Russian Old Believer books online

Friday, September 1st, 2017...4:28 pm

Russian Old Believer books online

[Kanonnik”].

[Russia : publisher not identified], 7159 [i.e. 1651].

HOLLIS # 13359988

Skazanīe o volʹnom stradanīi gospoda nashego Iisusa Khrista.

[place of publication not identified : publisher not identified, between 1800 and 1899]

HOLLIS # 13359989

Miesiats mart, imia angela.

[Russia : publisher not identified, between 1800 and 1899?]

464 pages ; 37 cm

HOLLIS # 13359997

Torzhestvennik”.

Vʺ Moskvi͡e : Vʺ Khristīęnskoĭ tipografīi pri Preobrazhenskomʺ bogadi͡elennomʺ domi͡e, 7419 [1911]

HOLLIS # 13359993

Bol’shoi kanonnik”.

Vʺ Moskvi͡e : V Khristīęnskoĭ tipografīi pri Preobrazhenskomʺ bogadi͡elennomʺ domi͡e, 7420 [1911/1912]

HOLLIS # 13359992

Sbornik” sobrannyi iz knig” sviashchennago i sviatootecheskago pisanii, tvorenii sviatykh ottsev I uchitelei tserkvi I vnieshnikh pisatelei.

Vʺ Moskvi͡e : Vʺ Khristīęnskoĭ tipografīi pri Preobrazhenskomʺ bogadi͡elennomʺ domi͡e, 7424 [1915/1916]

HOLLIS # 13359983

Harvard College Library has recently acquired a collection of 6 rare Old Believer books. The value of this acquisition is determined not only by its great physical condition but also by the fact that it illustrates different chronological periods and publishing methods pertaining to the history of Old Believer literature.

The set includes one item published in 1651 (i. e. prior to the Patriarch Nikon’s church reform that led to the break between the official Russian Orthodox Church and the Old Believers, who remained faithful to the pre-Nikonean rite.). This book (Kanonnik”) serves as an example of a title that while not created by the Old Believers, was nevertheless considered by them as part of their religious and literary heritage.

Another gem of the collection is the 19^th century handwritten Skazanīe o volʹnom stradanīi gospoda nashego Iisusa Khrista (a retelling of the passion of Christ based on the later chapters of the New Testament). The book is written in in black and red ink and decorated with ornamental headpieces.

Another 19^th century item is a later copy of Trefologion, tretʹi͡a chetvertʹ (mart–maĭ) [Trefologion for March-May], mentioned by A.S. Zernova in her Knigi kirillovskoi pechati, izdannye v Moskve v XVI-XVII vekakh, under number 139.

The collection also includes 3 books in popular Old Believer genres of Torzhestvennik, Kanonnik and Sbornik, published in 1911-1916 by the Old Believer Preobrazhenskii monastery in Moscow.

The complete collection has been digitized within the framework of the Harvard College Library preservation digitization program. In an effort to provide the most complete visual information on these items we created scans of complete books, including the covers, spines and lining papers, as well as any owner’s ephemera found inside.

I would like to thank Michael E. Biggins (University of Washington) and Olga Strakhov (Harvard University) for their assistance with research for this project.

12 Comments

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12 Comments

Ebin V Thomas
March 7th, 2018 at 3:51 am

“English” PDF Version of these books available ?
Just curies about the history 🙂
slavicblog
March 15th, 2018 at 9:14 am

Dear Ebin V Thomas, thank you for your question! These books have been photographed in high resolution for the benefit of our users. The images can be saved as PDFs, but no OCR or English translation is provided. Thank you again for your interest!
Pavel
August 19th, 2018 at 12:59 am

Спаси Христос. Есть еще книги староверцев?/Save Christ. Any more old believers ‘ books?
slavicblog
August 22nd, 2018 at 10:48 am

Добрый день. Насколько можно судить по нашему каталогу, их у нас немного.
Pavel
August 20th, 2018 at 8:30 am

В книге “Торжественник” (https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:432634365$1i) отсутствуют оборот листа 113, (славянскими буквами, число- ΡΓΙ) и первая сторона листа 114 (славянскими буквами, число- ΡΔΙ). То есть, эти две пропущенные страницы должны размещаться после страницы №238 электронного варианта книги, размещенного на сайте.
slavicblog
August 22nd, 2018 at 10:43 am

Добрый день! Спасибо за ваш комментарий. Действительно, похоже, что лист 114 совершенно отсутствует в нашем экземпляре книги. Мы проверим физический экземпляр, и сделаем соответствующую пометку в библиографической записи.
Pavel
December 4th, 2018 at 12:37 pm

Здравствуйте. Подскажите, возможность предоставления книг в формате PDF, в частности, книги “Канонник” (https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:434757456$1i) не работает вообще или по каким-то иным причинам? Почему-то не приходят PDF-файлы на указанные мной почты. Спасибо.
slavicblog
December 5th, 2018 at 12:35 pm

Спасибо за ваш вопрос. На почту должны прийти не сами файлы, а ссылки на них. Вы их получили? Мы только что протестировали этот процесс, все работает.
Pavel
December 14th, 2018 at 9:21 am

Да, заработало. Примите поклон.
Jack B
August 11th, 2019 at 10:20 am

My Grandfather was one of the founders of the Old Believers Church in Hamtramck Michigan. He had emigrated from Russia during the Revolution. He was also the leader of the Church and I have been told it was of the priestless variety. Following the death of my older sister, I received two of his books. Both are very old and one of them seems to be similar in construction and layout to the oldest of the books in this collection. Would someone on this blog be so kind to make some recommendations as to what would be the next step to have these books identified properly. My family also had connections with the Old Believers Church in Erie and I am considering reaching out to them as it seems the Hamtramck Church may be defunct.
slavicblog
August 12th, 2019 at 11:00 am

Dear Jack,

Thank you for contacting us! It seems that you are in possession of some interesting books. However we can’t recommend any book appraisal services and we don’t offer those services ourselves. I wish you good luck in your search!
Jack B
August 13th, 2019 at 9:21 pm

Thank you for replying to me about the books. Sorry if my original post was confusing. I wasn’t looking to get them appraised. I have no interest in treating them as a commodity. To restate my intentions, I only wanted to understand their significance so that I can get them in the best possible hands and to understand whether that was to get them either back to the original Church from which they originated or to see if they were significant enough to be included in an academic collection whether it be an addition to the Harvard collection or my alma mater, Georgetown. If you have any suggestions on what my first steps should be towards doing the “right”thing with these Books, I would appreciate it. The reason that I mentioned the Erie and Hamtramck Old Believer Churches was to see if anyone had any contemporary connections to them so that I might be able to establish a contact there. Thank you

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Friday, September 1st, 2017...4:28 pm