Textual Study of the Latin-graphic Book of Psalms in the Church Slavonic Language from Norov´s Book Collection

Abstract

This article is devoted to the research of the Book of Psalms manuscript from A.S.Norovʼs book collection stored in the Manuscripts Department at the Russian State Library. The manuscript was written in the beginning of the 18th century in Church Slavonic language Polish letters. The manuscript is of interest primarily as a Latin-graphic text, which is a transliteration of the originals inChurch Slavonic.The article presents the results of a textual analysis of the manuscript, which has made it possible todefine it as a collection consisting of several independent parts, each of which may have had its ownprotograph. A comparison of the text of the manuscript with printed liturgical books published in Moscow,Kiev and in the Polish-Lithuanian state has enabled the identification of possible protographs ofthe manuscript, most of which date back to prayer books published in Ukraine.Since one of the protographs is the Moscow Book of Psalms of 1718, it can be assumed that the authorsof the manuscript are nuns of one of the Southwestern Russian Uniate monasteries who at that timemoved to one of the Russian monasteries, supplementing the already existing collection with textsnecessary for home prayer.Since the authors of the transliteration themselves had very good command of Church Slavonic, it canbe assumed that the text was written to order.