Славянские рукописи Нямецкого монастыря: библиотека Паисия Величковского

Abstract

The article presents information about manuscripts from the library of Paisius Velichkovsky currently in possession of the Neamţ Monastery. The study is based on three descriptions of the Neamţ manuscripts performed in 1905, 1962, and 2017. A comparative analysis of these sources led to the conclusion that the composition of the Neamţ library was not stable. At the present time, the Neamţ library possesses 263 manuscripts, thirty-seven of them were written by St. Paisius Velichkovsky. Some manuscripts have disappeared from the Neamţ Monastery, others have suffered losses of fragments. Seventeen books vanished from the library in the period between 1905 and 1962, nine books — in the period between 1962 and 2017. One of Paisius Velichkovsky’s autographs (the works of Macarius of Egypt) was among those books. During the period between 1905 and 1962, forty-four books were obtained by the library or returned to it, but twenty-five of them vanished later. Perhaps, some of those books came into the possession of the Museum of Antiquities in Bucharest. The article points out the manuscripts that have vanished from the library of the Neamţ Monastery and also those that have lost fragments of the text. It is possible that those manuscripts or parts of them will be found in other archives. The rich book heritage of the Neamţ monastery deserves being studied and preserved