The Primer of Karion Istomin with Handwritten Additions by Diomid Yakovlev syn Serkov as a Monument of XVII-Century Russian Book Culture

Abstract

This article is dedicated to the Primer of Karion Istomin. It focuses on a particular copy created by the Moscow scribe and “children's teacher” Diomid Serkov with handwritten additional material from the School Decorum [Shkol'noye blagochinie]. This primer is an example of a special book type that arose in Russia during the second half of XVII century.

Notes

English translation © 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, from the Russian text © 2015 “Otechestvennaia i zarubezhnaia pedagogika.” “Bukvar’ Kariona Istomina s rukopisnymi dopolneniiami Diomida Iakovleva syna Serkova kak pamiatnik russkoi knizhnosti XVII veka,” Otechestvennaia i zarubezhnaia pedagogika, 2015, no. 1, pp. 7–17. Oleg Rostislavovich Khromov, PhD, is a member of the Russian Academy of Arts. Translated by Kenneth Cargill.

^1. L.I. Sazonova, “Karion Istomin,” in Slovar’ knizhnikov i knizhnosti Drevnei Rusi, Vyp. 3 (XVII v.). Ch. 2 I–O (St. Petersburg, 1993), pp. 140–52 (bibliography); ibid., Vyp. 3 (XVII v.). Ch. 4–Ia. Dopolneniia (St. Petersburg, 2004), pp. 729–31 (bibliography). M. Ermakova, “Bunin Leonty Kuz'mich,” in Pravoslavnaia entsiklopediia (Moscow, 2003), vol. VI, p. 371 (bibliography); Slovar’ russkikh ikonopistsev XI–XVII vekov (Moscow, 2003), pp. 107–08 (bibliography); M. E. Ermakova and O.R. Khromov, Russkaia graviura na medi vtoroi poloviny XVII–pervoi treti XVIII veka (Moskva, Sankt-Peterburg) Opisanie kollektsii Otdela izoizdanii RGB (Moscow, 2004), pp. 16–18; L.B. Sukina, N.V. Levitskaia, and N.R. Gerasimova, “Moskovskie khudozhniki v Pereslavle-Zalesskom XVII–XVIII vekov (po rukopisnym i epigraficheskim materialam Pereslavl'skogo muzeia),” in Filevskie chteniia: Tez. dokl. 22–25 dekabria 1997 g. (Moscow, 1997), p. 56 ff.

^2. S.N. Brailovsky, “Odin iz «pestrykh» XVII stoletiia,” in Zapiski Imperatorskoi Akademii nauk: Seriia 8 (St. Petersburg, 1902), vol. 5, no. 5, p. 139; O.R. Khromov, Russkaia lubochnaia kniga XVII–XIX vekov (Moscow, 1998), p. 113; M.A. Alekseeva, “Iz istorii russkoi graviury petrovskogo vremeni. I. Ivan Agapitov syn Posnikov,” in Russkoe iskusstvo pervoi chetverti XVIII veka: Materialy i issledovaniia (Moscow, 1974), pp. 183–90.

^3. On the new forms and types of books that were characteristic of the modern period, see O.R. Khromov, “Russkaia rukopisnaia kniga s graviurami v kontekste obshcheevropeiskoi knizhnoi kul'tury XVII–XVIII vv. (spetsifika oformleniia zhanra),” in Berkovskie chteniia. Knizhnaia kul'tura v kontekste mezhdunarodnykh kontaktov. 2011: Materialy mezhdunar. nauch. konf. (Minsk and Moscow, 2011), pp. 375–379. See also “Forma knigi i knizhnaia kul'tura epokhi Novogo vremeni,” Knizhnaia kul'tura. Opyt proshlogo i problemy sovremennosti. 2010. K 90-letiiu Nauchno-issledovatel'skogo instituta knigovedeniia v Petrograde. Materialy IV mezhdunar. nauch. konf. (Moscow, 2010), pp. 348–51.

^4. M.A. Alekseeva, “Bukvar’ Kariona Istomina—proizvedenie grafiki kontsa XVII veka,” in Bukvar’ sostavlen Karionom Istominym, gravirovan Leontiem Buninym, izdan v 1694 g. v Moskve: Faksim. izdanie (Leningrad, 1981), Prilozhenie, pp. 9–10; A.A. Shemshurin, O gravirovannom i rukopisnykh litsevykh bukvariakh Kariona Istomina (Moscow, 1917), pp. 15–20. (Izdanie OIDR).

^5. Concerning the various editions, see S.A. Klepikov, Russkie gravirovannye knigi XVII–XVIII vekov // Kniga. Issledovaniia i materialy (Moscow, 1964), Sb. 9, pp. 154–55.

^6. See, for example, the title page in the form of a framed head ornament used for an instructional book on Poetics that was read at the Moscow Slavic Greek Latin Academy in 1727 (a collage of fragments from engravings, including framed head ornaments depicting the liberal arts from the Primer of Karion Istomin and Leonty Bunin), Manuscript Division of the Russian State Library, f. 183, no. 1859.

^7. Nauchnaia biblioteka Kazanskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Otdel redkikh knig. XII/81 1415. Hereafter referred to in the notes as the “Kazan copy.”

^8. V.V. Bush, Pamiatniki starinnogo russkogo vospitaniia (K istorii drevnerusskoi pis'mennosti i kul'tury) (Prague, 1918); fragments have been published in D. Mordovtsev, O russkikh shkol'nykh knigakh XVII veka (Moscow, 1962); Antologiia pedagogicheskoi mysli Drevnei Rusi i Russkogo gosudarstva XIV–XVII vv. (Moscow, 1985), pp. 282–94. A.S. Demin, “Dialog «Shkol'noe blagochinie» Prokhora Kolomniatina,” in Pamyatniki kul'tury. Novye otkrytiya. Pis'mennost’. Iskusstvo. Arkheologiia. Ezhegodnik 1975 (Moscow, 1976), pp. 48–51 (republished in A.S. Demin, O drevnerusskom literaturnom tvorchestve: Opyt tipologii s XI po seredinu XVIII vv. ot Ilariona do Lomonosova (Moscow, 2003), pp. 433–37).

^9. Kazan copy, l. 15. The book block of the manuscript is separated into pieces; the manuscript pages were assembled in the wrong order when they were rebound.

^10. Demin, ibid.

^11. T.V. Dianova and L.M. Kostiukhina, Filigrani XVII veka po rukopisnym istochnikam GIM (Moscow, 1988), no. 191 (1685); no. 407 (1684).

^12. Quoted from O.E. Kosheleva, “Kak sochiniat’ poslaniia v virshakh? «Uroki» Prokhora Kolomniatina (1680-e gg.).” Chelovek chitaiushchii: mezhdu real'nost'iu i tekstom istochnika: Sb. statei Pod red. O.I. Togoevoi i I.N. Danilevskogo (Moscow, 2011), p. 288.

^13. Kosheleva, ibid., pp. 290–91.

^14. In a recent paper, S.A. Semiachko (“Avtograf Diomida Serkova v Biblioteke Akademii nauk,” in Materialy i soobshcheniia po fondam rukopisnogo otdela BAN [St. Petersburg, 2014], pp. 131–40) provided a list of the ten manuscripts written by Diomid Serkov. The manuscripts located in Riga and Kazan should be added to this list.

^15. L.A. Dmitriev, “Slaviano-russkie rukopisi Otdela redkikh knig Latviiskoi gosudarstvennoi biblioteki v Rige,” TODRL, 1957, vol. XIII, pp. 579–80.

^16. Manuscript Division of the Russian State Library, f. 178, no. 4828; Manuscript Division of the Yaroslavl State Historical-Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve. YaMZ 54403/3. In my monograph The Russian Chapbook of the Seventeenth-Eighteenth Centuries [Russkaia lubochnaia kniga XVII–XIX vekov] (Moscow, 1998, p. 97), I mistakenly called Diomid Serkov the “Kievan Spevak” in the section devoted to engravings in manuscripts. S.A. Semiachko in the work cited above rightly noted this error.

^17. N.D. Izvekov, Moskovskiye kremlevskiye dvortsovye tserkvi i sluzhashchiye pri nikh litsa v XVII veke (Moscow, 1906), pp. 190–93.

^18. Dm. Razumovsky, “Gosudarevy pevchie d'iaki XVII veka,” Vestnik Obshchestva drevnerusskogo iskusstva pri Moskovskom publichnom muzee (Moscow, 1873), issue 1–3. N.D. Izvekova's work mentions a greater number of salaried sheet music scribes than Archpriest Dm. Razumovskyi, but he does not cite their names.

^19. S.A. Semiachko, “Ob avtografakh Diomida Serkova i sbornike «Kriny sel'nye»,” in TODRL (St. Petersburg, 2003), vol. 54, pp. 613–22.

^20. For more information, see O.R. Khromov, “Ob oformlenii neskol'kikh neizvestnykh rukopisei knizhnogo mastera kontsa XVII veka Diomida Iakovleva syna Serkova,” in Iskusstvo knigi i graviura v khudozhestvennoi kul'ture. Sost. M.E. Ermakova (Moscow, 2014), pp. 168–72.

^21. For more about manuscripts with engravings and their place in book culture, see O.R. Khromov, “Rukopisnaia kniga s graviurami—novyi zhanr v iskusstve russkoi knigi pozdnego Srednevekov'ia i Novogo vremeni,” Bibliotekovedenie, 2012, no. 3, pp. 54–61.

^22. The Manuscript and Old Printed Book Section of the Russian State Historical Museum, Sinodal'noe sobranie no. 291. O.R. Khromov, “Tsel'nogravirovannyy Sinodik v russkom obikhode XVIII-XIX vekov,” Pravoslavie i narodnaya kul'tura (Moscow, 1996), bk. 6, pp. 23–59.

^23. O.R. Khromov, Tsel'nogravirovannaia kniga i graviura v russkikh rukopisiakh XVI–XIX vekov: Katalog kollektsii Otdela pis'mennykh istochnikov Iaroslavskogo gosudarstvennogo istoriko-arkhitekturnogo i khudozhestvennogo muzeia-zapovednika (Moscow, 2013), p. 385, no. 116.

^24. Khromov, Ob oformlenii neskol'kikh neizvestnykh rukopisei, pp. 165–67.

^25. Manuscript Section of the Russian National Library. f. i. 187. O.R. Khromov, Russkaia lubochnaia kniga XVII–XIX vekov (Moscow, 1998), pp. 98–99.