Contribution and Ownership Records of Chancellors and Clerks on Cyrillic Publications of the 16th–18th Centuries

Abstract

The article continues the author’s research on the source study of records on early printed Cyrillic publications. This type of historical source helps to study both specific groups of publications and regional corporate and private collections. The author turns to the analysis of the facts of ownership and contributions of these book monuments by representatives of the bureaucratic apparatus of the 17th — early 18th century. In the book culture of the 17th — 18th centuries, chancellors and clerks played an important role: they made contributions (including royal ones), were themselves contributors and owners, and in some cases, sellers and buyers of books. In total, 130 records (68 of them autographs) have been identified, as well as eight attachments and fragments used as stickers, revealing information about 101 chancellors and clerks (both state and monastic employees). At the same time, 106 records and documents are accurately dated, these dates cover the period from 1610 to 1782. As a result, it is possible to get not only new information about the book culture, but also to expand the available information about chancellors and clerks. There is fairly high percentage of publications designed for individual text understanding have been identified in their personal libraries: “reading” books, Scripture, educational literature (69%). At the same time, the share of liturgical services is significantly less (31%). The author has also revealed several dozen names that do not appear in available reference books. By the example of L. Asmanov and S. Romanchukov, there is demonstrated the records’ informational opportunities for reconstructing the biographies of public servants and the genealogy of their kind. The records are of particular value for the reconstruction of the family of monastic employees (which is shown by the example of the Yanyshev family of clerks of the Spaso-Yaroslavsky Monastery).