The Use of Script by Siberian Old Believers as a Cultural Marker for Texts

Abstract

Paleographic methods have been used for reconstructing the reading preferences of Siberian Old Believers who broke with the Russian Orthodox Church in the mid-seventeenth century. The material under investigation consists of Slavonic manuscripts containing collections of texts, which are housed in the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books of Research Library of National Research Tomsk State University (Tomsk,Russia). The article is devoted to the analysis of one of the typical Old Believer manuscripts of the early twentieth century (ms. ORKP NB TGU, B-17.986). The works collected in this manuscript include texts of the Old Russian Tradition as well as contemporary secular texts. The paleographic analysis of B-17.986 shows that, even though the interrelation between types of handwriting and specific ways of reproducing texts does not occur systematically, script can serve as a cultural marker in the Old Believer community. Further examples are given to confirm this point using the manuscript collection in the Research Library.