Manuscripts of David Zamaray, an alphabet book (the problem of copies correlation)

Abstract

The article represents main stages of studying of David Zamaray’s Azbukovnik (alphabet book). It estimates newly discovered copies of this book monument. The paper lists for the first time recently established sources of Azbukovnik vocabulary entries. To compare lexical data borrowings from Meletius Smotrytsky’s Slavonic Grammar (Evie, 1619) in David Zamaray’s Azbukovnik the author involves copies of its three different reduc­tions. The study reveals that it is difficult to define primacy of creation of David Zamaray’s Azbukovnik reduc­tions due to lack of clearness about the date of lexical borrowings from printed books for its vocabulary entries. The known Azbukovnik copies at the moment cannot give a definite answer about the time of its creation.