The first books in Russia appeared even before the arrival of the famous book printers from Moravia - Cyril (Konstantin) and Methodius. The prerequisites for the development of book business in the Russian lands were their high economic and cultural development. An important role in shaping this level of development of Russia was played by its political and geographical position - on the oldest trade route "from the Varangians to the Greeks", which ensured a constant productive cultural exchange with the countries of Western and Eastern Europe. The appearance of books, in turn, gave impetus to the emergence and development of libraries in Russia. In the 9th-13th centuries, this process began in connection with the spread of Christianity in the Russian lands.
Vladimir Krasno Solnyshko's contribution to improving the literacy of the population of Kievan Rus
When did the first libraries appear in Russia? Almost when the great Russian princes took care of the enlightenment of their people.
Historians believe that the first books in Russia appeared in the 9th-10th centuries. They were handwritten. At that time they wrote texts on parchment - well-dressed calfskin. Covers were decorated with gold, pearls, precious stones. Therefore, the cost of handwritten ancient Russian bookswas quite high.
Introduction to reading books began in noble families. Even the Prince of Kyiv Vladimir Svyatoslavovich, having taken the throne and "baptized Russia" into Orthodoxy, paid special attention to raising literacy and educating those close to him. He ordered children from noble families to be sent to study at schools opened by his decree, where reading books was one of the subjects. Basically, this literature had a church content or included historical and philosophical information. Vladimir ordered to decorate the interior of the Tithes Church with books.
Despite the fact that the term "library" was not yet used at that time, in fact, collections of Greek, Slavic and Russian books for teaching literacy could already be considered as such.
By the 12th century, there were already collections of books in the capitals of the major principalities of Russia: Vladimir-Suzdal, Ryazan, Chernigov, etc. It should be noted that the book was an item of luxury and we alth in Ancient Russia. Only noble people and the clergy could own it. Gradually, there was an increase in the number of private libraries that belonged primarily to princely and boyar houses.
Yaroslav the Wise Library
During the reign of Prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kyiv, for the first time, by his decree, they began to massively rewrite books of both foreign and domestic origin. The rewritten volumes were kept in the St. Sophia Cathedral. The library of Yaroslav the Wise consisted of about five hundred books and contained works of ecclesiastical, historical, natural science content (includingdescriptions of fantastic animals), geography and grammar. There were also collections of folklore.
This library was badly damaged during the sack of Kyiv by Prince Mstislav Andreyevich Bogolyubsky. He took a large number of books to Moscow. The surviving fund was gradually replenished with new volumes, but at the beginning of the 13th century it was again plundered by Russian princes and Polovtsy, who made joint raids on Kyiv. Perhaps Yaroslav the Wise is the one who created the first library in Russia.
Disappeared Library
We are talking about the legendary library of the Russian Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible, one of the first in Russia. The funds of this collection were formed from three sources:
- gifts from the Grand Dukes;
- acquisitions in the East;
- offerings from Greek clerics arriving in Ancient Russia to establish Orthodoxy here.
There is also a legendary version that a large part of the collection was made up of a large part of the famous Constantinople library, brought to the Russian lands by Ivan III's wife Zoya Palaiologos, the niece of the emperor of Byzantium. It was these books that formed the basis of the fund of literature in Greek, Latin and Hebrew. After the annexation of the Kazan Khanate, the tsarist library also included books in Arabic brought from there.
It is believed that the books were kept in the Kremlin cellars. Three main reasons are given as an argument:
- a large number of fires could destroy the books,if they were left on the surface;
- too many hunters from Europe were behind these valuables;
- Ioann the Terrible was very suspicious and did not trust the books to anyone or only those close to him, but in connection with his sudden death it turned out that they all may have been executed earlier.
After the sudden death of the king, the secret of the library of Ivan the Terrible remained unsolved. To this day, no one knows her whereabouts. Perhaps the tsar prudently took it out and hid it outside of Moscow. After all, there is evidence that Grozny often left the capital with a convoy, covered from prying eyes with a mat.
Search for the Lost
There are still many versions about the secret of Ivan the Terrible's library. So, in 1933, A. F. Ivanov published an article in the well-known journal Science and Life, which said that a secret passage led to the disappeared library of Grozny through a dungeon under the Cathedral of Christ the Savior to the Kremlin storerooms. However, to this day, all searches for the library are in vain, and multiple hypotheses are not confirmed.
The first "treasure hunter" is called Konon Osipov, sexton of the Church of St. John the Baptist on Presnya. In the second half of the 17th century, he dug tunnels under the Tainitskaya and Sobakin towers in order to find two rooms filled to the brim with chests with unknown contents, seen by the clerk of the Great Treasury Vasily Makariev, who was not allowed there by Tsarevna Sofya Alekseevna. I found a covered passage under the Tainitskaya tower, but to penetratehe couldn't do it. Under Peter I, he also explored the passage under the Dog Tower, but the foundation of the Zeikhgauz did not make it possible to complete what had been started. Later, Osipov tried to find the library through the trenches dug over the desired gallery, but this attempt was doomed to failure.
At the end of the 19th century, Prince N. Shcherbatov began excavations. But since all the passages were filled with earth and water, work was also stopped.
Before the Great Patriotic War, the archaeologist Ignaty Yakovlevich Stelletsky took up this issue. He managed to find and explore part of the Makariev gallery, but the library of Ivan the Terrible was not found again.
Monastic libraries and librarians in Russia
The first libraries collected and preserved by ancient Russian monasteries had a huge impact on the development of librarianship.
One of the most famous libraries of the Middle Ages in Russia is considered to be a collection of books of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery. Books were brought here by masters who painted the main temple of the monastery, and were kept in its choir stalls.
It was in the first Russian monastic libraries that the position of librarian was first determined, which was performed by one of the monks of the monastery. The rest of the brethren were obliged to visit the library for enlightenment through communication with books at the time strictly allotted by the monastic charter. The librarian was usually one of the most enlightened and educated monks. His duties included storing books and giving them to other monks for study and familiarization, as well as raisingown knowledge and enlightenment. In addition, special rules were written for the librarian, which he had to strictly adhere to.
What kind of books were not in these libraries! And church tomes, and historical volumes, philosophical treatises and annals, ancient Russian literature and folklore, government documents … There was even false church literature! Individual monks also had personal libraries, for example, the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk monastery Gregory. He was a book collector all his life and had no other property.
The monastic library of that time combined three main functions:
- storage of books (warehouse function);
- creation of books (creative and constructive function): in the monasteries, books were not only created, but also copied, and a systematic annals were kept;
- book lending (educational function).
Monastic libraries could have started with 2-3 books that belonged to the founder monk, as, for example, the library of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery began with the Gospel and the Ps alter of Sergius of Radonezh. In total, the monastery library could contain from 100 to 350 volumes.
Library of Patriarch Nikon
Patriarch Nikon, who served for a long time in the Ferapont Monastery, is considered the founder of the Patriarchal Library.
The story of Nikita Minin's reverent relationship (that was the name of the future Moscow Patriarch in the world) with the books of the beginningformed in childhood, when his mother died, his father was not at home for a long time and the evil stepmother was engaged in raising an unloved stepson. It was her anger and bullying that led to the fact that Nikita was constantly looking for opportunities to retire and saved himself by reading church texts. Having begun self-learning to read and write, the teenager continued it in the Zheltovodsky Makaryevsky monastery, where he was a novice from the age of 12. After the death of his beloved grandmother and an unsuccessful marriage, Nikita retires to the Solovetsky Monastery, where he takes tonsure. All the time he is in the skete, he prays and reads holy books.
Nikon's further path to the rank of Moscow Patriarch was difficult and thorny. As patriarch, Nikon carried out a number of church reforms, among which was the "bookish" one: the sacred books were to be translated and republished according to the Greek canons. The reforms led to a split in the Russian church, and Nikon fell out of favor with Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and was forced to leave Moscow. After a long exile, he died of a serious illness.
Nikon was a very educated and well-read person. From books he drew experience and wisdom, which helped him and his flock in life and ministry. All my life I collected my personal collection of books. He also kept his own manuscripts. All his property was described before the departure of the exiled patriarch to the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery. His collection includes 43 printed books and 13 manuscripts.
Sources of the personal library of Patriarch Nikon:
- gift of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich;
- gift from the Resurrection Monastery;
- from mailing listprinted materials of the Moscow printing house for the monastery libraries;
- Nikon's orders from the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery;
- correspondence of the patriarch.
Funds of the Nikon Library can be conditionally divided:
1. By publication type:
- handwritten;
- printed.
2. Place of publication:
- "Kyiv";
- "Moscow" (published at the Moscow Printing Yard).
The history of the formation of the library accounting system
The system of organizing funds and catalogs of ancient Russian monastic libraries still remains incomprehensible, since a huge number of collections and documents were destroyed during the years of wars and invasions, during the period of Soviet power, and died in fires, which were frequent in Russia.
The composition of the book fund was formed gradually and was traditionally divided into three main parts, but it would be possible to single out the fourth among them:
- for church services;
- for compulsory collective reading;
- for personal reading (including secular literature);
- for education ("Herbalists", "Healers", etc.).
The first library inventory appeared at the end of the 15th century and was a systematic list of books stored in the library. Thanks to ancient inventories, one can trace the history of the formation of library collections and their replenishment. And also to determine thematic groups of works, which can already be considered the forerunner of library catalogs. When studying such descriptions, it was found that withover time in the ancient Russian libraries there was a process of "washing out" of older editions and the process of their dilapidation.
The formation of funds in the monastic libraries was due to the copying of manuscripts from the book collections of other monasteries. This became possible due to the establishment of close cultural ties between the ancient Russian monasteries. The process of exchanging books took place by pledging a book that was similar in value both in terms of monetary value and in terms of its spiritual significance and content. Such an exchange was carried out not only between Russian monasteries, but also with monastic libraries in other countries.
In addition, these funds were also accumulated thanks to donations from parishioners who donated books from their personal collections to the monastery.
Meaning and formation of the term
Literally, the term "library" is translated from Greek as a combination of its two parts: "biblion" - a book, and "teka" - storage. Dictionaries give us an ambiguous interpretation of the concept. First of all, a library is a repository of books, which corresponds to the direct translation of the word. This is also the name of an institution intended for the storage and distribution of books for reading to a wide range of people. In addition, a collection of books for reading is often called a library. As well as a series of books that are similar in type or subject or intended for a specific group of readers. Sometimes the word "library" even refers to an office designed for classes, in which there are many books necessary for this.
OnIn Russia, the term "library" began to be applied only by the 18th century. Until that time, libraries were called "bookkeepers". However, there is a mention of libraries in the annals of the 15th century, but with the note "book house". There are cases when such names as "book-seller", "book depository", "book treasury" or "book treasury" were used. In any case, the meaning of the name came down to the place where the books were stored and where they were stored under certain conditions.
Conditions for storing books in Old Russian libraries
Books were stored in ordinary premises from a household point of view, but with the obligatory fulfillment of several conditions:
- doors should have locks, windows should have bars;
- the room should be "hidden" from human eyes, in a remote and inaccessible corner of the monastery;
- get into the room could only be through confused passages and stairs;
- books were stored in special boxes, caskets or chests, later on shelves in vertical cabinets, which made them much less spoiled than from a horizontal storage method, and was easier to get;
- arranged by subject: church, historical, legal, etc. (in that order they were placed on the shelves);
- so-called "false" books were separated into a special group (it was strictly forbidden to read them);
- book spines were not signed, and all notes were made on the first page or the outer part of the cover, sometimes at the endbooks;
- special "staples" were used to mark books - long phrases passing from page to page from the beginning to the end of the book, from which only one word or syllable was written in the margins, at the edge or spine;
- Later they began to use labels pasted on the cover or spine.
Finds of the 20th century: birch bark library
The first copies of this collection were collected from Novgorodians at the end of the 19th century by Vasily Stepanovich Peredolsky. They became the basis of the collection of the birch-bark writing museum opened by Peredolsky in Novgorod. But since no one could read them, the authorities closed the museum, and the collection was lost.
However, a century later, during archaeological excavations at the Nerevsky excavation site, an old birch bark was found. In the same season, nine more letters of the same kind were found. And now the collection already has more than a thousand items, the oldest of which dates back to the 10th century and was found at the Troitsky excavation site.
Four groups of birch bark can be distinguished:
- business correspondence;
- love messages;
- messages threatening God's judgment;
- with obscene language.
Ancient handwritten books were also found there, which were wooden boards with a depression in the center filled with wax. For writing letters, a special writing was used, one of the ends of which was sharp, and the other resembled a spatula - to level the wax. Such books-"notebooks" were used for teaching literacy. Books were also made in the same way, connecting boards with texts.
Extraction and replenishment of the unique library continues to this day. It will take about a millennium to fully extract it.
