В’язь болгарських та українських рукописних книг ХІІІ–XV ст.: ознаки спорідненості

Abstract

Background: Cyrillic decorative writing remains little explored. In historiography the ornate ligature is usually mentioned in the context of the changes in the context of the changes experienced by East Slavic manuscripts due to the so-called Second South Slavic influence (the end of the XIV–XV c.). If other Bulgarian and Serbian book and literary achievements that have spread in Rus have repeatedly become the subject of comparative and typological analysis, the ornate ligature has not got it. Thus, there was a somewhat strange situation when the statement of its Balkan origin was not confirmed by practical studios aimed at comparing the South Slavic samples with the East Slavic ones. Purpose : The attempt to compare the samples of the Cyrillic decorative writing – the ornate ligature of Bulgarian and Ukrainian manuscripts of the XIII-XV c. aimed at identifying the features of their historical development, the nature and degree of stylistic affinity, the correlation of various graphic and decorative components has been made in this investigation for the first time. Results : The comparative analysis of historical development and, most importantly, the analysis of graphic and artistic and decorative features of the Bulgarian and Ukrainian ornate ligature gives grounds to state their close stylistic affinity. The Bulgarian decorative writing originated more than a century and a half earlier than Ukrainian one. The Bulgarian chroniclers were the first to develop technical techniques and artistic principles of condensation and combining letters, eventually turning the title into a peculiar decor of the manuscript text. The so-called natural ornate ligature that gained popularity and further creative development in the Ukrainian lands in the XV c., is based largely on the whole complex of various achievements of calligraphic art in Bulgaria, which appeared consistently over a long period of time and were the result of persistent work and creative imagination of many generations of masters. Therefore, it is not by chance that the Bulgarian manuscripts served as the main source of distribution and affirmation of the ornate ligature in the Ukrainian literary art of the late Middle Ages. Key words : ornate ligature, decorative writing, Bulgarian and Ukrainian Cyrillic manuscripts, “Second South Slavic influence”.