Moscow printed Gospels of the 17th century in Russian society: history, tradition and special features of their use as evidenced by the corpus of marginalia

Abstract

This article is devoted to the study of the history and tradition of the existence of the Moscow printed Gospel of the 17th century. During this century, the Moscow Printing Yard issued 22 editions of the Gospel-Tetr, which was intended both for liturgy and for home reading. The sources for the study were old printed books, both studied de visu and with the help of appropriate catalogs. On the basis of archival documents, the circulations of most editions of the Gospel were restored, and their approximate number of publications published over the 17th century was also calculated. A comprehensive study of the records on the Gospels shows that this book was distributed among all segments of the population and actively existed for several centuries. The social composition of the persons mentioned in the marginalia was also reconstructed. He helped to establish the most common categories of the population, and as a result, the environment where the printed Gospel was most common. The specificity of its existence lies in the actual perception of the book as an object of material value for investment or resale. For obvious reasons, most often the Gospel could be found (thanks to the owner's records) in spiritual institutions, where it was used for its intended purpose. At the same time, the book was relatively poorly written; rare notes illustrating intellectual work with the text allow us to assert that the printed Gospel of the 17th century read little. Only at a later time is an increase in the number of readers recorded.