscow, Mospoligraf, type-zincography "The Thought of a Printer", , No. 19. ... 300 rub., Catalog of books from the GPB collection. St. Petersburg, 1993, No. 13.
The history of Belarusian book printing is an important part of the general history of the Belarusian people. Cyrillic printing was the leading type of Belarusian book publishing. Printing houses that used Cyrillic fonts published publications in book Slavonic, as well as Belarusian literary language, used the Cyrillic alphabet inherent in Old Russian, later Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian writing. The Cyrillic book connected Belarusian and Ukrainian book printing with Russian, where the Cyrillic alphabet occupied a monopoly position. Progressive Cyrillic printing performed an important historical mission in the development of Belarusian culture, in preserving the cultural community of the East Slavic peoples, in raising the liberation struggle of the masses in the 16th-17th centuries. against social and national oppression. At the end of the XV - beginning of the XVI century. all European countries became familiar with the technology and art of printing directly or indirectly (Belarus, which at that time was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, from 1569 almost until the end of the 18th century was part of the federal state of the Commonwealth). Cultural life in the country was complicated by socio-political, class, socio-economic and national-religious contradictions. The process of spreading book printing, which continued at that time, was associated with the maturation of its social prerequisites in Belarus and Lithuania, the development of productive forces and production relations. The increased social activity of various strata of society in connection with this, a certain economic and cultural upsurge, and the expansion of international relations contributed to the development of all forms of book writing. In the formation of Belarusian book printing, the main role was played by the commercial and entrepreneurial strata of the urban population, the petty bourgeois, who supported the ideas of developing national culture, schooling, and education.
Between 1512 and 1517 the doctor of "free sciences" Frantisek Skaryna appeared in Prague. According to the hypothesis of J. Dobrovsky, he could be among the people who accompanied King Sigismund I (aka Zhigimont the Old) to the Congress of Vienna in 1515. Well, he stayed in Prague to perform some official duties under the young Czech King Louis. Here he ordered printing equipment and set about translating and commenting on the Bible. The first book of Skaryna (Psalter) was published on August 6, 1517. From that time to 1519, Skorina translated into Church Slavonic (with a significant admixture of Old Belarusian vocabulary), commented on and published 23 books of the Bible with prefaces and afterwords. In 1520-1521 he moved to Vilna, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Burgomaster Yakub Babich set aside a place for Skaryna's printing house in his house in one of the Russian quarters in the Rynok area. The Vilna merchant Bogdan Onkov financed the publishing activity of Skaryna. Around 1522, the first printer published the Small Travel Book, and in March 1525, his last book, The Apostle. Somewhere around this time, perhaps, he participated in Vilna in a dispute with the famous Paracelsus. In 1525, he is believed to have traveled to the German city of Wittenberg, the center of the Reformation, where he met with Martin Luther. On the basis of one of the diplomatic documents of 1552, A.V. Florovsky and S. Braga developed a hypothesis that in the mid-1520s Skorina could visit Moscow, assuming to master the Moscow book market. But there, during the reign of Grand Duke Basil III, his books were publicly burned, because they were published by a Catholic and in places subject to the authority of the Roman Church. Between 1525 and 1528, Skorina married the widow of the Vilna merchant Yuri Odvernik Margarita, improved his financial situation and, together with his wife, took part in the trading business of his elder brother Ivan Skorina, who was engaged in the wholesale trade in leather. But at the end of 1529, brother Ivan died in Poznań. And at the beginning of 1530, Margarita also died, leaving his young son, Simeon, in the arms of Skaryna. For Skaryna, the era of litigation began. First, Margarita's relatives sued, demanding the division of her property. At this time, Skorina visited Koenigsberg (until May 1530), where he tried to enlist the patronage of Duke Albrecht of Hohenzollern, who, carried away by the ideas of the Reformation, wanted to organize book printing. Then Skaryna became a family doctor and secretary of the Vilna Catholic Bishop Jan. But here the Warsaw creditors began to demand from him the payment of the debts of his late brother. The Jewish merchants Lazar and Moses (to whom he owed 412 zlotys) in February 1532 secured the arrest of Skaryna - and he spent about 10 weeks in a Poznań prison. Rescued by his nephew - Roman, who achieved an audience with King Sigismund I and proved that Skaryna had no direct relationship to his brother's affairs. On May 24, 1532, the king ordered the release of Skaryna and issued him a safe-conduct (immunity), according to which only the royal court could judge him. Finally, in the mid-1530s, Francysk Skaryna took the position of physician and gardener to the Czech king Ferdinand I of Habsburg in the royal botanical garden in Prague. The first printer died no later than January 29, 1552.
The "Small Road Book" is shrouded in an aura of mysticism and mystery. What Belarusian book is considered the first printed one? The one that Skaryna printed in Prague in 1517, or the one in Vilna - in 1522? Prague then definitely had nothing to do with Belarus. And Vilnius - now ... Interesting arithmetic. E.L. Nemirovsky we read: Under the name "Small travel book" is known a set of publications printed by Francis Skaryna around 1522 in Vilna. The name was given by the Belarusian educator himself. It is mentioned only once - in the title of the afterword to the entire set of publications: "WRITTEN AND SPEECHES IN THIS SMALL ROADBOOK, the essence is laid out in a number of brief ways." With the light hand of Ivan Prokofievich Karataev, the name “Small Road Book” was established in historiography, which later became generally accepted and common noun. Meanwhile, Francysk Skaryna himself speaks of a “book”. As Yaroslav Dmitrievich Isaevich rightly pointed out, “the form “in the book” is a prepositional case from “book”. Therefore, the correct name is “Small travel book”. It is fair to point out that it was in this form that the name was used by the Czech Slavist Josef Dobrovsky, who first introduced this collection of Vilna editions of Francysk Skaryna into scientific circulation. “Small travel book” is a rare edition. The total number of currently known convolutes and separately bound editions that are part of the “Small Travel Book” was 22 until very recently. which is included in the “Small travel book”, was introduced into scientific circulation by Yu. A. Labyntsev in 1978. Therefore, the discovery made in 2004 by the Moscow bibliophile Mikhail Evgenievich Grinblat can be considered truly sensational. He purchased an envelope containing the Vilna Psalter, the Canon to the Holy Sepulcher, the Akathist to the Holy Sepulcher, the Canon to the Archangel Michael, the Akathist to the Archangel Michael, the Canon to John the Baptist, the Akathist to John the Baptist, the Canon to the Wonderworker Nicholas, the Akathist to the Wonderworker Nicholas, the Canon to the Apostles Peter and Paul , Akathist to the Apostles Peter and Paul, Canon to the Mother of God, Akathist to the Mother of God, Canon to the sweetest name of Jesus, Akathist to the sweetest name of Jesus, Canon to the Cross of the Lord, Akathist to the Cross of the Lord, Follow-up of the Church Assembly. That is, almost the entire "Small travel book", with the exception of only the Book of Hours, Six Days and most of the Follow-up of the church meeting. In the last edition, only sheets 1-11 were preserved in the copy of Greenblat, after which 11 sheets were woven, reproduced in cursive of the 17th century. There is no Paschalia and a general afterword to the Little Travel Book in this convoy. Paschalia in its entirety was preserved only in the convoy located in Copenhagen, and the general afterword in the St. Petersburg copy. There is no information about where Greenblat's convoy was earlier and to whom it belonged. The volume is bound in planks covered with smooth leather. The book block is fastened with copper clasps. On the back of the top cover there is a hard-to-read owner's note dated May 13, 1900. Three blank sheets are woven into the beginning of the book; on the back of the last of them is a pencil entry “1722”. On the margins of the sheets are reader marginalia. Among the latter is the entry “This book of Fedorov”, made on the left. 12 Akathist to the most sweet name of Jesus. On some sheets there is a handwritten Cyrillic foliation: in the Akathist, the cross on fl. 1 - horn, on l. 4 - pos and in the Canon a cross on l. 5 - rcg. This, in our opinion, indicates that these publications were previously included in the convolute, the volume of which exceeded 193 sheets. In conclusion, let us say that in 2005 another find by Skarynin was made - a convolute containing many Prague editions of the Belarusian educator. He was found in the library of the city of Görlitz (Germany). However, we do not yet have information about the composition of this convoy. The small road book, like other editions of Francysk Skaryna, has invariably attracted the attention of researchers since the second half of the 18th century, but only in recent decades has its “detailed description” been made (V. I. Lukyanenko, in 1973), as well as the implemented “on the basis of modern methodology” (E. L. Nemirovsky, in 1978) and “the most complete and accurate bibliographic description” (E. L. Nemirovsky, in 1988), i.e., that foundation was created, without which in modern science a full-fledged study of an early printed book is simply impossible. Meanwhile, if we compare the descriptions of V. I. Lukyanenko and E. L. Nemirovsky, it is easy to notice significant differences in them, which make it possible to understand that the indecision of bibliographers, who put off this task for many years, was associated not only with the insufficiently good preservation of extant us copies of the publication (often representing, moreover, only separate parts of it), but also with the need to decide how to describe it, which in turn is connected with the need to find out how the entire publication was printed and in what form it went on sale . In the description by V. I. Lukyanenko, the Small Travel Book appears as a single publication with many separate folios, but at the same time a single sequence of unsigned notebooks, each of which contains 4 sheets. At the same time, the description is accompanied by a cautious reservation about the possible appearance of the book on sale in separate editions. E. L. Nemirovsky considers Skaryna's book as a collection of a number of separate publications, each of which has its own sequence of notebooks or contains one notebook, sometimes of 8, sometimes of 12 sheets. In favor of both points of view, there are quite serious reasons. The unity of the book was first of all pointed out by Francis Skorina himself in a special table of contents, in which, in addition to the title of the book, a detailed description of all its constituent parts is found. home use. A serious problem here is only a slight discrepancy between the table of contents and the actual composition of the book, which is found in the content and order of the services of the Book of Hours and which just made V.I. with the features of the implementation of these books and other technical conditions. One can hardly agree with such an explanation. It must be thought that this discrepancy reflected the difference between what the Book of Hours should have been and how it was actually printed, since the Sunday Midnight Office, printed at the end of the Book of Hours, i.e., at a distance from the daily and Saturday Midnight Offices, with which the Book of Hours begins, gives the impression of being accidentally omitted, as, indeed, the canon of the Theotokos, which is probably why the sheets on which it is printed did not receive foliation. Therefore, it can be assumed that when typing the table of contents, Francysk Skaryna decided to correct the imperfection of this part of the book, not being able to reprint even part of its circulation, apparently due to lack of funds. The consideration of the Small Road Book as a “set of Skorinin’s publications”, which includes 21 separate editions: the Psalter, the Book of Hours, 17 canons and akathists, the Shestodnovets, the Follow-up of the Church Assembly (i.e., Monthly Book with Paschalia), was proposed by E. L. Nemirovsky, who pointed out that "each of these small books has a separate pagination, imprint, and often its own title page", and also that "the principles for the design of individual parts of the Little Travel Book are different and reveal that different printers worked on them." The arguments of E. L. Nemirovsky, however, are by no means indisputable. A special sheet count for each of the parts of the publication, albeit infrequently, is found in Cyrillic books, especially in the early days of printing. For example, in the Zabludov Psalter with the Book of Hours by Ivan Fedorov, both the Psalter and the Book of Hours each have their own foliation, but about this they do not become two separate editions, even though the principles of their design are different, when printing the Book of Hours, the engraved decorations of the footers and footers used throughout the entire Psalter were not used. The presence of several imprints and title pages within one book is also known in the early days of book printing, although this phenomenon cannot be recognized as frequent or widespread in Cyrillic editions. An example is the collection of works by M. Divkovich published in 1641 in the printing house of Bartolo Ginnami in Venice, each part of which has its own title page with imprints, moreover, not always the same (they indicate both 1641 and 1640). ). However, even what E. L. Nemirovskii calls imprint and title pages in the Small Travel Book should hardly be fully considered in this way. The “output information” found at the end of each part of the Skorinin edition does not indicate the place (with the exception of Books of Hours and Monthly Books with Paschalia) and the time of its publication and is more reminiscent of a kind of final formula, which at a much later time was reduced to the word “ the end", and now completely disappeared from printed books. In the "title pages" noted by E. L. Nemirovsky, it would be preferable to see titles that precede all 5 main parts of the book. Psalter, Book of Hours, Akathists and Canons, Shestodnevets, Monthly Book with Paschalia. This function of theirs is already indicated by the absence of any information on them about the time and place of the publication of the book, as well as the presence of formulas that are not at all characteristic of the actual title pages of publications. At the same time, the functional similarity of all 5 titles is emphasized by the unity of design, which consists in the fact that the text formulas are enclosed in engraved frames. Special titles precede each of the pairs, consisting of an akathist and a canon, connected by the unity of the remembered and glorified event, which creates a clear internal structure of this part of the Small Travel Book, the design of which seemed heterogeneous to E. L. Nemtsovsky. "Other elements that create this unusually harmonious internal structure of Akathists and canons, became the location of the column (in akathists - in the lower right corner of the sheet, in the canons - in the upper right corner) and the use of cinnabar (akathists, unlike canons, are printed only in black ink). The unity of the pairs, consisting of an akathist and a canon, is also supported by direct indications found in the initial and already mentioned final formulas. Thus, only evidence that testifies to the Small Travel Book as a single edition, which included 6 parts, can be classified as undoubted: the preface (the table of contents and, possibly, the general title page of the book), the Psalter, the Book of Hours, Akathists and canons, the Shestodnevets and Monthly calendar with paschalia, which by no means excludes the possibility of its distribution in the form of these separate parts, although the facts of such distribution should be considered not from the point of view of printing, but from the point of view of the existence of the book. And the surviving copies give us examples of such existence of the Psalter (separately and in combination with the Book of Hours), the Book of Hours, Akathists and canons, the Six Days. The incompleteness of the selection and the inconsistency of combining the texts of akathists and canons in some copies should be explained by the peculiarities of existence (the possibility of loss, the arbitrariness of bookbinders, etc.), as well as the unusual content of this part of Skarynin's edition. The combination in one book of the Canon and the Akathist, outlandish at that time, forced the reader of the book to decide on his preferences in relation to certain prayers, which, apparently, was reflected in the movement, within the mentioned pairs, of the canons to the beginning or in the appearance of selections only akathists, as in the copy of the library of Wroclaw University, which existed in this form, judging by the binding and notes, from the 16th century. See copy of State Historical Museum, Chertk. 480, which, however, does not contain one of the parts of the Six Days - the canon of repentance, printed together with the canon on Saturday at matins. It should be noted that the understanding of the need to consider this canon as part of the Six Days, obviously, did not come to Francis Skaryna immediately (it was already reflected in the table of contents and, apparently, in the process of printing the Shestoday), but at first it was printed as part of the Book of Hours. Returning to the problem of the bibliographic description of the Small Travel Book, it should be noted that, without a doubt, it should be described as a single edition, containing, however, not a single sequence of notebooks, but six, according to the number of main sections of the book.
The emergence of Belarusian book printing in the 1st quarter of the 16th century. associated with the activities of the outstanding humanist, educator, Belarusian and East Slavic printing pioneer Francysk Skaryna (circa 1490 - no later than 1551). The first stage of F. Skorina's book publishing activity took place in the "glorious place of Praz". Long-standing trade and cultural ties between the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, some features of the spiritual and socio-political life of the Czech Republic (the influence of the Hussite Reformation), as well as the privileges enjoyed by printing here (not constrained by guild restrictions), facilitated the organization of a new book publishing enterprise in Prague. Like many European pioneers, F. Skorina began his publishing activity with the books of the Bible. It is known that biblical books (complex in composition, heterogeneous and contradictory in terms of their social motives, a complex of literary works of ancient writing) were used in the Middle Ages not only by the church and the ruling classes for their own purposes, but also by heretical, radical reformist movements opposed to them, revolutionary opposition to feudalism. The secular Renaissance editions of Skaryna sharply contradicted church canons and orthodox ideas about "holy scripture". The free translation of biblical texts into the Belarusian literary language of that time, the humanistic interpretation of their content, the author's prefaces and comments on books, which deviated far from the traditions of the medieval Christian worldview, bordered, from the point of view of the church, on heresy. It is no coincidence that the Orthodox Orthodox Prince Andrei Kurbsky, who fled to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the Livonian War, attributed the books of Skorina Polotsky to blasphemous heretical publications similar to Luther's Bible. The enlightening and humanistic views of F. Skaryna were clearly manifested in his attitude to secular sciences, book knowledge, and spiritual achievements of the past. In his books, published in his native language, he promoted the need for a broad humanitarian education, the study of the seven "free sciences" (or "arts"), moral improvement, active personal and social activities "for the Commonwealth of kindness and the reproduction of wisdom, skill, patriness, reason and science" (Second preface to the book "Isus Sirakhov", 1517). In the statements and comments of F. Skaryna, in his attitude to book publishing, educational and political activities, his civic patriotic feelings, the desire to promote the spiritual development of his people in every possible way are felt. The patriotism of F. Skaryna was organically combined with deep respect for other peoples, their traditions and customs, cultural and historical heritage. It is known that in the Prague printing house F. Skaryna published 23 books of the Old Testament with a total volume of about 1200 sheets. However, it is not possible today to accurately determine all of his products published in the Prague Printing House due to various historical circumstances that influenced the fate of many East Slavic, including Belarusian, books. Only one thing can be stated with certainty: F. Skorina intended to publish the entire collection of the Bible in Prague, "anyhow it was not reduced in the Russian language." This is evidenced by a common title page, a lengthy preface to the entire Bible, and commentaries on published books. Listing the books prepared for publication, F. Skorina mentions a number of books unknown to us or not yet found - "Ezra", "Tovif", etc. their names, broader in the prefaces, from me to the skin ward, are written out to know. There is no information about who worked in the Prague printing house of F. Skaryna.
The fonts, illustrative and ornamental materials of the Prague editions of F. Skaryna do not have direct parallels with the currently known Czech and other incunabula and paleotypes of the late 15th - early decades of the 16th century. It can be assumed that Czech typographers and compatriots of F. Skorina worked in the Prague printing house. A few years after the start of his book publishing activity, F. Skorina moved to Vilna - the largest political, economic and cultural center and the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the Vilna printing house of F. Skaryna, arranged in the house of the steward Yakub Babich, the Small Travel Book (circa 1522) and the Apostle (1525) were printed. Both books were published in an edition close to the linguistic and religious traditions of the Belarusian and East Slavic writings. However, in their social purpose and, to a certain extent, in their content, they differed from those rather rare works of handwritten book art, which were distributed mainly among the privileged strata of society. The "Small Road Book" introduced comparatively broad sections of the Belarusian population to certain ideas of Ptolemaic astronomy. The enlightenment tendencies of F. Skorina found a vivid expression in the perspective summary of solar and lunar eclipses for 1523-1530 published by him. This is the first accurate forecast of eclipses in all East Slavic literature, which the church declared beyond the control of human reason and unpredictable. In the "glorious place of Vilna" F. Skorina participated more widely than in Prague in the direct activities of the printing house, which is noted in his publications: "lined and embossed", "lined and supplanted by Dr. Francysk Skaryna's practice", etc. In Vilna editions new engravings were used, most of the ornamentation was updated, narrow “fronts”, small initials with a variety of decorative and floral backgrounds were made with special skill, various forms of typing were widely used in the endings, and the technique of two-color printing was improved. As noted by V. V. Stasov and other art historians, the publications of F. Skorina are mature, perfect works, bright and original in their artistic and typographic appearance. They organically combined the traditions of Belarusian and East Slavic art and writing with the experience of European, including Slavic, book printing, developing and enriching it.
But let us return to the first quarter of the 16th century. Vilna was in front of him. And the sun above her at its zenith - in the sky blue and clear, like his eyes. And either from his blue eyes the sky over Vilna turned blue, or from the blue sky over Vilna his eyes turned blue joyfully, glorious Vilnius people did not think very much under that clear, golden sun that shone over them. Skorina did not think about that either, excitedly experiencing her arrival in Vilna - under her such a blue and clear sky. Ave sol! Long live the sun! And this was Skaryna's most sincere greeting, born of the joy of his return to his homeland - returning with a dream come true, the return of a person who knew the value of the bright sun, thought it in a special way, connected with his fate, with his personality. And it doesn’t matter that after Wroclaw it was easier for horses harnessed to slow-moving wagons! The main thing is that the book belongings, acquired by his tireless three-year labor in Prague, were brought here, to Vilna. And now Skaryna will be next to Bogdan Onkov, Yakub Babich, Yuri Odvernik, because next to him - in front of him - was Vilna with all its beauty, attractiveness, celebrity. It was breathtaking, speech was also taken away by the fact that Skaryna was entering Vilna through the Krevo Gate. These gates will later be called Mednitsky, and even later - Ostrobramsky, now they were called Krevo. Olgerd's path from Polotsk to Vilna ended with these famous gates. Skaryna was at the very end of Olgerd's path, but his own path did not lead here through Kreva, although partly through the same Kreva, if you remember that the Krevo Union generally took control of the roads from the Grand Duchy not only to Krakow, but also to Prague . Yes, not about history, close or old, thought Skaryna, entering Vilna through the Krevo Gate. He knew that behind them he would immediately take a look at the triangular market square already known to him and the courtyard of Yakub Babich would see on it, and the stone house of Yuri Odvernik. Below the Kreva Gate - on the right - there is still a pub where, on the eve of his departure to Prague three years ago, he finally agreed on a business with Bogdan Onkov and Yakub Babich. An overpeak did not come to that conversation, and Skaryna then conveyed a parting word to Yuri through Onkov. He told me to think until this day why Yuri was absent then? .. Frantisek knew Vilna even thanks to his father, the merchant Luka Skorinich, since the regular Vilna fairs were fairs for the Polotsk merchants: one of them opened on Vodokreshcha, the other on the Assumption . Those fairs continued for two or even three resounding weeks, and Frantisek's father would stay here for two or more weeks, so that after a month or two, on occasion, he would tell his youngest son about Vilna. What didn't my father tell me about? And about the different settlements of this glorious capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, of which there were six here, as in Polotsk, only they were called floorboards - Lithuanian, Russian, German. Father, however, more readily recalled not about the floorboards, churches or churches of Vilna, but about its merchants' living yards, and above all about the one that the Novgorod merchants built here under Olgerd. He also liked to talk about the Gostiny Dvor, which grew up with the cares of King Alexander, adding that King Alexander nevertheless favored the merchant, did not forget about him. That royal attention, it is known, concerned, as the Vilna merchants themselves understood it, not so much visiting guests as they, local merchants. After all, it was not for them, the Vilna residents, but for visiting merchants, that they were sternly ordered to stop only at Alexander's courtyard and nowhere else. And the visiting merchants, having settled in the yard allotted for them, were also obliged to report about themselves to the city council. And before their departure, they had to do the same. In addition, it was strictly forbidden for visiting merchants to trade in Vilna with the same visiting merchants. They had the right to trade only with Vilna merchants, only with Vilna people. So Alexander's concern for the merchant was, first and foremost, concern for the Vilna merchant, Vilna. But what, however, Skaryna did not recall from his father's stories about this city, the first days of his meetings in Vilna could not but be joyful, festive. His friends - Bogdan Onkov, Yakub Babich - have seen the books printed by him, it is known, and still. But in order to consider them with Frantisek, they did not consider them. And it was such a showcase of printed books, as if all three had never seen them at all before, and had not held them in their hands, had not eagerly read them. And all because Frantisek told his friends at those bride-to-be, indeed, not only about what they already knew from the prefaces, but, above all, about what did not get into the prefaces, could not get into. Skaryna told and talked about all the complexities and subtleties of the work that he had already accomplished in Prague, about all the details and trifles that people usually remember not for very long, at least one of them is the very life of man in its elusiveness, transience, disappearance . Of beer, of course, during that long, long confession of Skorina, more than one mug was drunk, more than one garnet was scooped out of honey, and more than one fat gander was fried for that beer and honey, more than one quilted oxen chunks of red-purple lay on silver trays, seasoned thickly and savory with round green peas, and fragrant fiery saffron, and grated red beetroot, and overseas sweet raisins. But along with the first Vilna joys, the first Vilna worries also appeared. Skaryna's concerns were merchants' and trades'. What exactly they consisted of is not known today. From that time on, for example, the trading books of Bogdan Oikov or Yakub Babich have come down to us, and the Hanseatic merchants always had such books, because the Magdeburg Law obligated them to be kept - so, save those books, now lie down with their voluminous, leather covers, graphs, numbers, calculations and calculations on our table, and, like Bogdan Onkov or Yakub Babich, it would be clear to everyone today how much money the same Bogdan Onkov and Jakub Babich spent on the Prague Bible - on the paper on which it was printed, on the font , for engravings, for vignettes, for screensavers. And how much and on what did the Prague printer Francysk Skorina himself spend in his printing business in Prague, and what costs did it require at all, and what profit did he and his friends bring in general, and how many books were sold on one day or another, and even to whom on credit sold - everything, everything would be known from the trading books of Bogdan Onkov, Yakub Babich, if they only reached our time! Although it is clear that the trading book is not a magic mirror that fully reflects the life of a merchant in general and his trading activities in particular. After all, the same merchant activity, as usual, was conditioned for a trading person by rules similar to the laws of multiplication, when one number is written, and the other is kept in the mind: seven is seven - forty-nine, nine - we write, four - in memory. How many things did the merchants of different times have in their memory, who, when and where knew for sure about that?! Similarly, in the trading books, what remained in the memory of the merchant was never written down by the merchant. After all, the merchant's memory, the ability to estimate, the sharpness and fluency of thought were usually the key to the success of the merchant, the guarantee of his profit. Calculation on paper is one thing, invisible calculation, interior calculation is another. The merchants knew them before Onkov and Babich, and the merchants Onkov and Babich also knew them. But with all that knowledge, the merchants before Onkov and Babich stumbled, as surely as Onkov and Babich themselves - maybe often, maybe not very often - on a variety of thresholds. And if it weren’t for those rapids, then, as you know, not in 1522, but already in the year of his arrival in Vilna, Skaryna would calmly print his first Vilna booklet here in Vilna - “A Small Travel Book”. And since he did not print it here, in Vilna, right away, right there, soon, this meant that neither Skaryna, nor Onkov, nor Babich could succeed right away, right there, soon. Everything was not as simple as it might seem to Skaryna in the first days upon arrival. So what if Skaryna brought the font, vignettes, headpieces and any other belongings here, to the place? In Vilna, here already, on the spot, in what place did all this lie down, in the same place and continued to lie down for itself! After all, at first, apparently, there was a problem with paper: a paper workshop near Vilna had just started working, and paper was still unimportant. And what is the first thing to take in Vilna - what to translate? This, again, could not help but worry Skaryna, Onkov, Babich. After all, the merchant must know what kind of demand for his goods! Thus, it was necessary either to repeat in Vilna the printing of texts already printed in Prague, or to prepare for the printing of new ones ... There were a lot of issues that needed to be resolved, but raising money was put in the first place, as well as the need to secure guardianship, equal if and not a royal privilege, but at least some certainty that guarantees confidence that behind your back there is a force that is stronger than you and that will not offend you if something unforeseen happens. And yet, at first, these serious chores seemed not so difficult to Skaryna - partly because they were all divided into three - Onkov, Babich and him, Skaryna. But every day Skorina was more and more taken over in Vilna by another concern - little foreseen by Skoriya himself, by Onkov, Babich - too. And they listened to the mighty, broad-shouldered Yakub Babich and the stocky, squat Bogdan Onkov of their friend Frantisek Skaryna, when he came from Polotsk to the glorious place of Vilna and did not bring a penny with him, but only his brother and his family, and wondered why it would be Frantisek seemed to have rejuvenated, where did he get gaiety, energy and even more risk in plans and reasoning. It seems like not the son of a merchant! It seems like they have diminished in the cellars of books brought from Prague! Did he receive an inheritance, a royal privilege?.. Skaryna did not receive any inheritance, nor a royal privilege. -Music! he exclaimed. - Let's start all over again with music, with a golden-horned deer! .. Why with music, why with a deer, neither the reticent Babich, nor the eloquent Onkov understood. “Yes, from music and cinnabar,” Skaryna began to explain. - Akathists need to be embossed - printed, canons, so that the harpists sang, the lads sang, girls! Babich and Onkov didn't understand what guslars and guys, what girls. - And cinnabar, to attract the eye, like fire in the night! And now our merchant is the merchant who is on the road. With God, his mother, wife escorts him on the road, so let him take God's word on the road every day, every minute. And the merchant also loves to count, loves to calculate, count. So we will print and print Easter for him, and not just the hours, and let him calculate when Easter, when carols, let him, like God, calculate! And let any of our merchants sing akathists on the road - according to the "Small Road Book". He sings - one booklet in the twelfth part of the sheet, half the size of our Prague books, in the twelfth part of the sheet, so that it fits easily in the merchant's pocket, so as not to interfere with him in his pocket - when driving, when walking. The book is small, the expenses for it are small, and the joy from it to the merchant is great! his enthusiasm, and his faith, although, advancing, Skaryna the printer now retreated, for it was decided to print the "Book" in Old Church Slavonic. And all this for the sake of commerce? Not only because of her, but also because of inertia, because the reader got used, could not get used to the old Slovenian language over the centuries, which was also the language of Belarusians, but only a bookish one. The living, colloquial language seemed to the medieval Belarusian, if not lower, then, in any case, less mysterious and, most importantly, less sanctified by tradition. Skaryna had to go to the printing press, go to herself and through the labyrinths of linguistic circumstances. Printed Book Approval! Book mind! Morality! Above the Hellene and the Jew! But will he establish a living spoken language as authoritatively as Church Slavonicism is already established in the minds of his compatriots? Will confirm again! Will definitely approve! And the house of Yakub Babich in the glorious place of Vilensky near the market on the triangular square near the Kreva Gates became the new printing house of Francysk Skaryna. And at the same time, Skaryna's troubles with the Little Travel Book began no less than with the big Prague books, and maybe even more. Because in Vilna it was more difficult with paper, because such experienced engravers and servants had not yet appeared in Vilna, such as Skaryna had in the printing house of Pavel Severin in Czech Prague in the Old Town. But the work went like clockwork, as if the path itself spread like a tablecloth. And all because Skaryna worked obsessively, literally took on any job, did everything that was necessary: he prepared the text for printing, and typed it, adjusting fonts and initial letters, rubbing cinnabar to immediately grab the screw of the printing press. He really worked the hardest, furiously, because to stamp-print in a year as many as the pages were stamped-printed in the printing house of Yakub Babich in the year 1522 - this is not something to be done, it is difficult to imagine. Akathists and canons flew like birds from a nest, and not about two wings - about eight, about twelve: akathists - about twelve, canons - about eight. There were, however, akathists and 16 sheets each - dedicated to the apostles Peter and Paul, the cross of the Lord. In total, 168 pages of akathists and canons were printed in 1522, "Book of Hours" - 60, "Shestodneva" - 36, the Vilna "Psalter" - 140, afterwords to the entire "Small Road Book" - 23. As a result, 427 pages of text for one year! Skaryna was happy: in Vilna things are going no worse than in Prague. Sing akathists, rising, standing, Russia! Rejoice, as he rejoiced, Francis, when he printed the "Psalter", "Book of Hours", "Shestodnev" and all the canons in two colors - not only everyday black, but also festive - red. And where he has red paint, there he has plenty of ornaments and plenty of initial initials. True, there are few illustrations in the akathists and canons - only three. Skaryna does not have the luxury with illustrations that he had in Prague, here in Vilna. And, of course, it was frustrating. But all the same, Francis rejoiced that at least so many ornaments, initial letters, font he brought from Prague and was finally able to continue his printing business ... “So on the road,“ Small travel book, good hour! ” - Having finished printing the “Small Travel Book”, on one, of course, a festive day for himself and his friends, Frantisek admonished her in the house of Yakub Babich or, perhaps, Bogdan Onkov, hardly, apparently suspecting that this new take-off of his as a printer It also began with a high Naddvinsk temple with a Kupala bonfire the year before last. - Gu-ha, gu-ha! - Pan Tvardovsky danced the Krakowiak, singing with a Polish-Oshmiany accent:
We were not
There was a lyas
We won't be
There will be lyas! ..
“Well, - Skorina was not surprised, - didn’t I myself leave the most precious Beautiful flowers here, in Vilna, so that they would fully enjoy the will and self-will. Now get it!” And indeed, whenever he crossed the threshold into the pub, which is on the right hand of the market on the triangular square below the Krevo Gates, Pan Tvardovsky is right there:
While I drink, until then I live!
And a glass of malvasia or alkermes instantly, as in a bottomless abyss, disappeared from the surprised eyes of Dr. Faust, and from the withered clay eyes of the Golem, and from the usually ironic eyes of Stanislav Stanchik. Meanwhile, the formidable Pan Tvardovsky was already towering over the massive oak table of the pub, as if with an oak dugout, with an invitation glass in his sweat-drenched hands! Dr. Faust and Golem sat freely at the oak table of the pub and did not slouch warily. Not that Stanislav Stanchik: pride did not allow him to even slightly twitch his numb left shoulder, but, not at all expecting indulgence from Pan Tvardovsky, he kept his mug to his lips. Doctor Faust has not had fun for the second year. For the second year now, he was sad for his Nemetchyna, sipping rare sips not of the glorious Gdansk double-beer, but of the local beer and snacking on the most delicious and alien Shon herring, while saying: “Great! Excellent!..” This did not satisfy Pan Tvardovsky in the least, and almost every evening he thundered in his deep voice:
For us to be alive
And they drank vodka with hats! ..
Being themselves owners of non-perforated hats, Dr. Faust, and Golem, and Stanislav Stanchik, as before, looked with apprehension at the flushed cheeks and not only the cheeks of the great mister Tvardovsky. Oh, how pan Tvardovsky began to hate this obvious precaution of theirs from some moment - and stamping his black heel with a silver spur, and throwing back his head, from which the four-cornered hat with a high peacock plume almost fell in front of her, and shouting:
If you walk
So, walk
Hug the girl
Give the belt!., (as a pledge)
Pan Tvardovsky's belt was, of course, neither Skaryna's doctoral robe, nor Faust's doctoral robe, except that there were always pockets in the belts, and penyazki in the pockets. Papa Tvardovsky's behavior here could not be an example to Dr. Skaryna, nor an example to Dr. Faust. But, perhaps, precisely because he did not find worthy followers either in Skaryna, or in Dr. Faust, or in Golem, or even in Stanislav Stanchik, distinguished by the gentry, Pan Tvardovsky soon became so angry that one evening in the same well-known He categorically declared to us in the pub and to the whole company of Beautiful Flowers, and to the most learned doctor and printer of various Little Travel Books, Francysk Skaryna, that it was time for them to finally hear his main thesis of life. And then in a pub near the famous Vilna market on a triangular square, the great creed of the great maestro sounded briefly, but in all its significance and strength: - Life is nothing but a game! A game, poor nerds! Game, university poor fellows! Game, beer-globs and clay heads! Ha? The great misters have a great game, as you know, but the Commonwealth scumbags have a Commonwealth squabble! The main thing is not to acquire and leave to posterity, but to squander everything that you have or have! Squander life, squander the serf, squander the woods, are you Croesus or not Croesus!.. And everything, everything, it seemed, could be expected from Pan Tvardovsky by Dr. Francisk Skorina, who was always tolerant of him, but what he heard after the above tirade of Pan Tvardovsky He apparently never intended to hear. And Pan Tvardovsky, going into a simply unheard-of rage, already looking only into the eyes of one Pan Frantishek, cut without a knife: - Yes, we are your brother, a petty bourgeois, a merchant, a pospolitchik, - yes, we will buy him and sell him and count the money! And to us, king, let's have a clean path - by water and by land! And save us, the gentry, and not just the merchants, from myta - throughout the Grand Duchy, throughout the Crown, which is not inferior in grandeur to the principality! And then we will fill France with life, we will pelt England with forest, and you will languish in your Vilna, Vitebsk, Polotsk! Your merchants will wither, and - a thousand devils! - none of them will buy your books! Will Glebovich buy?.. Scream!.. Korsakoviches?.. Scream!.. Hindriks! .. Hee-hee-hee! Yes, they have their gold-woven belts (oh, what a pity that these belts will be called Slutsk, and not Oshmyany, after all, Panov, it’s not for nothing that you noticed that it’s not for nothing that I sorcerer in Polish and sing and not with some , namely with an Oshmyany accent! ), - and so I say that these Gashtovty stumps, not only for a book, but also for the most beautiful Belarusian woman, will not leave their gold woven, blue cornflower embroidered belt, with which they wrap their belly bellies, - they will not leave, gu-ha, gu- ha! Skaryna thought, but his thoughts were annoyingly interfered with, like trinkets, a simple refrain, a simple rhyme: “it was lyas”, “it will be lyas”, “lyas - us”, “lyas - us”. It was unbearable! Skaryna thought. And yet, if a person thinks for a long time, he simply cannot help but think of the fact that he finally ceases to irritate him, smoothing out, as if covering with duckweed what irritated him. And gradually the “lyas” turned into a forest for Skaryna, and not a dark demon, but light green, like Belovezhskaya Pushcha, through which he passed several times, passed: even if it was high, high - pines, oaks, hornbeams, birches up to fifteen, and then and twenty fathoms, but the sunlight, making its way to the ground through the crowns of trees, becomes emerald green, caressingly bright. And Skaryna already sees in that light, on a grassy clearing, a deer - golden horns. And the blue of Skorina's eyes brightens both from the light of Belovezhye and from the golden deer antlers, giving birth to new melodies in his soul - poignant, but new... Skaryna thought... Faust, the most famous doctor, concluded his gaze on Francis Skaryna, who was sitting in thought, pronouncing each word and each sound separately. - If only I could think with my clay head, - the Golem began sincerely to be killed. “As a gentleman, I’m even ashamed to think here,” Stanchik said. “The brain knows no shame,” Skaryna disagreed with Stanchik in his soul, however, he didn’t say anything out loud and only again reminded himself that a calm conscience is an invention of the devil. Skaryna's soul could not be calm when the forces of the Black Book were at odds. But these were only flowers, because, as you know, the berries are not in front of the flowers, but behind them. Vilna is not Prague. Vilna, after all, for Frantisek Skaryna is the heart of the motherland, the heart of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Although Prague is very dear to him, Prague is aloof. In Prague, he was still far, far away from here and in his dreams he rushed to Vilna every minute, strove for it like a bird from the south in spring. And the fact that he is in the heart of the principality, in the heart of the motherland, he feels at every step. Frantisek is not a recluse in the house of Yakub Babich, in the rooms reserved for the printing house. Not a recluse, because through the open window voices are heard from their narrow street, from the buzzing market square, into which the street flows in a not very talkative stream. The crowd gathers there every day, crowded, because this is Vilna, and life in it is constantly seething - multi-colored, like differently-dressed residents of the city, multilingual, like alien people, flocking here from everywhere into the Lithuanian floorboard, into the Russian floorboard, into the German floorboard ... Who does not lives here today, whom you will not meet here! That a Lithuanian, a Zhmudin, a Litvin-Rusich, and a Pole, a Jew, a Tatar - what an incredible thing! But since the time when King Alexander married Elena, the sister of Ivan III, many Muscovites have been living here. Armenians also took root - from the time when Casimir, encouraging trade, invited both Jews and Armenians. There are also Karaites, who are pressed from Crimea by Krymchak-Tatars. There are gypsies whom the kings of all Western European countries expel, but the Commonwealth does not persecute, as well as strigolniks, "Judaizers", punished mercilessly by the synods of the Muscovite clergy. Frantisek Skaryna will not say that the house of Yakub Babich, his printing house within the walls of this house is the heart of Vilna, but that his heart beats to the beat of the turbulent Vilna life, he is ready to assert with all fervor, because in his printing house in the house of Yakub Babich he is in the center of everything that happens in the city for him. This is what he will hear from the market square himself, he will see something when he goes out to the same square, but the main news is brought to him from the town hall by Yakub Babich, the first burgomaster of the glorious place of Vilna, who almost every day meets with the Bishop of Vilna, Jan, with many lords radchiks, governors, priests, governors, voits. And events simply overwhelm Vilna - after all, the year 1522 is coming! Already at the very beginning of this year - in January - King Zhigimont issued a decree on the introduction of a general code of laws, about which it was long and loudly said in Vilna that it was being written in the grand duke's office. The first rumors about him originated at the time when the Vilna grand ducal office began to collect from all magnate castles and gentry estates, from places and towns by different kings to different lords and service people at different times, these letters, privileges, decrees and other documents with seals and not in print. In the January royal verdict, it was recognized that there had not been a law-statute in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania until now, since the courts were decided on the basis of customs, royal decrees and according to the wisdom and conscience of the judges themselves. Skaryna could not accept this royal opinion, because he knew about Yaroslav the Wise’s Russkaya Pravda, knew the history and the “Scroll of the Law of Grand Duke Yaroslav Volodymyrovich”, which Luka, then his lord of Polotsk, had brought to King Alexander twenty years ago. here in Vilna. The tradition of law was very old in Russia. And even if the “Scroll of Law” by Luke is indeed a fake of the original “Russian Truth”, then in this case it is a fake for a living tradition, because if it weren’t alive, the fake itself would not have arisen! But the main thing for Skaryna in the January verdict was the desire of King Zhigimont, so that equal justice would be established for everyone: for magnates, gentry, pospolitstvo - artisans and philistines. Neither Skaryna nor Babich could be against such a legal provision, just as neither the gentry in general, nor the Commonwealth of the entire Grand Duchy of Lithuania in general. The magnates opposed. To equalize their rights with the nobility? Never! Until now, they have squabbled among themselves, did not trust one another, intercepted each other's lands, forests, oak forests, meadows and lyady, took away each other's nominations, voivodeships, governorships, castellanships and bishoprics. And then - how reconciled. And in Gorodnya the project failed. The magnates - everyone: the Radziwills, Sapega, Ilinichi, even Prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky - stood up against the project with a wall. Zhigimont ordered to rework the project and submit it for discussion to the next Sejm - 1524. This Diet was awaited by Berestye, in which it was supposed to meet, but even more so by Vilna. Two new gostiny yards were being built here at that time - Moscow and German, and the Vilnius residents, as usual, were very interested in what was being built, by whom, how it was being built. This time, however, the Moscow and German hotels were not lucky - Vilna was looking not in their direction, but in the direction of the grand duke's office and Berestye. In that summer of 1522, Skaryna jumped to Gorodnya not only out of interest in the affairs of the Sejm. There was another reason, a more serious one: Skaryna was negotiating near Gorodnya with one of the local landowners about the possibility of opening a school - at first only in one of his estates, and then in others. The school, according to Skorinsky's plan, was not intended for monks - whether they were Dominicans, Bernardines or Orthodox. This should be his, Dr. Skaryna's, school. In it, he will begin to teach himself, having recruited for himself children and those of the adults whom it will only be possible to quickly call them bachelors themselves: and his dream is to teach his pupils in a secular way! But in general, in 1522 - during the printing of the "Small Travel Book", as in the first year after returning from Prague, as then in the third and fourth - Skaryna, one might say, found little in Vilna itself. He waited less for meetings than he himself sought them. He is like a meeting person. A whirlwind, not a person, although a solid one, a doctor of sciences, a most learned man, an authority. That is why they often take him as witnesses: where to write the contract, where to testify the sale and purchase. And now he is in Oshmyany, then in Kreva, Gorodnya, Berestye, and even further - in Warsaw, Krakow, Dresden. There are no books of honored guests in hotels, inns, and in the annals of history, the days of Skaryna - the hours of his stops, overnight stays, meals - will not be preserved, written in golden letters. Yes, Skorina is not worried about this! After all, he is on the road - with books that he would like to sell. Call him on the road and the sick. And, by the way, in Vilna, his fame is, first of all, the glory of a “patried”, that is, a husband who is judicious and far-sighted in his wisdom, a learned doctor, who prints books! But no matter how “dirty” he was to the outside human eye, in selling his books he seemed to be haunted by eternal failure. “There are doctors ...” - he once wrote in Prague. And how many doctors did he meet on the banks of the Polotsk Dvina? And when will those become doctors over the Neman, for whom the op has not yet established schools over the Neman? And in general, who, when and where bought a book, if it could burn tomorrow, because the glow in the night sky did not go out, and the ghosts of war continued to remain real, and not imaginary? .. But there was another circumstance due to which, if only nothing riveted Skaryna to Vilna - neither the grand duke's office, nor the printing press, nor medical or legal affairs - he always left Vilna, as if tired half to death here. Yury Odvernik continued to get sick, and Skorina, as soon as he remembered it, was ready to go even to the ends of the world. However, he felt with all his noble heart that he could not escape from sin anywhere, because he thought not so much about Odvernik, but about Margarita. But even the Apostle Matthew says - Skaryna knew: "Everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart." But is it a sin or not a sin, what does he think about Margarita? If he thinks, then it's a sin. Yes, and she’s not a maiden, she won’t sing, as the brown-eyed daughter of the owner, with whom he lodged, once sang in Mala Strana in Prague:
Don't come to us, well done,
When I don't call you
Yes, me and a wicket
I'll tie with ribbons.
He is not a good guy. And Margarita - does she really care about songs during the painful sufferings of Odvernik? But, as if it were a sin, Frantisek valiantly no-no, and yes, he will sing a stanza in his soul in response to the stanza of a brown-eyed girl from Malaya Strana. He will sing, because how can you not sing, repeat this in your soul:
Even if you tie them, girl,
blue ribbons,
I untie them
In a word, kind.
Oh yeah! He would have unleashed, if he could, the fate of Margarita with kind words. Didn’t he himself write in the first lines of the preface to his Psalter that “good is prepared for every evil”? But if the deed, then the word! There are so many good words in his soul! But what kind of complex knots does fate tie for him, and will he have enough or not enough kind words to untie them? And most importantly, do not say those kind words to Margarita, do not say! .. In Vilna, all the houses, even in the most extreme German floorboard, stand for him near the courtyard of Yuri Odvernik. But as soon as he leaves Vilna, the inn, already at the first turn of the road, seems to him far from Vilna, like Baghdad. Odvernik was ill, and Frantisek's escapes from Vilna to "Baghdad" continued. “For a lover, any Baghdad is not a distance,” they said in the Middle Ages, but for Frantisek, the house of Yakub Babich - behind the triangular market square - was the distance of Baghdad, although Odvernik's dwelling was within easy reach.
P.S. And once again we focus on the conclusions of A.V. Voznesensky: The small road book, like other editions of Francysk Skaryna, has invariably attracted the attention of researchers since the second half of the 18th century, but only in recent decades has its “detailed description” been made (V. I. Lukyanenko, in 1973), as well as the implemented “on the basis of modern methodology” (E. L. Nemirovsky, in 1978) and “the most complete and accurate bibliographic description” (E. L. Nemirovsky, in 1988), i.e., that foundation was created, without which in modern science a full-fledged study of an early printed book is simply impossible. Meanwhile, if we compare the descriptions of V. I. Lukyanenko and E. L. Nemirovsky, it is easy to notice significant differences in them, which make it possible to understand that the indecision of bibliographers, who put off this task for many years, was associated not only with the insufficiently good preservation of extant us copies of the publication (often representing, moreover, only separate parts of it), but also with the need to decide how to describe it, which in turn is connected with the need to find out how the entire publication was printed and in what form it went on sale . In the description by V. I. Lukyanenko, the Small Travel Book appears as a single publication with many separate folios, but at the same time a single sequence of unsigned notebooks, each of which contains 4 sheets. At the same time, the description is accompanied by a cautious reservation about the possible appearance of the book on sale in separate editions. E. L. Nemirovsky considers Skaryna's book as a collection of a number of separate publications, each of which has its own sequence of notebooks or contains one notebook, sometimes of 8, sometimes of 12 sheets. In favor of both points of view, there are quite serious reasons. The unity of the book was first of all pointed out by Francis Skorina himself in a special table of contents, in which, in addition to the title of the book, a detailed description of all its constituent parts is found. for home use. A serious problem here is only a slight discrepancy between the table of contents and the actual composition of the book, which is found in the content and order of the services of the Book of Hours and which just made V.I. with the features of the implementation of these books, etc. technical terms." One can hardly agree with such an explanation. It must be thought that this discrepancy reflected the difference between what the Book of Hours should have been and how it was actually printed, since the Sunday Midnight Office, printed at the end of the Book of Hours, i.e., at a distance from midnight everyday and Saturday, with which the Book of Hours begins, gives the impression of being accidentally omitted, as, indeed, the canon of the Theotokos, which is probably why the sheets on which it is printed did not receive foliation. Therefore, it can be assumed that when typing the table of contents, Francysk Skaryna decided to correct the imperfection of this part of the book, not being able to reprint even part of its circulation, apparently due to lack of funds. The consideration of the Small Road Book as a “set of Skorinin’s publications”, which includes 21 separate editions: the Psalter, the Book of Hours, 17 canons and akathists, the Shestodnovets, the Follow-up of the Church Assembly (i.e., Monthly Book with Paschalia), was proposed by E. L. Nemirovsky, who pointed out that "each of these small books has a separate pagination, imprint, and often its own title page", and also that "the principles for the design of individual parts of the Little Travel Book are different and reveal that different printers worked on them." E. L. Nemirovsky, however, are not at all indisputable.A special number of sheets for each of the parts of the publication, although infrequently, is found in Cyrillic books, especially in the early days of printing. each have their own foliation, but about this they do not become two separate editions, even though the principles of their design are different when printed. Assovets, the engraved decorations of the footers used throughout the entire Psalter were not used. The presence of several imprints and title pages within one book is also known in the early days of book printing, although this phenomenon cannot be recognized as frequent or widespread in Cyrillic editions. An example is the collection of works by M. Divkovich published in 1641 in the printing house of Bartolo Ginnami in Venice, each part of which has its own title page with imprints, moreover, not always the same (they indicate both 1641 and 1640). ). However, even what E. L. Nemirovskii calls imprint and title pages in the Small Travel Book should hardly be fully considered in this way. The “output information” found at the end of each part of the Skorinin edition does not indicate the place (with the exception of Books of Hours and Monthly Books with Paschalia) and the time of its publication and is more reminiscent of a kind of final formula, which at a much later time was reduced to the word “ the end", and now completely disappeared from printed books. In the "title pages" noted by E. L. Nemirovsky, it would be preferable to see titles that precede all 5 main parts of the book. Psalter, Book of Hours, Akathists and Canons, Shestodnevets, Monthly Book with Paschalia. This function of theirs is already indicated by the absence of any information on them about the time and place of the publication of the book, as well as the presence of formulas that are not at all characteristic of the actual title pages of publications. At the same time, the functional similarity of all 5 titles is emphasized by the unity of design, which consists in the fact that the text formulas are enclosed in engraved frames. Special titles precede each of the pairs, consisting of an akathist and a canon, connected by the unity of the remembered and glorified event, which creates a clear internal structure of this part of the Small Travel Book, the design of which seemed heterogeneous to E. L. Nemtsovsky. "Other elements that create this unusually harmonious internal structure of Akathists and canons, became the location of the column (in akathists - in the lower right corner of the sheet, in canons - in the upper right corner) and the use of cinnabar (akathists, unlike canons, are printed only in black ink). It is also supported by direct indications found in the initial and already mentioned final formulas.Thus, among the undoubted only evidence can be attributed to evidence of the Small Travel Book as a single publication, which included 6 parts: a preface (a table of contents and, possibly, a common title sheet of the book), Psalter, Book of Hours, Akathists and can ona, Shestodnovets and Mesyatseslov with paschalia, which by no means excludes the possibility of its distribution in the form of these separate parts, although the facts of such distribution should be considered not from the point of view of printing, but from the point of view of the existence of the book. And the surviving copies give us examples of such existence of the Psalter (separately and in combination with the Book of Hours), the Book of Hours, Akathists and canons, the Six Days. You can refer to a copy of the State Historical Museum, Chertk. 480, which, however, does not contain one of the parts of the Six Days - the canon of repentance, printed together with the canon on Saturday at matins. It should be noted that the understanding of the need to consider this canon as part of the Six Days, obviously, did not come to Francis Skaryna immediately (it was already reflected in the table of contents and, apparently, in the process of printing the Shestoday), but at first it was printed as part of the Book of Hours. Returning to the problem of the bibliographic description of the Small Travel Book, it should be noted that, without a doubt, it should be described as a single edition, containing, however, not a single sequence of notebooks, but six, according to the number of main sections of the book.
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