Tsypkin, Denis Olegovich. Old Russian metnoye pismo

The research is prepared with the support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, grant № 16-01-00210.

The author discusses the classification of types of writing in the views of professional Russian scribes of the 16th–17th centuries. This classification included two basic types of professional writing: ustav or knizhnoe pis’mo (book writing) and skoropis’. There was also a certain kind of scrittura usuale termed “metnоe pis’mo” by the Russian bookmen. Ustav (“knizhnoe pis’mo”), skoropis’ and metnоe pis’mo were proper professional terms used in specialized books for calligraphers, in manuals and schoolbooks. The term “metnоe pis’mo” appears in the 1570ies – 1580ies. The terms “ustav” and “skoropis’” are attested in Western Russian documents from the 1540ies. In Muscovy the term “skoropis’” referring to the type of writing already existed by the 1570ies, but it may have appeared as early as the 1550ies. The term “ustav” is first encountered in a document dated to 1614.
As far as the term “poluustav” is concerned, it is attested from the 1630ies and later. However, it did not mean a special type of writing. As may be proved by the contextual analysis, this term had different occasional usages. In the 17th century muscovite scribal milieu poluustav was a general term designating all forms of writing not properly coinciding with ustav. In some cases it meant some kind of nonconformity to the professional book writing (“knizhnoe pis’mo”) in function or in quality. In other cases it meant just writing in smaller scale in comparison to other manuscripts made in proper ustav.

• Dmitrieva, Rufina Petrovna. Opisi rukopisei Iosifo-Volokolamskogo monastyria XVI v. [Iosif Volotsjy Monastery 16^th Century Manuscripts Inventories], in Knizhnye tsentry Drevnei Rusi. Iosifo-Volokolamskii monastyr’ kak tsentr knizhnosti. Leningrad: Nauka Publ., 1991. Pp. 16–23. (in Russian).

  Kovtun, Liudmila Stepanovna. Azbukovniki kak pamiatniki knizhnoi kul’tury [Lexica as Testimonies of the Book Culture], in Drevnerusskoe iskusstvo. Rukopisnaia kniga. Sbornik tretii. Moscow: Nauka Publ., 1983. Pp. 241–247. (in Russian).

  Korzo, Margarita Anatolievna. Istoriya odnogo teksta. Pouchenie ob ispovedi v sostave vilenskikh Poluustavov XVII v. [The story of one text. An admonition to confession in the 17th century vilnius Poluustav], in Studi Slavistici. XIII (2016). Firenze: Firenze University Press, 2016. Pp. 43–57. (in Russian).

  Kovtun, Liudmila Stepanovna. Azbukovniki XVI–XVII vv.: starshaia raznovidnost’ [16^th – 17^th century Lexica: the earliest version] Leningrad: Nauka Publ., 1989. 293 p. (in Russian).

  Kukushkina, Margarita Vladimirovna. Monastyrskie biblioteki Russkogo Severa. Ocherki po istorii knizhnoi kul’tury XVI–XVII vv. [Monastery libraries of the Russian North. Essays in book history of the 16^th–17^th centuries] Leningrad: Nauka Publ., 1977. 223 p. (in Russian).

  Lyakhovitskiy, Evgenii Aleksandrovich. Zakupki bumagi i knigopisanie v Nikolo-Korel’skom monastyre vo vtoroi polovine XVI v. [Purchase of paper and book writing in Nikolo-Korel’sky monastery in the second half of the 16^th century], in Petrov A.V. (ed.) Drevniaia Rus’ vo vremeni, v lichnostiakh, v ideiakh. Vol. 7: K 60-letiyu professora Andreia Uryevicha Dvornichenko. Saint Petersburg: Saint Petersburg university Press, 2017. Pp. 184–199. (in Russian).

  Malyshev, Vladimir Ivanovich. Kak pisali rukopisi v Pomorye v konce XIX – nachale XX vv. (K voprosu ob izuchenii tehniki i byta pomorskogo knigopisca) [How manuscripts were produced in the late 19^th – early 20^th century Pomorie], in Izvestiya Karelo-finskoy nauchno-issledovatel’skoy bazy Akademii Nauk SSSR. 1949. № 1. Petrozavodsk: Karelo-finskaja baza AN SSSR Press, 1949. Pp. 71–84. (in Russian).

  Mošin, Vladimir Metodološke bilješke o tipovima pisma u ćirilici [Methodological notes on the types of cyrilic writing], in Slovo: časopis Staroslavenskogo institute. 1965. № 15–16. Septembar. Zagreb: Staroslavenskogo institute Press, 1965. Pp. 150–182. (in Serbian).

  Savelieva, Maria Uryevna. Figurnye inicialy licevyh “Bukvarey” Kariona Istomina i zapadnoevropeyskaya tradiciya figurnyh alfavitov: razvlechenie, obuchenie i vospitanie [Figural letters of Karion Istomin’s illuminated ABC-books and the Western European tradition of figural alphabets: Entertaining, teaching, and edifying], in Zakharova A. V., Maltseva S. V., Staniukovich-Denisova E. Iu. (ed.) Actual problems of theory and history of art. Vol. 6. Saint Petersburg: NP-Print Publ., 2016. Pp. 288–298, 886. (in Russian).

  Savinov, Mikhail Avinirovich. Kholmogorskii knizhnik Fedot i khronograficheskie predisloviia XVII v. [The Scribe Fedot of Kholmogory and the 17^th century chronographical prefaces], in Novikova O. L. (ed.) Letopisi i khroniki. Novye issledovaniia. 2015–2016. Sbornik statei pamiati O.V. Tvorogova. Moscow; Saint Petersburg: Alyans-Arkheo, 2017. Pp. 429–456. (in Russian).

  Sharomazov, Mikhail Nikolaevich. «Nash» ili «pokoi»? (O vremeni sozdaniia opisi Iosifo-Volokolamskogo monastyria, opublikovannoi V. T. Georgievskim) [“Nash” or “Pokoi”? (On the dating of Iosif Volotsky monastery inventory published by V. T. Georgievsky)], in Ot Srednevekov’ia k Novomu vremeni: Sbornik statei v chest’ Ol’gi Andreevny Belobrovoi. Moscow: Indrik Publ., 2006. Pp. 571–586. (in Russian).

  Sirenov, Aleksei Vladimirovich. Stepennaia kniga i russkaia istoricheskaia mysl’ XVI – XVIII vv. [The Book of Royal Degrees and Russian historical concepts from the 16^th to the 18^th century] Moscow; Saint Petersburg: Alyans-Arkheo Publ., 2010. 552 p. (in Russian).

  Sirenov, Aleksei Vladimirovich. Stepennaia kniga: istoriia teksta [The Book of Royal Degrees: Textual history] Moscow: Iazyki slavianskikh kul’tur Publ., 2007. 544 p. (in Russian).

  Tsypkin, Denis Olegovich. «Azbuka friaskaia» 1604 goda kak istochnik po istorii iskusstva pis‘ma Drevnei Rusi [The stroganov ABC-book of 1604 as a source on old Russian art of writing], in Zakharova A. V., Maltseva S. V., Staniukovich-Denisova E. Iu. (ed.) Actual problems of theory and history of art. Vol. 6. Saint Petersburg: NP-Print Publ., 2016. Pp. 800–814. (in Russian).