Colophons in Cyrillic Codices as a Unique Socio-Cultural Phenomenon of Early Modern Times

Abstract

In this research, colophons are studied as an essential component of Cyrillic codices, which were created on the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Crown of Poland (later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). To write the study, the author analysed more than seventy colophons preserved in manuscripts from the collections of libraries in Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. The earliest colophon is contained in the “Lviv Gospel completed (full) aprakos” 1477, and the latest – the “Kotsuriv Gospel” 1600. The study of the text’s structure showed that these colophons belonged to six types with two subtypes, the classifying feature of which was the initial formula. A detailed analysis of the content of each colophon showed that the main components were the recording of the book’s title, the name of its copyist, its origin, time and place of publication, and mention of the customer or buyer. The analysis of the colophons illustrated the phenomenon of authorial statements of scribes, which consisted of explaining the motives of their work, an idea of their mission, instructions to readers, or a request to correct errors in the text. In the colophons 1594 and 1595 by Stepan Popovych, who was from Trushevychi village, the inadmissibility of stealing codices with an appeal to the Holy Scriptures, in particular the passage Hbr 10,31 with its author’s interpretation, was emphasised quite extensively.