Novgorod psalter. Vivos voco: a.a. zaliznyak, h.l. Yanin, "the Novgorod psalter of the beginning of the 11th century is the most ancient book of Russia". Hidden Codex Texts

Tablets with four pages (ceres) covered with wax for writing with a pisʹla. According to stratigraphic, radiocarbon and paleographic data, the wax codex was used in the first quarter of the 11th century and, possibly, starting from recent years X century, so that it is several decades older than the Ostromirov Gospel, which was considered the most ancient book in Russia with a precisely established date of writing 1056-1057.

Discovery history[ | ]

Psalms [ | ]

Psalms 75 and 76 (as well as a small part of psalm 67) remained on the very wax of the codex; this is the so-called "main text" of the Novgorod code, according to which the monument is often called Novgorod Psalter. This text is easy to read and without much difficulty and immediately became available for study. At its core, the translation language of the psalms is the correct Old Slavonic, however, with a small number of errors in the transfer of yus, giving out the East Slavic origin of the scribe. According to A. N. Sobolev, in paleographic and orthographic terms, the text is close to the inscriptions on lead amulets of the 10th-11th centuries. from the territory of northeastern Bulgaria and Romania, while textually the translation reflects a slightly different tradition than the ancient Old Slavonic Sinai Psalter that has come down to us. The question of the origin of this tradition is debatable, but, apparently, it was it that gave rise to the text of the Psalter, reflected in later monuments of East Slavic origin proper. The text of the psalms (as well as the hidden texts, about which below) is written according to the so-called one-er system, where instead of the letter b used b.

With regard to the linguistic features of the monument, it is the texts of the psalms that are most indicative, because in the hidden texts (see below), many letters (the interpretation of which depends on the presence of one or another linguistic phenomenon) are read ambiguously.

Hidden texts [ | ]

Some scientists (K. Stanchev, D. M. Bulanin) expressed doubts about the possibility of the existence of hidden texts and the possibility of reading them.

Among these texts, a faded inscription was read, which says that in 999 the monk Isaac was made a priest in Suzdal in the church of St. Alexander the Armenian. According to Zaliznyak, the monk Isaac was the author of the Novgorod Code and belonged to a heretical religious movement.

Up until 2004, Zaliznyak recovered the following hidden texts:

The presence of hitherto unknown works among the "hidden texts" of the Novgorod Code was explained by the fact that the scribe belonged to a Christian community (possibly dualistic, close to bogomilism), which the Christian ("catholic", "universal", "cathedral") church won proclaimed heresy, so that these texts after the ousting of the sect were no longer copied, and the Christian Church erased almost all traces of the existence of this heresy from historical memory. Particularly revealing is a fragment from Spiritual Instruction from Father and from Mother to Son:

…The world is a city in it, but heretics are separated from the church.
The world is a city in it, but people are inseparable from the church.
The world is a city; in it, recalcitrant people are separated from the church.
The world is a city, but in it, people are blameless from the church.
The world is a city; in it, innocent people are separated from the church.
The world is a city in it, but people are unbreakable from the church.
The world is a city in it, but people are separated from the church, they are not worthy of such a punishment.
The world is a city in it, but people are excluded from the church and are not worthy of such exclusion.
The world is a city in it, and people of pure faith are separated from the church.
The world is a city in it, but people are worthy of praise from the church.
The world is a city, but in it they separate from the church people worthy of glorification.
The world is a city, but in it, people are separated from the church, they are not apostates from the right faith of the Khsovs.…

There is also a version (A. A. Alekseev) that the hidden texts of this book (or at least part of them) are not associated with a serious ideology, but represent a special literary game, examples of which are known in Western European monastic written culture (lat.). In this case, according to the author of the version, we should talk about very high level Slavic book culture capable of such games.

Valery Simonov, date of publication May 11, 2005

The discovery of the Novgorod codex became a truly scientific sensation in its time. But the deciphering of this ancient book of Russia, dated to the 11th century, brings new surprises.

And what, in fact, to decipher if you have a text in front of you? However, while carefully studying the ancient find, Andrei Zaliznyak, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, discovered oddities: some wooden tablets of the Novgorod Code contain not only explicit text, but also hidden. Namely, a lot of letters of earlier records. Moreover, these were completely unrelated texts printed on tablets in different years. The computer helped to sort out this verbal chaos.

Going from later to earlier records, the scientist consistently read the oldest lists of dogmatic writings that every Orthodox believer had - the psalms of David, the Revelation of John the Theologian, and also the work of John Chrysostom "On Virginity".

And then the unexpected was revealed - religious texts completely unknown to historians. The scientist suggests that these were not translations, but the original writings of the writer of Ancient Russia. But, perhaps, the most remarkable thing is that they gave out in the author a notorious heretic. For example, he openly calls those who are excommunicated from the church worthy, immaculate people who keep the right faith.

According to the scientist, the book could belong to one of the followers of the Manichaean sect, which was widespread at the beginning of the 11th century in Veliky Novgorod. Moreover, you can "calculate" the name of the author. One of the last deciphered texts was written on behalf of a certain Isaac, who was appointed in 999 as a hieromonk in Suzdal - in the church of St. Alexandra. However, the existence of such a church has not yet been known to historians. The researcher assumes that we are talking about the Suzdal community of heretics, which the author of the book could have headed. How his fate developed further, one can only guess. However, the year 1024 was ahead, when Prince Yaroslav, who came to Suzdal, severely dealt with the local "wizards".

Yuri Nechiporenko
THE FIRST OLD RUSSIAN AUTHOR?

The literary heritage of a preacher, philosopher, poet was discovered in Novgorod...

At the Institute of the Russian Language of the Russian Academy of Sciences Andrey Anatolyevich Zaliznyak read a report on the decoding of the "Novgorod Codex". We are talking about the writings of the tenth century, which were discovered during excavations in 2000 on three wooden tablets. Such tablets have been well known since antiquity - a thin layer of wax is applied to them, and the wax is written with a metal or bone stylus. Traces of the stylus also remain on the wood, so that with a certain art of "deciphering" one can discern traces of past phrases on a tablet (in this way, letters can sometimes be restored from carbon paper that has been used several times).

Andrei Anatolyevich knows this art to a sufficient extent - he was able to decipher on the tablet not only the words of the canonical, well-known psalms, but also the author's own compositions, which sometimes take the form of prayers and very peculiar poetic "exercises".

Here is an example of a phrase that is repeated with variations at least 27 times in a row:

make up your frustrations
make up your strife
make your plans
make your deliveries
make up your spreads
make up your spreads
make up your spreads
make your measurements
make up your sentences
make up your partings
make up your scores
make up your breaks
make up your breaks
draw up your divorces
make your layouts
make up your breaks
...

Note that the old make up means here "connect (again)" - it means: what you have unified with your RELATED frets, RATEDORs, etc.

This text can be read as a conceptual poem - and as a spell, as an exercise in mastering the language and an impulse in its development, it looks like creativity and apprenticeship, prayer and task, petition and program of action...

Texts of this kind have a syncretic meaning, and in the very fact of their appearance a certain spiritual practice is read, in which the poet turns out to be a preacher, and the preacher is a poet. The poet "kneads" the language, tries its plastic properties.

Before us is the key point - the end of the first millennium, just that Russia adopted Christianity - and this acceptance went both from above, through "official channels" - and from below, in the spiritual practice of kalik passers-by, passionate preachers, filled with excess spiritual forces, burning with fire - and burning people. These people came from Greek and Slavic lands, brought the heat of truth... Many of them understood Christianity and preached it in their own way, and they often came from different, including heretical, communities - Christianity came to Russia not only "from above " and "from below" - it came "from the side", in particular, from the Manichaean and Gnostic sects, it came from the West, South and East.

One of these "heralds" of Christianity wrote amazing texts, in which he was sometimes driven by the "logic of paradox" - this is what he says about excommunication from the Church (below is a condensed retelling):

The world is a city in which heretics are excommunicated
The world is a city in which foolish people are excommunicated from the Church
The world is a city in which disobedient people are excommunicated from the Church
... excommunicate people who are blameless
...excommunicate innocent people
... excommunicate people indisputable
... unworthy of such punishment
The world is a city in which people of the most pure faith of Christ are excommunicated from the Church
...

Here one feels the pain of a person and the experience of a thinker, here there is a lot that allows this author to be attributed to the first poets who wrote in the Old Russian language. Here we also discover the origins of authorship: there is a feeling of originality of style with its obvious correlation and closeness with canonical texts.

The closeness here is even physical: the psalms were written in large letters, the secret texts - in small ones, and all this was included in the codex, layering - so the layers enter the Napoleon cake. But the cake rises above the table, while the notes are "on the table", their projections have taken shape.

If the scribe is a non-empty person, then in his memory all texts must exist and complement each other, as they exist in a library, that is, not without a "spatial" arrangement. If the scribe is a student, then he himself could be "formed" by these texts, which have a sacred meaning. The high status of these texts could imply their memorization, and then they could compose a code, which at any moment is voiced by any part, opens on any page. So the time series gives way to the spatial one, but in general, these series pass into each other - hence the virtual cake, in fact - the image of the "brain of the code".

It is difficult now to assess the significance of Andrei Anatolyevich Zaliznyak's discovery for the history of the Russian language. The very possibility of reading a text within a text, a dozen texts "nested" into each other, layered - and leaving traces on a wooden tablet that has lain underground for a thousand years, seems incredible. However, the academic nature of the report indicates that we have before us a unique case of scientific intuition. The location of each phrase is guessed here - and after deciphering, the threads of projections are unraveled, a dozen texts that make up the corpus of the Novgorod Code are restored. (Note that in the practice of intelligence, such tasks are solved technically - using carbon paper or dents that a pen leaves on a stack of sheets of paper, texts are accurately restored using special equipment - hence the requirement of secrecy: to destroy all papers in the office).

The study of the alphabet of this unique source, which Zalizniak conducted, also provides interesting information (the alphabet itself in its two versions - short and long, from alpha to omega, is written on the ends of the tablet). But about this - a separate tale, as well as about that Manichaean heresy, which is restored from the prayers and sayings of our author: "sin is born before the age." There are some indirect indications of the ethnic preferences of this poet-preacher: when listing peoples, he puts the Armenians in the first place. Apparently, the Armenians, who adopted Christianity much earlier than the Russians, played an important role in the formation of this first known author who wrote in Old Russian. This is not surprising: Armenians have long lived among the Slavs, many Armenians turned out to be due to the migrations that took place within the Byzantine Empire and in the Balkans, from where Christianity came to Russia.

Let's try to think about what the opening of the Novgorod Code means. Before us is a free verse of prayerful and philosophical content. What makes this text a poem in our eyes is not its "sacred" antiquity, but a clear rhythmic beginning - the phrases are arranged in such a way that they keep the excited rhythm of the spell, and the power of the call - personal, authorial, through suffering - and again relevant in Russia:

make up your strife,
make up your frustrations...

The author seems to be trying the possibilities Old Russian language- and he manages to express his aspirations: an amazing work is being formed, that high, meaningful and thoughtful something is being compiled that keeps the secret of artistry in itself. This "exercise", even when worn and lost, it is found and restored after a thousand years! There is no loss here, here the trace of what is written and spoken lives in the language, and the channel for transmitting this cultural information turns out to be so accurate and so strong that without clay frozen forever - like the Sumerians and Babylonians, without the work of several generations of scribes - like the Greeks and Latins - tests have risen from oblivion.

Truly, great is the power of the language, which preserved the first samples of the pen in the "clothes" of this then new alphabet!

The editors of the journal "Science and Life" turned to Academician Valentin Lavrentievich Yanin, the permanent leader of the Novgorod archaeological expedition since 1960, with a request to tell about the last, truly sensational find made in the summer of 2000 in the most ancient part of the city, located south of the Novgorod Kremlin.

Veliky Novgorod continues to give archaeologists the treasures of its antiquity. I - a participant in the discovery of the first birch bark letters in 1951 - now had a chance to experience another high point of domestic archeology, for the second time to experience the supreme happiness of an unthinkable discovery ... I will tell you in order.

On July 13, 2000 (after that, believe in unlucky numbers!), at the end of the working day, an unprecedented find fell on the laboratory table of the expedition from the excavation Troitsky-12, led by Alexander Nikolaevich Sorokin. Three wooden boards (as it turned out later, made of linden wood), one centimeter thick and fastened with wooden dowels. The find turned out to be an ancient manuscript or an ancient book. Its size is 19 × 15 centimeters. The two outer boards served as covers. The first is decorated with the image of a cross and a stingy ornament, its inner side had a cavity filled with wax. On wax, 23 lines of a certain text are written in beautiful small handwriting. The second cover plate is arranged in the same way: on the inner, waxed side there is a text, and the outer one, like the first one, bears the image of a cross. Another tablet placed between them had hollows filled with wax on both sides and, consequently, texts on both sides.

The book, therefore, has only four written pages. The first plank of the wooden codex is better preserved. Large pieces of text fell off on others and have come down to us in the form of a scree of wax pieces with individual letters or groups of letters. But, fortunately, significant fragments of the second, third and fourth pages have been preserved in their places.

I confess that when I looked at the almost completely preserved text of the first page, my eyes darkened. It seemed to me that from excitement I would not be able to read a single word ... The reasons for such a strong excitement are understandable and excusable. The find was extracted from reliably dated layers of the end of the 10th - the first quarter of the 11th century. Judge for yourself. Above it are the remains of the first crown of a large log house, dated by dendrochronology methods to 1036. The wooden codex lay 20 centimeters deeper. An approximate calculation of the dynamics of accumulation of the cultural layer within the Troitsky-12 excavation area is equal to one centimeter per year. This means that the probable date of our find is approximately the second decade of the 11th century. Meanwhile, the oldest known manuscript written in Cyrillic script dates back to 1056-1057. This is the famous Gospel, commissioned by the Novgorod posadnik Ostromir. All other most ancient Cyrillic manuscripts also belong to the second half and the end of the 11th century. This means that a half-century earlier manuscript lay on the laboratory table! And therefore, this find is a great event in the history of not only Russian, but also Bulgarian, and Serbian, and Croatian, and Macedonian cultures, since in the entire Slavic world there is no earlier dated manuscript than the "Ostromir Gospel" ... It was from what tremble hands and darken in the eyes!

But then the vision cleared up, and in the middle of the page, the eyes saw the first understandable phrase: "From Thy prohibition, O God Jacob, dozing off on the horse." So, sacred text. The hand reaches out to the Psalms as the most popular work in Christianity, and a consistent review of this great book finds a corresponding place in the 75th psalm of Asaph. Nearby - above and below - what precedes the read verse in this psalm, and what follows it.

The surviving fragments of the remaining pages find their places in the continuation of the 75th psalm and in the 76th psalm of Asaph written after it. Gradually it turns out that on the second page there is the end of the 75th psalm and the beginning of the 76th, on the third page - the continuation of the 76th, on the fourth - the end of the 76th, then an empty space of several lines, and after it - 4– 6 verses of the 67th Psalm of David. When this ending was read, we were bewildered. Why does the text of the 67th Psalm not have the well-known beginning: "Let God arise and his enemies be scattered"? It turned out that this beginning existed, but was erased to make room for the end of the 76th psalm. In other words, the wax codex turned out to be a palimpsest. Once upon a time, one text was first written on it, then erased to write another. "Cers" (the so-called tablets waxed for writing) served like a slate or the current school board, used to place "running lines" on them. The comparison with a slate board is very significant: did the Novgorod Psalter serve as a manual for teaching literacy?

Let's think about the chronological context of the find. Just now, about 20-25 years ago, Christianity was adopted in Novgorod. Consequently, we have before us one of those books that were read by the first Novgorodians who were baptized. One of the first books by which many of them could learn to write. After all, it was the Psalter that for centuries was the most everyday book from which our ancestors took lessons in reading and writing. Many of the psalms that sounded daily during the church service, Christians knew by heart. There were many people who memorized all the texts of this book. In this regard, I will name one episode connected with the reading of the Novgorod codex. At the end of the 76th psalm there are words - "Thy way is in the sea." It warmed my heart at the thought that it was the paraphrase of these lines that the famous place in the poem by A.S. Pushkin "October 19" (1825), addressed to his lyceum friend F.F. Matyushkin, who became a navigator: "From the lyceum threshold you stepped onto the ship jokingly, and since then your road has been in the seas ..."

The assumption about the educational purpose of our find was confirmed brilliantly. It turned out that on the sides of the cer there are poorly distinguishable scratched inscriptions made in the same handwriting as the text on wax. Academician Andrei Anatolyevich Zaliznyak had a chance to read them, who for many days did not straighten his back, illuminating the planks from different angles, using a magnifying glass and straining his eyesight as much as possible. Here is a part of these inscriptions: "Without the rank of service and the hours of all, without the funeral of souls" (that is, "Not for church services and not for reading over the dead"); "Without driving away all people from oneself, without excommunicating those who are hungry for knowledge" (that is, "To attract all people who are hungry for knowledge"). The last phrase directly states the educational purpose of the code. And further: "This book of the Psalter is a peaceful consolation for orphans and widows, an immovable sea for wanderers, an unjudged undertaking by slaves."

A.A. Zaliznyak established that the Novgorod Psalter was written by a Russian. Her language, of course, is Old Slavonic (Old Bulgarian); until now, divine services in the Russian church are conducted in the Old Church Slavonic language. However, in the text of our book there were about a dozen such mistakes that a Bulgarian, Serb or Croat could not make, but only a Russian could make. In all languages, except Old Russian, the letters "U" and "Yus big" were clearly distinguished, denoting different sounds. "Yus" conveyed a nasal sound that Russians do not have. Meanwhile, in the Novgorod find, both of these letters are used, but this is done indifferently: the scribe writes "U" instead of "Yus" and "Yus" instead of "U". Whether he was a Kiev missionary or a Novgorodian is not clear, and this is not so important before the significance of the find itself.

In the Slavic world, there are several ancient Cyrillic manuscripts that do not have a date in the text and are dated without much certainty to the 11th century. The "Novgorod Psalter" will become the standard with which researchers will compare them in search of the true date. And if today's textbooks of national history are inconceivable without mentioning birch bark letters, future textbooks will begin the story of Russian written culture with the current find.

The discovery of the ancient book gave rise to many difficult problems. One of them is the restoration of the code. It has been preserved because the wood of the boards is thoroughly saturated with moisture, which prevents the penetration of air to them. Consequently, for thousands of years there has not been a situation in which microorganisms destroy wood by rotting. Stabilizing the wood, returning it to a dry and solid state, is based on methods that, in our case, would destroy the wax and the texts applied to it. We had to remove the wax and transfer it to another base. World restoration practice knows no such precedent. After painful hesitation, an experienced restorer, artist and sculptor Vladimir Ivanovich Povetkin took on this most responsible work, whose golden hands returned most of the crumbling fragments to their place. At the same time, it was possible to identify the presence of barely distinguishable scratched texts on the tablets under the removed wax, which requires that they be kept dismantled for further study, and the wax should be returned not to genuine tablets, but to their copies.

The discovery of the oldest Slavic book was preceded by another remarkable discovery. A small birch bark leaf was found in the layer of the first third of the 11th century. On both sides of it, images of human figures are scratched: on one is depicted Christ, on the other - Saint Barbara in a crown, with a martyr's cross in her hand and an inscription of her name.

The find immediately created a problem. The manor on which it was found is located on the ancient Chernitsy Street, which got its name from the maiden Varvarin monastery once located on it. Of course, in the first third of the 11th century, there could not yet be any monastery here: the earliest Russian monasteries appear only in the second half of the 11th century, and the Novgorod Varvarin monastery was first mentioned in the annals under 1138. It turns out that Saint Barbara was especially revered on the Slavic coast of the southern Baltic, and it was from there that the Slavic first settlers came to Novgorod, their descendants did not lose ties with their ancestral home in the future. Saint Barbara was considered the patroness of fishermen and sailors. And indeed, in those layers in which this find was found, objects related to fishing are found in abundance.

And one more interesting detail. Under the image of St. Barbara, a birch bark is inscribed with the date that A.A. Zaliznyak read as 6537 (from the creation of the world), which corresponds to 1029 AD. e. The first, third and fourth digits are given in Slavic characters, and the second, as explained by the philologist S.G. Bolotov, - a Latin sign. This means that Saint Barbara was depicted by a person who found it difficult to convey the number denoting 500 in Slavonic, but knew how to write it in accordance with Western tradition.

It can be assumed that the veneration of Saint Barbara brought to the Lyudin end of Novgorod turned out to be so strong that a monastery was founded in her honor a few decades after 1029.

5 504

The Wax Code is a palimpsest.

Since 1973, the excavation work of the Novgorod archaeological expedition, conducted under the leadership of Academician V. L. Yanin, has been focused on the excavation, which received the name "Trinity" after the nearby medieval church. On July 13, 2000, three wooden (lime) boards 19x15x1 cm in size were found there in the layers of the first quarter of the 11th century. Each board has a rectangular depression (15 x 11.5 cm) filled with wax; on the middle plank, such recesses are made on both sides. The boards have holes at the edges, into which wooden pins are inserted to connect them into a single set - a wooden book, the so-called. ceru, otherwise the code (the word "code" was originally applied to a book of this kind). The outer sides of the first and last planks play the role of covers, the first is decorated with a cross and a sparing ornament. 23 lines of text are written in small handwriting on the wax on the inside. The second cover plate is arranged in the same way: on the inner, waxed side there is a text, and the outer one bears the image of a cross. The tablet placed between the covers has recesses filled with wax on both sides.

The codex contains two types of texts: 1) the main text (psalms 75, 76 and a small part of 67) - an easily and reliably readable (minus individual letters) text on wax; 2) "hidden" texts (psalms and other works of religious content) - restored with extreme difficulty and without complete reliability; these are texts directly scratched on wood or preserved as faint imprints on a wooden wax substrate that arose when writing on wax. The total length of the hidden texts is many times greater than the length of the main text.

Basically, the translation language of the psalms is the correct Old Slavonic, however, with a small number of errors in the transfer of the yus, giving out the East Slavic origin of the scribe.

The text of the psalms (as well as the hidden texts) is written according to the one-er system, in which ъ is used instead of the letter ь. With regard to the linguistic features of the monument, it is the texts of the psalms that are most indicative, because in hidden texts many letters (the interpretation of which depends on the presence of one or another linguistic phenomenon) are read ambiguously.

The dating of the Novgorod codex (psalter) is determined primarily by the fact that it lay half a meter from the edge and 30 cm below the log house, which received a reliable dendrochronological date: 1036. This is the upper bound on the likely time the planks hit the ground. It is reasonable to consider the baptism of Russia in 988 as the lower chronological boundary of the creation of the code. A radiocarbon analysis of the wax was made at Uppsala University, which indicates the year 1015 ± 35 years with a probability of 84%. A faded inscription has been restored, which says that in 999 the monk Isaac was made a priest in Suzdal in the church of St. Alexander the Armenian. From summary inscriptions, it can be concluded that the author of the book is this very monk of Isaac, moreover, belonging to a heretical religious direction.

Editions

Zaliznyak A. A., Yanin V. L.. // Questions of linguistics. - 2001. - No. 5. - S. 3-25 [ pdf 2 Mb: main text and research].
Zaliznyak A. A. Tetralogy "From Paganism to Christ" from the 11th century Novgorod Codex. // Russian language in scientific coverage. - No. 2 (4), 2002 . - S. 35-56 [ pdf 421 kb, OCR: hidden texts].
Photocopy of the 1st page [ 857 kb, 300 dpi, gray].

Literature

Rybina E. A. Ceres from excavations in Novgorod // History and archeology, No. 8, 1994.
Konyavskaya E.L., Konyavsky S.V. Novgorod discoveries in 2000: Editorial report on a business trip to Novgorod on August 4-6, 2000 // Ancient Russia: Questions of Medieval Studies - No. 2. November 2000.
Zaliznyak A. A., Yanin V. L. Novgorod code of the first quarter of the 11th century. - the oldest book of Russia // Bulletin Russian Academy sciences, volume 71, no. 3, p. 202-209, 2001
Yanin V. The oldest Slavic book // Science and life, No. 2, 2001.
Sobolev A. N. Novgorod Psalter of the 11th century and its antigraph // Questions of Linguistics. - 2003. - No. 3. - S. 113-143.
Zaliznyak A. A. Problems of studying the Novgorod Code of the XI century, found in 2000 // Slavic Linguistics. XIII International Congress of Slavists. Ljubljana, 2003 Reports of the Russian delegation. - Moscow, 2003. - S. 190-212 [Text in pseudographics].
Zaliznyak A.A. Az archangel Gabriel write prayers. // Russian Studies - Slavic Studies - Linguistics. Festschrift fur Werner Lehfeldt zum 60. Geburtstag. / Ed. Sebastian Kempgen, Ulrich Schweier, Tilman Berger. - Munchen, 2003. - S. 296-309.
Zaliznyak A. A. Ancient Cyrillic alphabet. // Questions of linguistics. - 2003. - No. 2. - S. 3-31.
Zaliznyak A. A. Vocabulary of the "Tetralogy" from the Novgorod Code // Russian Linguistics. International Journal for the Study of the Russian Language. Dordrecht, 2004. Vol. 28. Issue 1. Feb. P. 1-28.
Stanchev K.

Archaeological expeditions, led by academician V. L. Yanin, were focused on the excavation, which received the name " Trinity" (according to the nearby medieval church). On July 13, 2000, three wooden (lime) boards 19x15x1 cm in size were found there in the layers of the first quarter of the 11th century. Each board has a rectangular recess (15x11.5 cm) filled with wax; on the middle plank, such recesses are made on both sides. The boards have holes on the edges, into which wooden pins are inserted to connect them into a single set. Thus, the wooden book contained four wax pages (ceres). The outer sides of the first and last tablets play the role of the covers of the codex.

Cera was preserved thanks to the swampy place in which it remained for about 1000 years. The planks were soaked through with moisture, due to which there was no access to oxygen and, consequently, there were no conditions for the vital activity of microorganisms that cause decay processes.

Description and content

Document dating

The dating of the Novgorod Codex (Psalter) is determined primarily by the fact that it lay half a meter from the edge and 30 cm below the log house, which received a reliable dendrochronological date: 1036. This is the upper bound on the likely time the planks hit the ground. It is reasonable to consider the lower chronological boundary of the creation of the code [ clarify] Baptism of Russia in 988. A radiocarbon analysis of the wax was made at Uppsala University, which indicates the year 1015 ± 35 years with a probability of 84%. In the body of the document itself (in the "hidden" part) there is the author's dating of the entry, which says about 6507 from cm, that is, 999, according to modern dating.

Modern status

Earlier Slavic dated documents are only some ancient Bulgarian and Croatian inscriptions of the 10th century, but they cannot be classified as “books”. The Novgorod Psalter is the earliest monument of the Kiev edition of the Church Slavonic language and the oldest of the books of ancient Russia that have come down to us.

The primary restoration of the book was carried out by V. I. Povetkin. Currently, the psalter is stored and exhibited in the Novgorod Museum.

Psalms

Psalms 75 and 76, as well as a small part of psalm 67, remained on the very wax of the codex; this is the so-called "main text" of the Novgorod code, according to which the monument is often called Novgorod Psalter. This text is easy to read and without much difficulty and immediately became available for study. At its core, the translation language of the psalms is the correct Old Slavonic, however, with a small number of errors in the transfer of yus, giving out the East Slavic origin of the scribe. According to A. N. Sobolev, in paleographic and orthographic terms, the text is close to the inscriptions on lead amulets of the 10th-11th centuries. from the territory of northeastern Bulgaria and Romania, while textually the translation reflects a slightly different tradition than the ancient Old Slavonic Sinai Psalter that has come down to us. The question of the origin of this tradition is debatable, but, apparently, it was it that gave rise to the text of the Psalter, reflected in later monuments of East Slavic origin proper. The text of the psalms (as well as the hidden texts, about which below) is written according to the so-called one-er system, where instead of the letter b used b.

Hidden texts

Some scientists (K. Stanchev, D. M. Bulanin) expressed doubts about the possibility of the existence of hidden texts and the possibility of reading them.

Up until 2004, Zaliznyak recovered the following hidden texts:

many psalms written many times;
the beginning of the Apocalypse of John the Evangelist;
the beginning of the translation of the treatise "On virginity" by John Chrysostom (the Slavonic translation of this text was not yet known);
many spellings of the alphabet, in two versions: short ( a b c d e f s h i j j k l m n o p q r s t ѹ v w x y y) and complete ( a b c d e f ѕ h i ї j k l m n o p q r s t ѹ v w x y ѿ ѣ ѫ ѭ yu ꙗ ѧ ѿ), as well as listing the names of letters ( az bѹky vѣdѣ verbs…);
tetralogy "From paganism to Christ" (provisional name of Zaliznyak): hitherto unknown texts "The Law of Moses", "Throwing and Tearful", "Archangel Gabriel", "The Law of Jesus Christ";
a fragment of an unknown text “On the sacred church of our Savior Jesus Christ in Laodicea of Myra and on the Laodicean prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ”;
a fragment of an unknown text "The Tale of the Apostle Paul about the secret patericon of Moses ...";
a fragment of an unknown text “On the forgiveness of sins, the punishment from Alexander from the Laodicean family ...”;
a fragment of an unknown text "Spiritual Instruction from Father and from Mother to Son";
record " In the summer, ҂ѕ҃f҃z҃ az mnih Isaac was appointed as a priest in court in the church of St. Alexander the Armenin... "(" In 6507 [that is, 999] I, the monk Isaac, became a hieromonk in Suzdal, in the church of St. Alexander the Armenian ... "); the combination ѕ҃f҃z҃ (number 6507) is repeated many more times on the sides of the codex, so it can be assumed that the scribe is the same monk Isaac, especially since typical Novgorod features are not found in his language.

…The world is a city in it, but heretics are separated from the church.
The world is a city in it, but people are inseparable from the church.
The world is a city; in it, recalcitrant people are separated from the church.
The world is a city, but in it, people are blameless from the church.
The world is a city; in it, innocent people are separated from the church.
The world is a city in it, but people are unbreakable from the church.
The world is a city in it, but people are separated from the church, they are not worthy of such a punishment.
The world is a city in it, but people are excluded from the church and are not worthy of such exclusion.
The world is a city in it, and people of pure faith are separated from the church.
The world is a city in it, but people are worthy of praise from the church.
The world is a city, but in it they separate from the church people worthy of glorification.
The world is a city, but in it, people are separated from the church, they are not apostates from the right faith of the Khsovs.…

There is also a version (A. A. Alekseev) that the hidden texts of this book (or at least part of them) are not associated with a serious ideology, but represent a special literary game, examples of which are known in Western European monastic written culture (Latin joca monachorum ). In this case, according to the author of the version, we should be talking about a very high level of Slavic book culture capable of such games.

Notes

Literature

Alekseev, A. A. About the Novgorod waxed tablets of the beginning of the 11th century. / A. A. Alekseev // Russian language in scientific coverage. - 2004. - No. 2 (8). - S. 203-208.
Bobrik, M. A."The Law of Moses" from the Novgorod Code: materials for the commentary / M. A. Bobrik // Russian Linguistics. International Journal for the Study of the Russian Language. Vol. 28. - Dordrecht, 2004. - Issue 1 (February). - P. 43-71.
Zaliznyak, A. A. Az archangel Gabriel write prayers/ A. A. Zaliznyak // Russian studies Slavic studies Linguistics. Festschrift für Werner Lehfeldt zum 60. Geburtstag. - München, 2003. - S. 296-09.
Zaliznyak, A. A. The oldest Cyrillic alphabet / A. A. Zaliznyak // Questions of linguistics. - 2003. - No. 2. - S. 3-31.
Zaliznyak, A. A. Vocabulary of the "Tetralogy" from the Novgorod Code / A. A. Zaliznyak // Russian Linguistics. International Journal for the Study of the Russian Language. Vol. 28. - Dordrecht, 2004. - Issue 1 (February). - P. 1-28.
Zaliznyak, A. A. Novgorod Psalter of the beginning of the XI century - the oldest book of Russia / A. A. Zaliznyak, V. L. Yanin // Bulletin of the Russian Academy of Sciences. T. 71. - 2001. - No. 3. - S. 202-209.
Zaliznyak, A. A. Novgorod code of the first quarter of the 11th century. - the oldest book of Russia / A. A. Zaliznyak, V. L. Yanin // Questions of linguistics. - 2001. - No. 5. - S. 3-25.
Zaliznyak, A. A. Problems of studying the Novgorod Code of the XI century, found in 2000 / A. A. Zaliznyak // Slavic Linguistics. XIII International Congress of Slavists. Ljubljana, 2003 Reports of the Russian delegation. - Moscow, 2003. - S. 190-212.
Zaliznyak, A. A. Tetralogy "From Paganism to Christ" from the Novgorod Code of the 11th century / A. A. Zaliznyak // Russian language in scientific coverage. - No. 2 (4), 2002. - S. 35-56.
Sobolev, A. N. Novgorod Psalter of the 11th century and its antigraph / A. N. Sobolev // Questions of linguistics. - 2003. - S. 113-143.
Stanchev, K. Regarding the Novgorod Psalter on wax, found in 2000 / K. Stanchev // Russica Romana. - Pisa; Roma, 2004. - Anno 11. - P. 185-198.
Tolstaya, S. M. The structure of the text of the "Tetralogy" from the Novgorod Code // Russian Linguistics. International Journal for the Study of the Russian Language. Vol. 28. - Dordrecht, 2004. - Issue 1 (February). - P. 29-41.

Annunciation kondakar

The Annunciation kondakar (Nizhny Novgorod kondakar) is a Slavic handwritten collection of kondakars created at the end of the 12th - early XIII centuries. It is an important source on the history of Russian pre-Mongolian hymnography and church music.

The manuscript was found in the 18th century in the Annunciation Monastery in Nizhny Novgorod, from which it received both of its names. It is not ruled out that the kondakar could have been written specifically for this monastery. At first, it was in the library of the Holy Synod, and in 1860 it entered the collection of the Imperial Public Library (modern Russian National Library), where it is kept to the present. In the 1970s, a sheet from the collection of the Slavist V. I. Grigorovich, stored in the Odessa State scientific library, was identified as part of the Annunciation kondakar. The origin of this sheet has not been unequivocally established; it was acquired by Grigorovich either in Vyatka or in Kazan. Scientific research kondakar began in the middle of the 19th century, two facsimile editions of it were published.

The manuscript is written on parchment, consists of 132 sheets (including the one kept in Odessa), some of the sheets are lost, and the manuscript also has no end. 3 or 4 scribes worked on its creation, the text was written by charter. The manuscript is decorated with a headband and initials of a teratological type, made in vermilion and ink.

The Annunciation kondakar, in addition to kondakar chants, also includes chants of znamenny osmosis, written in hook notation. The collection includes kontakia of the menaion and triode cycles for the period from September 1 to All Saints' Week, ipakoi and Sunday kontakia, polyeleos, asmatiks for 8 tones, chandeliers and gospel stichera. Among others, in the Annunciation kondakar there are hymns for the days of memory of the first Russian saints - Boris and Gleb and the Monk Theodosius, hegumen of the Kiev Caves Monastery.

Bogomils

Bogomils is the name of the anti-clerical movement of the X-XV centuries, which appeared in the Balkans (Bulgaria) and influenced the French Cathars. The Bogomils were a large and very influential party in the Bulgarian kingdom. The preacher of the 10th century, Bogomil, became the main distributor in Bulgaria of the dualistic (good and evil exist from eternity) teachings of gnostic origin. The earliest information about the Bogomils is found in the book "Conversation against the Bogomils" by Kozma the Presbyter (X century).

In the Middle Ages, Bogomilism spread throughout Europe, turning into a pan-European Christian movement, having received other names:

in Slavic and Greek writings: Manicheans, Messalians, Evkhites, "Armenians" (the teachings of Armenians) and Paulicians, as well as "fundants" (fundagiagits), "baboons" (along the Babun mountain range and the river of the same name), in Bosnia - Patareni;

in the West: in Italy - Manichaeans, Publicans (Paulicians), Patareni; in Germany, the Cathars; in southern France, the Albigensians (or "textarants"; from tissarands, weavers).

Vygoleksinsky collection

Vygoleksinsky collection is a Slavic manuscript of the XII century of Galician-Volyn origin. It is in the collection of the Russian state library.

Galician Gospel

The Galician Gospel is a handwritten Gospel of 1144, the oldest accurately dated Slavic manuscript of the Gospel Tetra (Four Gospels). It is in the collection of the State Historical Museum.

Dobril Gospel

The Dobril Gospel is an ancient Russian Cyrillic illuminated manuscript of the Aprakos Gospel, created in 1164. One of the few precisely dated Russian manuscripts.

Eugene Psalter

The Eugene Psalter is an ancient Russian parchment manuscript of the 11th century, which is a partially preserved text of the Psalter with interpretations of the pseudo-Athanasius of Alexandria. The manuscript was named after the first owner, Archbishop of Novgorod Evgeny Bolkhovitinov, who discovered it in the Yuryev Monastery.

The volume of the surviving part of the manuscript is 20 sheets, two of which are now stored in the collection of the Library of the Academy of Sciences (code 4.5.7), and the main part is in the National Library of Russia (code Pogod. 9).

Zagorodsky end

Zagorodsky end - one of the five ends (districts) of ancient Novgorod.

Zlatostruy

Zlatostruy is a book in the Old Slavonic language, containing (in the most complete edition) 136 articles selected from the works of John Chrysostom.

Chrysostom was compiled in Bulgaria, under Tsar Simeon I (in the 9th century), but it is still unknown whether it is from the Greek original of Chrysostom’s works, or from ready-made Slavic translations from it, and whether the translation itself was made by Simeon, or by Simeon’s contemporary John Exarch , or some unknown person, or, finally, a whole corporation of translators.

In the choice of articles in Zlatostroy, one can see its adaptation to the needs of the time (the words about the priesthood were introduced, apparently, in the form of a polemic against the Bogomils). In Zlatostroy there is the well-known famous "Word about evil wives and autocratic, and pagan, and god-loving", which provided material for the image of a woman in the "weeping of Daniil Zatochnik" and influenced the formation of ideas about a woman developed in Domostroy.

Zlatostruy was not intended for reading in churches during divine services, but only for home use, which is why the teaching on evil wives contained in it should not be considered the teaching of the ancient Russian church. The more ancient list of Zlatostruy (XII century) is the most precious monument of the language; Palauzov, Hilferding, Yagich, Sreznevsky, Kalaidovich, Stroev and others worked on his philological research. A special monograph about him was given by Professor Malinin (in the appendix to the Proceedings of the Kiev Theological Academy, 1880).

Izbornik Svyatoslav

"Izborniki" of 1073 and 1076 is one of the oldest surviving (along with the "Ostromir Gospel" and "Novgorod Codex") Old Russian handwritten books. Izborniks were compiled for the Grand Duke Svyatoslav Yaroslavich by two scribes, one of whom was John the Dyak, the name of the second is unknown. The Izbornik of 1073 was found in 1817 in the New Jerusalem Monastery by the expedition of K. F. Kalaidovich and P. M. Stroev; it is kept in the State Historical Museum (Synodal Collection, No. 1043).

Ostromir Gospel

Ostromir Gospel - the oldest handwritten book Kievan Rus written in the middle of the 11th century. The most valuable monument of the Old Slavonic language of the Russian edition. The manuscript has been kept (since 1806) in the National Library of Russia (code F.p. I.5.).

Pandects of Antiochus (manuscript)

Pandects of Antioch - an old Russian parchment manuscript of the 11th century from the Resurrection collection of the State Historical Museum (cipher: Sunday 30 perg.). Contains the text of the Old Bulgarian translation of the compilation edifying work of the 7th century Palestinian monk Antioch Chernorizets (Greek: Πανδέκτης τῆς ‛αγίας γραφῆς). The manuscript was discovered by K. F. Kalaidovich in the library of the Resurrection New Jerusalem Monastery in 1822 and in 1907 was transferred to the Synodal Library.

carpentry end

Plotnitsky end or "Plotniki" is one of the five ends (districts) of ancient Novgorod.

Polotsk Gospel

Polotsk gospel - gospel-aprakos, manuscript of the 12th century. 170 sheets have been preserved.

Russian graphics

Slavic end

Slavensky end - one of the five ends (districts) of ancient Novgorod. In the early time - one of the three, with Nerevsky and Lyudin, the most ancient ends, on the basis of which the city was subsequently formed.

Old Slavonic language

The Old Slavonic language (Slovensk zyk) is the first Slavic literary language based on the dialect of the Slavs who lived in the IX century in the vicinity of the city of Thessalonica (the eastern group of the South Slavic branch of the Proto-Slavic language). Writing was developed in the middle of the 9th century by the enlightenment brothers Cyril and Methodius. In the 9th-11th centuries he was literary language most of the Slavic peoples and influenced the formation of many then young Slavic languages. The Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets were used as the alphabet for the Old Slavonic language. From the very beginning, Old Church Slavonic was a literary language and was never used as a means of everyday communication.

By the end of the 10th century, under the influence of other Slavic languages, it underwent changes, and manuscripts written after this period are considered to be written already in Church Slavonic. Old Church Slavonic, based on only one of the dialects of the eastern group of the South Slavic branch of the Slavic languages, should not be confused with the Proto-Slavic language, an older language that became the basis for all Slavic languages.

teaching gospel

The Doctrine Gospel is a collection of extracts and abbreviations from the conversations of John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria and other authors for Sunday gospel readings, compiled, apparently, by Konstantin Preslavsky at the end of the 9th century.

Chudov Psalter

The Chudov Psalter is an old Russian parchment manuscript of the 11th century from the Chudov collection of the State Historical Museum (cipher: Chud. 7). Contains the text of the ancient Bulgarian translation of the psalter with interpretations of Theodoret Cyrus. The manuscript is named after the Chudov Monastery, whose ownership is indicated by the surviving owner's notes of the 19th century.

Yuriev Gospel

St. George's Gospel - Aprakos Gospel, manuscript of the 12th century, a monument of the Old Slavonic language.

The gospel is written on 231 sheets of parchment in black letter writing in two columns. A synaxarium is attached for the weekly reading. The manuscript is decorated with headpieces and initial letters with zoomorphic and anthropomorphic motifs made in cinnabar. The drawing of some initial letters is connected in meaning with the text that they precede. On the frontispiece of the Gospel, a temple without crosses is depicted in cinnabar, surrounded by birds and animals. In 1858 the gospel was bound uncut in crimson velvet with silver overlays.

I. Sreznevsky, who discovered the scribe's mark in 1858, determined the time of the creation of the Gospel in 1120-1128. According to her, the St. George's Gospel was written by the "Ugrin" (Hungarian) Fyodor, commissioned by the abbot of the Novgorod St. George's Monastery Kiriak. In 1661, the Gospel was transferred to the New Jerusalem Monastery by Patriarch Nikon, as evidenced by the insert inscription from pages 1 to 16 of the manuscript. The St. George's Gospel was described and compared with other ancient Slavic manuscripts of the Resurrection Library by Archimandrite Amfilohiy, who was the rector of the New Jerusalem Monastery in 1858-1860. In 1862 the Gospel was transferred to the Synodal Library. From it, in 1920, it entered the collection of the State Historical Museum under the number Sin. 1003.