About indications and characters of changes in Cyrillic writing in the Polish Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries

Abstract

The article proves that such properties of writing as its ability to develop, the formation of an attitude to consistent compliance with the requirements of rational optimization in the further search of acceptable forms, dialogicity, allow us to determine the facts that paleographers have been trying to find for a long time: about the connection of writing with “socio-economic and political processes”. The metamorphoses of writing that took place in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the turn of the XIV and XV centuries should be put on a par with the changes in social and political order in this state. The society of this time was retreating from traditions and opening up to innovations. In such an action as the transition to cursive writing, you can see the “trigger” mechanism of all further changes associated with the constitution of this graphic type of writing. This mechanism is the “emancipation” of writing, which opened up a wide space for him to maneuver, search and develop. The following assumption is made. The system-forming processes in writing are not self-sufficient; they are closely related to changes in the configurations of society, authority and culture, under the influence of the same factors and causes.