Ostromir Gospel Lesson of the elective course Gospel - a Greek word, translated means "good news" The Ostromir Gospel is one of the oldest manuscripts created in Rus'. This book was copied in 1056-1057 by Deacon Gregory for the Novgorod posadnik (=princely governor) Ostromir, therefore it is called the Ostromir Gospel. The fate of the monument It is assumed that it was kept for several centuries in Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod. Then the Ostromir Gospel was named in the inventory of the property of one of the churches of the Moscow Kremlin, compiled in 1701. In 1720, the Ostromir Gospel was sent from Moscow to the new capital of Russia - St. Petersburg. Study of the monument by A. Kh. Vostokov Cyril and Methodius. Miniature in the book Studying the language of the Ostromirov Gospel, the famous Russian scholar A. Kh. Vostokov was the first to express the opinion that the translation of the Gospel text in this monument goes back to the translation of the Slavic first teachers Cyril and Methodius. Further research has confirmed this. Alexander Khristoforovich Vostokov first published the Ostromir Gospel in 1843. Components of the Ostromir Gospel The opening page of the text of the Ostromir Gospel is crowned with a large headband-frame filled with colorful ornaments. According to the ancient rule established back in Byzantium, the book opens with an image of the author; in the Ostromir Gospel, this is the Evangelist John with his disciple. Examples of capital letters "Vedi" and "Rtsy" are shown here. The decoration of the Ostromirov Gospel testifies that in the production of ancient books, the main role belonged to knowledgeable and experienced scribes Tell us about the design features of ancient Russian books Let's read the text of the Lord's Prayer Try to translate what you read. Father (father) Lexical meaning and usage Morphological features Morphemic composition 1. One who has children Male, soulful, 2 cl. Father of the Father 2. Father Heavenly God Sing. Otch-e (ancient vocative form) Stylistic characteristic Church Father is the vocative form of the noun “father”, which is used when referring to God. In the ancient text, it is written under the title, in abbreviation. The word father was used as an honorary name for a clergyman. This word also denoted God the Father and could be used in the phrase "heavenly father", as in the prayer "Our Father" What words in modern Russian come from the word "father"? Historical alternations At the root of the word "otts" - "fathers" there was a reduced vowel "b", which was either in a weak or in a strong position. After the 11th century, the strong reduced "ь" changed to the vowel "e", and was lost in a weak position. So a fluent vowel appeared in the root: father - father. Also in this word there are historical alternations of consonants. The history of the language shows that the soft “h” and “ts” appeared as a result of the softening of the Proto-Slavic hard back-language *k (Proto-Slavic *otьkъ) Thus, in the Russian language there are historical alternations C / Ch (fatherland) k, *x changed into soft hissing zh', ch', sh' before front vowels. As a result of these changes, the alternations G / F, R / C, X / W arose. Think of words with these historical alternations. Debt - debt, book - book, hand - hand over, sin - sinner Bread Lexical meaning and use Morphological features Morphemic composition Stylistic. character 1. Food product baked Male, neodesh., from flour. Rye bread. White 2 cl., only bread sg. bread 2. A flour product in the form of a product of any particular shape. Putting bread in the oven and pl. (pl.) breads 3. Cereal cereal plants. Winter bread in the fields and pl. (pl.) bread-a 4. Livelihood. This work is his bread. Razg. 5. What is necessary for bodily and spiritual existence. Our daily bread Book. "Daily" In the prayer "Our Father" In the modern Russian language, the noun bread, the lexical meaning of the word used in "daily" is defined as the phrase "our bread" having important daily life. The word daily meaning was completely formed by the ancients necessary. scribes when translating This word is combined not only with the Gospel text with the word bread, but also with other Greek words in the words: urgent issue, Slavic. This word can pressing interests, pressing be interpreted as needs. "necessary for what are the related words to existence" to the word "essential" can you pick up? “Existing” The words being, being, essence, essence are derived from the ancient forms of the verb “to be”, which was conjugated not only in the past tense, but also in the present, and also formed the present participle “Beings” What historical alternations did you see in these words ? Duty Lexical meaning and usage Morphological features 1. Duty to someone. Fulfill civic duty Male, inanimate, Debt 2 cl., only (offered) in debt-sing. On debt 2. Borrowed, mostly money. Borrow and many others. part 3. Sins. Leave us our debts Morphemic composition Stylistich. coloring Book. Church. What is the meaning of the word "debtor" in the text of the prayer? At the root of the related words debt - debtor, there is an alternation of vowels G / F, which are explained by phonetic changes in the Proto-Slavic norm. Answer the questions: How is the name of the Ostromir Gospel explained? Who prepared the first edition of the Ostromir Gospel? What are the stylistic differences between the phrases "urgent needs" and "our daily bread"? Which case form used to express address in modern Russian, as opposed to ancient? In what styles of the modern Russian language is it appropriate to use the word "existing"? Make sentences with this word. Explain the meaning of the expression "bread and salt" in Russian. What is the tradition of hospitality with which the origin of this expression is associated? Working with a dictionary Compare the lexical meanings and usage of the words “kingdom” and “kingdom”, note similarities and differences Determine the meaning and stylistic coloring of the word “this” in modern Russian Find out the meaning and use of the word “amen”. In what sense is it used in the text of the prayer?

The Ostromir Gospel is the oldest dated Russian handwritten book that has survived to this day. It stands at the origins of the thousand-year path of development of our culture. According to His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus', “as in ancient times, so now it unites people around the name of Christ the Savior, is an enduring spiritual symbol of Russia.”

From October 29 to November 1, 2007, the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg hosted an international scientific conference dedicated to the 950th anniversary of the Ostromirov Gospel. The conference at the National Library of Russia continued the solemn events of the anniversary year: on April 9, 2007, on the bright Easter days, the Ostromir Gospel for the first time in many centuries was at the service in St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg. Many people were able to venerate this shrine and with a sense of reverence feel their involvement in the Christian cultural heritage.

The anniversary of the unique monument caused a great public outcry, bringing together representatives of the state authorities and the Russian Orthodox Church, prominent scientists, cultural figures and industrialists. The conference at the National Library of Russia once again showed that there are areas where state, religious and scientific interests are united. This is the preservation of cultural traditions, enlightenment and protection of the morality of the people.

The Ostromir Gospel is a pearl of medieval literature. “In this precious manuscript we have the greatest treasure: both in the sense of antiquity and in the sense of external beauty monument: this is a wonderful example of the written art of our ancestors. None of the Slavs, except us Russians, had the good fortune to preserve such a monument from its handwritten antiquity, ”wrote the historian of Russian literature N.P. in 1900. Field. In the 80s of the 19th century, the photolithographic edition of the Ostromirov Gospel was undertaken at the expense of the merchant Ilya Savinkov. This edition made the monument widely known in Russia: in secondary and higher educational institutions, texts were read from it when studying the Old Church Slavonic language. Each high school student could answer a question about the Ostromir Gospel.

What now? It cannot be said that the Ostromir Gospel is widely known to our contemporaries. The vast majority of Muscovites surveyed (people of the church, with higher education, not alien to history) either knows nothing at all about the first Russian book, or has the most vague concepts, at best believing that this is something like The Tale of Igor's Campaign or The Tale of Bygone Years. But the Ostromir Gospel is a witness to our thousand-year history, a book that has actually, physically survived from ancient times to the present day. With a living thread, it connects us with the era of the beginning of Russian literacy, statehood and holiness. Alas, Pushkin's bitter words: "We are lazy and incurious" are as applicable to our time as possible.

We live in an era of poor historical enlightenment, which is being successfully replaced, according to the well-known theologian of the 20th century, Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), by a "culture of sin" aggressively imposed on people. Our people can be saved from this “culture”, and hence from inevitable corruption and savagery, only by joining the centuries-old culture of Orthodoxy, the basis of which is the Gospel of Christ. “When we look at the Ostromir Gospel, the great reverence that our forefathers had for their faith becomes obvious. Their efforts were the result of touching the Spirit that lives in the Holy Scriptures, which acts in the Church and really changes human life,” such is the opinion of Archbishop Konstantin of Tikhvin, rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy and Seminary.

Since the time of their baptism, the Russian people have deeply and penetratingly perceived Orthodoxy and the religion associated with it. book culture. The oldest Russian chronicle, The Tale of Bygone Years, reports that Prince Vladimir laid the foundation for book education: he himself honored the “words of the book” and began to give children of the best people for teaching. The son of Vladimir, Prince Yaroslav the Wise, who, according to the chronicler, “loved books, reading often both night and day,” gathered in Kiev “many scribes, and they translated from Greek into Slavonic. And they wrote a lot of books, believing people learn from them and enjoy the teaching of the Divine. Books in The Tale of Bygone Years are called "sources of wisdom", "rivers that water the entire universe."

The Ostromir Gospel was created in the era of cultural upsurge and the formation of statehood Ancient Rus' following the adoption of Christianity in 988. On last page manuscripts, the afterword of the scribe, deacon Gregory, has been preserved. It states that work on the manuscript was started on October 21, 1056 and completed on May 12, 1057. The dates indicated by the scribe, according to most researchers, are not accidental. October 21 - Memorial Day of Hilarion the Great. This name for the contemporaries of the scribe was associated with the name of the Kyiv Metropolitan Hilarion - "a man of goodness, bookish and fasting", the author of the famous "Sermon on Law and Grace". Vladyka Hilarion was a like-minded and associate of Yaroslav the Wise and played an important role in the enlightenment of Rus', in the formation of its national self-consciousness and in the organization of book writing at the Kiev St. Sophia Cathedral.

The date of completion of work on the manuscript is also significant - May 12. This date connects the Russian book of the 11th century with Byzantium of the 4th century, when Christianity became the state religion in the empire. Constantine the Great, having founded the new capital of Constantinople, dedicated it to the Mother of God. The Feast of Dedication was celebrated in Byzantium on May 11, 330 (later this day was celebrated as the day of the Renewal of Sophia of Constantinople). And on May 12, the first Christian churches in Rus' were consecrated - the Church of the Tithes (995) and St. Sophia Cathedral (1045) in Kyiv. It is significant that on the same days the memory of Saints Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius is celebrated, whose names are associated with the emergence of Slavic writing.

All this leaves historians in no doubt that when creating the Ostromirov Gospel, a deep concept was developed that introduced this book, and with it the ancient Russian state, into the mainstream of world Christian culture. This concept of the unity of Rus' with the entire Christian world is manifested not only in the symbolism of the indicated dates, but permeates all the main elements of the monument: its language, text, decoration.

In the afterword, Deacon Gregory reports that he rewrote the Gospel by order of the Novgorod mayor Ostromir, in the baptism of Joseph, during the reign of the Kyiv prince Izyaslav (1024-1078, son of Yaroslav the Wise). The high position of Ostromir's book customer, a representative of one of the most influential Russian families, is especially emphasized: his grandfather Dobrynya (the epic Dobrynya Nikitich) was an uncle to the Holy Prince Vladimir the Red Sun and actively participated in the baptism of Rus'. The scribe glorifies the Novgorod posadnik and his wife Feofana and prays to God to grant them and their children and their spouses long life. Theophan, of course, was also an eminent person: her aristocratic origin speaks Greek name. There is an opinion, which, however, is not shared by all historians, that she was the daughter of the Great Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir and the Byzantine Princess Anna, and therefore the sister of the first Russian saints - Princes Boris and Gleb, stepsister Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise and the aunt of Grand Duke Izyaslav, whose confidant was Ostromir.

The Novgorod posadnik was not destined for a long life. Brave and resolute, he soon (about 1060) died on a campaign against the Chud tribe, leading his squad. However, the name of Ostromir was forever connected with the book he ordered.

Deacon Gregory does not name the place where he copied the book. It is believed that it could be both Kyiv and Novgorod. Both versions have their scientific supporters. The rich decoration and excellent preservation of the ancient codex suggest that it was not intended for daily family use. According to the content and structure of the text, the Ostromir Gospel is a short aprakos, that is, it refers to liturgical books. The bulk of the text contains the daily gospel readings from Easter to Pentecost, as well as Saturday and Sunday readings for the following weeks. The second part includes gospel readings according to the calendar, starting in September, as well as a number of additional readings for various occasions (for the consecration of the church, "in victory for the king in battle", for the sick, etc.).

Special interest represents the monthly part of the code: it contains the memory of the saints not only of the Eastern, but also of the Western Church. This gives grounds for a number of researchers to believe that the Ostromir Gospel is, perhaps, the last liturgical monument that has survived to this day, reflecting the unity of the Christian Church. reason unusual composition Menologions are also seen in the features of the protograph - that handwritten book that served as the original when creating the Ostromirov Gospel. Also important are the wide dynastic ties of the Kyiv princely house, which spread throughout the world. It was not by chance that Yaroslav the Wise was called the "father-in-law of Europe": out of 38 marriages of Rurikovich in the 11th century, eight cases occurred in Germany, two - in France, five - in the Scandinavian kingdoms and England, seven - in Poland, six - in Hungary, three marriages with Polovtsian princesses, one - with a Byzantine princess, two - with representatives of the Byzantine aristocracy. This largely explains the breadth of cultural orientation and the unique combination of different traditions in the creation of the book.

The Ostromir Gospel was probably intended by the customer for a precious contribution to the St. Sophia Cathedral - the main temple of northwestern Rus', which was erected in 1045-1050. in Veliky Novgorod on the model of St. Sophia of Kyiv (this temple was founded in 1037).

The belonging of the manuscript to St. Sophia Cathedral is indirectly confirmed by the 17th-century cursive entry on the first page of the book: “The Gospel of Sophia Aprakos”. The gospel was used as an altarpiece and, judging by the state, most his long history was under especially careful supervision and stayed in the cathedral sacristy - the place where church utensils and vestments are stored.

Perfection of calligraphy and decoration The manuscript speaks of the high art of the book of that time. According to the largest expert on Old Russian book art N.N. Rozov, "the Russian book from the very beginning of its existence should be considered as a synthesis of verbal and visual arts." In the monuments of ancient writing, amazing harmony, proportionality of all elements of the text and design, their joyful colorfulness are striking.

The Ostromir Gospel is written on high-quality parchment - specially dressed skin of young animals (usually calves). The dressing of thin and smooth parchment required great effort. At first, this expensive material was brought to Rus' from Byzantium. The manuscript is made in the "charter" - a style dating back to the Byzantine uncial writing. It is characterized by a special clarity and severity of the outline of signs. This type of writing requires a high skill of the scribe and considerable time, since each element of the letter is written in a separate movement with the pen detached from the parchment.

The general design of the Ostromir Gospel, with text in two columns, headings made in gold, spacious margins and numerous patterns, follows the Byzantine tradition on the whole. The manuscript is decorated with three miniatures depicting the evangelists John, Luke and Mark. The miniatures of the Ostromirov Gospel are executed in two different manners: John with his disciple Prochorus differs from Luke and Mark, who are very similar to each other. Special attention of researchers is attracted by the unparalleled iconography of the miniature with St. John the Evangelist. At the top, outside the frame framing this miniature, there is a lion, clearly distinguished by the size and location of the artist and different from the traditional image of the evangelist (usually the lion symbolizes the evangelist Mark). This image is ambiguous: first of all, it is a symbol of Christ himself. The Ostromir Gospel begins with a reading on the first day of Easter, in the chants of which the risen Christ is compared to an awakened lion. The allegory "lion - Christ" was very popular in Western art, was also found in Byzantine art, although in other Aprakos Gospels, Greek and Russian, such an image is absent. But the lion is also a traditional Byzantine imperial symbol. And this is very consonant with the status of the customer of the manuscript, the posadnik Ostromir, and his wife Feofana (recall her probable relationship to the Byzantine imperial house). There is also no doubt that the high symbolism emphasizes the national significance of the book itself.

In addition to miniatures, the manuscript is decorated with ornaments for various purposes: colorful headpieces, text separators and many initials placed on sheets at the beginning of readings and having large size, much larger than is usually found in Byzantine manuscripts. The patterns of the Ostromir Gospel belong to the so-called "enamellery", or stems and petals of flowers, combined in various combinations and having a thick, dense coloring, similar to enamel. The decor of the book, according to the prominent Byzantine art historian O.S. Popova, even surpasses the Greek codices of this time in brightness and showiness.

The initials of the Ostromirov Gospel, and there are more than two hundred of them, are the subject of special attention of researchers. Along with traditional elements ornamentation, quite unusual anthropomorphic images are often found here, inscribed in the composition of letters - rounded and ruddy faces, somewhat reminiscent of the image of the sun or Romanesque stone masks. There is nothing of the kind in Greek or Latin manuscripts. Amazing and bizarre zoomorphic initial letters decorating the text. The originality of the initials of the Gospel testifies to the deep mastery of its creators of both Eastern and Western traditions of book decor and an attempt to combine them creatively in the design of the Russian codex.

Another rare feature of the manuscript is the presence of ekphonetic signs indicating how the text should sound at the service. The reading of the Gospel in the Church was especially solemn, "for all to hear." It approached singing and obeyed certain rules borrowed from Byzantine practice. Ekphonetic signs mark accents, longitude of sounds, determining their melodiousness, and also indicate the division of the text into phrases.

Specialists tried to decipher these signs and compared them with the liturgical practice of modern Old Believers, which is particularly conservative. The comparison led to amazing results: it showed the identity of the phrasing and the coincidence of stops when dividing the text into fragments, that is, the continuity of the singing tradition from the 11th century to the present day.

Major explorer ancient Russian culture G.M. Prokhorov, in his speech at the conference dedicated to the Ostromirov Gospel, defined the current ethnocultural situation as follows: “As a holistic historical and cultural phenomenon Ancient Rus' existed until about the end of the 17th century. But has she disappeared? No, she didn't disappear. It was dispersed, dispersed throughout our country and throughout the globe. The Old Believers are the biophysical remnant of Ancient Rus'. Books from our beautiful handwritten collections are the physical remnants of Ancient Rus'. By studying them, we give life to Ancient Rus' in the noosphere - in our minds.

Currently, the Ostromir Gospel is in the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg. According to the Director General of the National Library of Russia V.N. Zaitsev, “it is symbolic that the first Russian book is now stored in the first state book depository in Russia, opened “for the common good” in 1814. The role of libraries in the history of mankind is enormous: if a people does not have a book, if there are no written monuments left, then this people itself does not have its own history and is doomed to disappear without a trace in the darkness of centuries.”

The fate of this unique book is known only in general terms. Probably, for several centuries it was kept in the St. Sophia Cathedral of Veliky Novgorod, then it was taken to Moscow: the Ostromir Gospel was indicated in the inventory of the property of one of the churches of the Moscow Kremlin, compiled in 1701. In 1720 the Ostromir Gospel was sent to the new capital Russian Empire- St. Petersburg, where, by order of Peter I, they collected materials for Russian history. Here his traces are again lost. In 1805, the manuscript was discovered by Ya.A. Druzhinin, personal secretary of Catherine II, among the property of the late Empress, who during her lifetime showed great interest in Russian history. In 1806, Emperor Alexander I transferred the Ostromir Gospel to the Public Library, to the depot of manuscripts (the current department of manuscripts of the National Library of Russia). From this moment begins the history of storage and research of a unique monument.

In order to expand access to the study of the monument without prejudice to the original, the curator of the manuscripts of the library A.I. Ermolaev made an exact handwritten copy of it, in fact repeating the work of an ancient Russian scribe. Soon the Ostromir Gospel was used as a historical source by N.M. Karamzin, who specified the date of the death of the posadnik Ostromir using it. The study of the monument marked the beginning of Russian paleography - a science dealing with ancient manuscripts. Ermolaev's successor as curator, A.Kh. Vostokov. He owns the first scientific essay on the grammar of the Old Slavonic language, entirely built on the study of the language of the Ostromirov Gospel. In this work, for the first time, sound value two mysterious letters of the old Cyrillic alphabet - big and small yus. Relatively few ancient manuscripts written in Cyrillic use these letters correctly. The Ostromir Gospel is one of them. A comparison of the corresponding words of this manuscript with the Polish forms prompted Vostokov to conjecture that there were nasal vowels in the Old Slavonic language and that yuses served as their transmission. In 1843, a scientific edition of the Ostromirov Gospel, prepared by Vostokov, was published, which evoked a lively response from Slavists in many countries. Reviews and reviews of this edition were printed in Czech, Bulgarian, Polish and Serbian. In the 80s of the 19th century, two photolithographic editions of the Ostromirov Gospel were undertaken at the expense of the merchant Ilya Savinkov, which opened the monument to all of Russia.

The original binding of the manuscript has not been preserved. IN mid-nineteenth century according to the sketch of I.I. Gornostaev, a massive, richly decorated salary was made. However, it did not have the best effect on the condition of parchment sheets. In addition, he attracted the attention of robbers, who in 1932 stole the manuscript from the display case where it was put on display. Fortunately, the unlucky kidnappers were seduced only by an impressive salary. Having torn off the cover, they threw the manuscript on one of the library cabinets, which they confessed to, being caught on the same day. Since then, for better preservation, the precious book has been kept untwisted in a special chest made of bog oak and locked in a safe. For the current anniversary, a new depository has been manufactured that meets all modern storage standards.

In 1957, the 900th anniversary of the Ostromirov Gospel was solemnly celebrated. By this date, the unique handwritten book has been thoroughly restored. The restoration work, which lasted more than six months, was led by E.Kh. Trey. At the same time, experts put forward the task of facsimile edition of the Ostromirov Gospel.

This edition was prepared with the leading participation of N.N. Rozov and with the support of the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate. The facsimile edition of the Ostromirov Gospel, equipped with a scientific apparatus, was published in 1988, on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus', and currently plays the role of the main copy of the monument, providing access to it to a wide range of researchers and readers without resorting to the priceless original.

Like 50 years ago, the current anniversary celebrations are accompanied by exhibitions at the National Library of Russia. The library website has launched a virtual exhibition "The Ostromir Gospel and the Manuscript Tradition of the New Testament Texts", which contains a complete informational disclosure of the Ostromir Gospel as a monument of world culture and allows you to get acquainted with outstanding samples of manuscripts stored in the National Library of Russia.

The anniversary of the oldest Russian book aroused keen interest in the scientific world. Many questions about the history of the writing and existence of the monument (the identity of the scribe Deacon Gregory and his assistants, the place where the manuscript was created, the question of the protographer and his relationship to the oldest Slavic translations, the history of the monument before it was placed in the department of manuscripts, etc.) still remain open and await their researchers. . But the main thing that all the participants of the anniversary celebrations felt was the great significance of the Ostromir Gospel for our people. According to His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus', “today we are all responsible for the fate of the Fatherland, for its present and future, which is largely determined by the attitude of the people to their spiritual roots and cultural traditions.”

“The huge scientific potential that has been accumulated by scientists must be popularized,” says Professor I.V. Pavlov. “Ahead is a new ministry of the Ostromirov Gospel to the Russian state, the Russian Orthodox Church, and the people of Russia.”

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History of creation

Written by deacon Gregory in 1056-1057. for the Novgorod posadnik Ostromir, who in the inscription of the book is called a “close” (relative) of Prince Izyaslav Yaroslavich (according to the hypothesis of Andzhey Poppe, the wife of Ostromir Theophan mentioned in the inscription could be the daughter of Vladimir Svyatoslavich and Anna of Byzantium). The manuscript is especially interesting because at its end the scribe spoke in detail about the circumstances of its production and the time of work: Thus, the “Ostromir Gospel” is the oldest precisely dated volumetric manuscript monument created in Rus'. In addition to the general Russian features, it also reflects such linguistic features that eventually became characteristic of the Ukrainian language. According to the latest research, the codicological characteristics, decoration technique, statutory and calendar features of the Ostromir Gospel fully correspond to the time of the creation of the codex, indicated by Deacon Gregory.

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Working with the catalog

In 1720, by order of Peter I, the gospel was sent, along with other old books, to St. Petersburg. After the death of Catherine II, the manuscript was found in her chambers by Ya. A. Druzhinin, who served under the Empress, who in 1806 presented it as a gift to Alexander I. The emperor ordered that the book be deposited in the Imperial Public Library (now the Russian National Library, St. Petersburg) where it is kept to this day. Currently, the Ostromir Gospel is in the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg. Like other manuscripts of this book depository, this ancient Russian book has its own library code: GPB, F.p. 1.5.

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First page of the Ostromir Gospel

The first page of the Ostromir Gospel is clean, without text or any decorations; there is only a mark on it in later cursive writing: "The Gospel of Sophia Aprakos." The first page of ancient handwritten books, which was in direct contact with the upper board of the binding, always wooden, rubbed against it, which would inevitably lead to the erasure of the colors of the text or ornament. Therefore, the first page of parchment books was always left blank, and sometimes glued to the top board of the binding. With the later binding of such books, paper, the so-called protective sheets, were sewn at the beginning and at the end of the block; at the same time, the first sheet was separated from the binding board. Traces of gluing the first sheet to the binding board remained in the Ostromir Gospel. Judging by the above-mentioned mark on the first page, dated no earlier than the 16th century, which, naturally, could have appeared only after the first leaf was peeled off from the cover, the book lost its ancient binding at least four centuries ago. The first page of the text of the Ostromirov Gospel is crowned with a large headband-frame, filled, like the miniatures, with colorful ornaments of the Byzantine style. The title of the first reading is inscribed in gold in it: "The Gospel of John, chapter 1." The text itself begins with a large, colorful with gold, capital letter - the initial H (modern I), with which the text of the Gospel reading on the first day of the Easter holiday began: (In the beginning there was a word).

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Description of the appearance of the document

The manuscript consists of 294 sheets of parchment good quality. There are several sheets with sewn cuts and holes (in the places of gadfly bites), which existed before the writing of the text. The main text of the Ostromir Gospel is made in one style and one handwriting, that is, the handwriting of the scribe - calligrapher Deacon Gregory. It was he who chose high-grade, white and thin, parchment for the book, it was he who determined the proportions of the margins and text, the size and pattern of the letters of the then only charter letter. But the first 23 pages are written in a completely different style. There is no clear explanation for this yet. It is the first pages that are more characteristic of Russian colloquial speech than the entire book, which is more sustained within the framework of the Church Slavonic language. But it is interesting in that it is the first East Slavic manuscript, that is, the influence of Russian is clearly visible in it. spoken language into Church Slavonic. The manuscript is written in a charter, a style that goes back to Byzantine unicial writing. It is characterized by a special clarity and severity of the outline of signs. This type of writing requires high skill of the scribe and considerable time, since each element of the letter is written in separate movements with the pen detached from the parchment. Written in Cyrillic. The gospel is written in charter on glassine with ink and gold. Cinnabar is used in the text. Title page - The book is "wrapped in red velvet, silver clasps and fasteners." Sheet dimensions - “length 8 inches, width slightly less than 7 inches” => 20x24 cm. The number of sheets is 294. The book was bound in a cover with precious stones, but the cover was lost (torn out) in 1932. The gospel was not rebound.

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Document composition

The book is not presented in abbreviated form, empty seats not found in the book. The main text of the Ostromir Gospel is written in the same style and handwriting, that is, the handwriting of the calligrapher Deacon Gregory. But the first 23 pages are written in a completely different style. There is no clear explanation for this yet. It is the first pages that are more characteristic of Russian colloquial speech than the entire book, which is more sustained within the framework of the Church Slavonic language. The book is supplied with three large miniatures depicting the evangelists John, Luke and Mark. It is believed that these miniatures were painted by a Greek artist, since they were made using the technique of inlaid enamel, which was then used exclusively in Byzantium. The general design of the Ostromir Gospel, with text in two columns, headings made in gold, spacious margins and numerous patterns, follows the Byzantine tradition on the whole. The line lines are not visible. But it is obvious that they wrote above the line. There are no marks in the margins. The manuscript is written in 2 columns of 18 lines.

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Miniatures in the island gospel

Evangelist Mark Evangelist Matthew and John Chrysostom Evangelist Luke

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ornament

The main motif of ornaments is “petal”, segments of stems and flower petals, combined in various combinations, are also traditional for Byzantium. But the initials of the book and ornaments appear motifs that are completely alien to Byzantine art.

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Large masks, or “masks”, are inscribed in the composition of many capital letters. All of them are very large in relation to the size of the letters, rounded, full-bodied, ruddy, rather female. The masks have a sharply defined characteristic and sharpness of views, and the representation of such masks is completely uncharacteristic of Byzantine and Greek manuscripts. There are no such large and carefully executed masks in Latin illuminated manuscripts. Animal motifs in ornaments look more familiar - monsters, or rather their heads, similar to dogs, crocodiles, or fictional creatures. Byzantine tradition such monsters, disturbing and dangerous, are completely alien, they were diligently avoided.

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Presentation style

The manuscript is written in large statutory handwriting. The Ostromir Gospel belongs to the Aprakos gospels, where the texts are arranged according to weekly and daily readings, starting from Easter, in accordance with the order of church services. The Aprakos type of Holy Scripture was characteristic of the literary and linguistic environment of Byzantium, from which it was borrowed by ancient Russian scribes. The Ostromir Gospel was written less than 70 years after the adoption of Christianity and the appearance of Slavic writing in Rus'. The perfection of the artistic design of the manuscript indicates that the ornamental and applied art were very well developed in the pagan era, and they were a distinctive Slavic style, which had much more in common with Western Europe than with Byzantium.

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E. V. Krushelnitskaya

Ostromir Gospel (1056 - 1057) and the National Library of Russia:
storage and study of the monument

The Ostromir Gospel, a cultural monument of world significance, is stored in St. Petersburg in the Russian National Library (formerly the Imperial Public Library, the State Public Library named after M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin). This handwritten book, created in the 11th century, occupies a very special place among the most important monuments cultural heritage, which constitute the invaluable asset of Russia.
What is the uniqueness of the Ostromir Gospel?

Of course, this is a very ancient book, which has a luxurious decoration and has preserved the sacred gospel text on its sheets. But dozens of medieval manuscripts have survived to this day, which are true masterpieces of art, and many of them are of a more respectable age, because the handwritten tradition of Holy Scripture goes back centuries. The oldest manuscripts of the New Testament known today date from the 2nd century BC. n. e., and the Old Testament handwritten tradition can be traced from the end of the last era. The exceptional historical, cultural and scientific significance of the Ostromirov Gospel is determined by the fact that it is the oldest surviving East Slavic precisely dated handwritten book, that is, a book that has the date of creation recorded by the scribe. The Ostromir Gospel really stands at the origins of Russian literature and culture, and in modern times the study of this monument has played a decisive role in the formation and development of domestic and world paleoslav studies.

The Ostromir gospel was created in the era of the cultural upsurge and flourishing of the ancient Russian state, which followed the official adoption of Christianity as the state religion in 988 and the introduction of previously scattered pagan East Slavic tribes to the centuries-old Christian cultural tradition. It is with Christianization that the spread of Slavic writing in Rus' is connected. The Tale of Bygone Years, the oldest Russian chronicle that has survived to this day, under the year 988, tells how Prince Vladimir (d. 1015) laid the foundation for book education: he himself loved “book words” and began to give children of the best people for teaching . In 1033, the same source reports that the son of Vladimir, Prince Yaroslav, nicknamed the Wise (c. 978–1054), organized the translation and correspondence of books, thereby founding the first library in Rus' in Kiev. The books in The Tale of Bygone Years are called: "origins of wisdom", "rivers that solder the entire universe." From the 11th century only about two dozen ancient Russian books have survived to this day, and in most cases in fragments. The Ostromir Gospel has been preserved in its entirety.

On the last page of the Ostromirov Gospel there is an Afterword written by the hand of Deacon Gregory, who did the main part of the rewriting of the text. In this Afterword, Deacon Gregory reports that he rewrote this Gospel by order of the eminent Novgorod posadnik Ostromir, in the baptism of Joseph, during the reign of the Kiev prince Izyaslav Yaroslavich (1024-1078, son of Yaroslav the Wise), the work was started on October 21, 1056 and completed May 12, 1057 (thus, the book was created in seven months). Particularly emphasized is the high position of the customer of the book Ostromir, who was a representative of one of the most influential Russian families: his grandfather - Dobrynya (served as a prototype for the epic Dobrynya Nikitich) - was an uncle to Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, who baptized Rus'. Ostromir, the second cousin of Prince Vladimir, the cousin of Izyaslav, orders a luxurious book, being at the zenith of his fame, for he considers his tenure in Novgorod almost as co-government with prince of Kyiv. In the Afterword of Deacon Gregory, princes Yaroslav and Vladimir (Izyaslav's father and brother), Ostromir's wife Theophan (the Greek name testifies to her aristocratic origin) and their children and wives (without giving names) are mentioned. According to chronicle sources, it is known that Ostromir died in a campaign against the Chud tribe around 1060, leading the Novgorod squad.

Of particular interest are the dates indicated by Deacon Gregory as the start and end of the work of rewriting the Gospel. October 21 is the day of memory of Hilarion the Great. This name could not help but be associated with the name of Metropolitan Hilarion of Kiev, an outstanding ecclesiastical and political figure of the middle of the 11th century, the first Russian in the Kiev metropolitan see, orator, writer, author of the famous “Sermon on Law and Grace”. Hilarion was a like-minded and associate of Yaroslav the Wise in the struggle for the political and ideological independence of Rus' from Byzantium. Undoubtedly, Hilarion - "a good man, bookish and fasting", as the chronicle says about him - played not last role in the enlightenment of Rus', in the organization of book writing at the Kiev Sophia Cathedral, and it is not by chance that deacon Gregory begins his work on the day of memory of the saint of the same name to Hilarion. Causes rich historical associations and the date of completion of work on the Ostromir Gospel - May 12. This date connects the Ostromir Gospel, created in the 11th century, during the spread of Christian teaching in Rus', with the 4th century, when Christianity first became the state religion in the Byzantine Empire. Emperor Constantine the Great, having founded Constantinople as the capital of a Christian state, dedicated the city to the Mother of God. The Feast of Initiation was celebrated in Byzantium on May 11, 330, later this day was celebrated as the day of the Renewal of Sophia of Constantinople. And on May 12, the first Christian churches in Rus' were consecrated. It is significant that on the same days the memory of the Thessalonica brothers Cyril (d. 869) and Methodius (d. 885) is celebrated - the Enlighteners of the Slavs, whose names are associated with the emergence Slavic alphabet(according to the new style, the memory of Cyril and Methodius falls on May 25 and in our time is widely celebrated by the public as the International Day of Slavic Literature and Culture).

All this leaves no doubt that when creating the Ostromirov Gospel, a deep ideological concept was developed, which placed this handwritten code, and with it the young ancient Russian state, on the unshakable foundation of a centuries-old tradition, introduced it into the mainstream of world Christian culture. This concept of the unity of Rus' with the entire Christian world and the assertion of the high status of the ancient Russian state on the world stage is manifested not only in the symbolism of the start and end dates indicated by Deacon Gregory, the dates, obviously, are not accidental, but permeates all the main elements of the code: its language, text , decoration.

The Ostromir Gospel is written on parchment in a charter, a type of writing that genetically goes back to the uncial of Greek liturgical books and reached perfection in Slavic Cyrillic writing in Bulgaria in the 10th century, during the highest flowering of the Bulgarian kingdom during the reign of Tsar Simeon (893–927). The book is remarkable for its rich decoration, which is made with paints using gold in the so-called old Byzantine style, typical for Byzantine manuscripts of the 10th-11th centuries. In the Ostromir Gospel there are three miniatures (images of the evangelists John, Luke and Mark), about twenty exquisite headpieces with ornaments of the traditional enamel type, more than 200 large initials, the ornamental pattern of which is never repeated. A unique feature of the initials of the Ostromirov Gospel are unusual anthropomorphic and zoomorphic elements, which testify to the artistic ties of the monument not only with the Byzantine, but also with the Western European tradition.

Of particular interest is the unparalleled iconography of the miniature depicting the Evangelist John, which is placed on the very first page of the Ostromir Gospel. At the top, outside the frame framing this miniature, there is a lion, and the symbolism of this image is multifaceted: first of all, it is a symbol of Jesus Christ (in Easter hymns, the risen Christ is compared to an awakened lion), but it is also a traditional Byzantine imperial symbol. And this is very consonant. high position the customer of the manuscript, the posadnik Ostromir, and, undoubtedly, emphasizes the national significance of the book itself.

The content and structure of the text of the Ostromir Gospel is a short aprakos, that is, it belongs to the liturgical type of books of Holy Scripture. In the main part of the text, the book contains the gospel daily readings from Easter to Pentecost, as well as Saturday and Sunday readings for the following weeks of the year. The second part includes gospel readings according to the Monthly Book, starting in September, as well as a number of additional readings “for various occasions” (for example, for the consecration of the church, “in victory for the king in battle”, for sick men and women). On many sheets of the Ostromirov Gospel there are instructions for the priest to read the text intoned - ekphonetic signs. Signs of ekphonetic notation are obligatory in the Greek aprakos gospels of the 8th-14th centuries, while in Slavic manuscripts they are extremely rare: only two such Slavic aprakos are known - the Ostromir Gospel and the Kupriyanov (Novgorod) leaflets ( № 14 : F.p.I.58). Since the signs of ekphonetics are signs sound text in the temple, the Ostromir Gospel can be considered the beginning of the birth of Russian sacred music. Connection of the Gospel text with the composition of ancient Russian song collections different types described in the article by N. V. Ramazanova.

The monthly portion of the Ostromirov Gospel is of extraordinary cultural and historical interest. It contains the memory of the saints not only of the Eastern Church, but also of the Western. Such a synthesis of hagiological traditions, combined with the fact that the manuscript was created in 1057, suggests that the Ostromir Gospel is, perhaps, the last liturgical monument that has survived to this day, reflecting the unity christian church(as is known, the process of division of the united Church can be traced from the middle of the 5th century, and ends with the “great schism” in 1054). The reason for the unusual for all subsequent old Russian tradition The composition of the Menologion of the Ostromirov Gospel should first of all be sought in the features of the protograph - that handwritten book that served as the original when creating the Ostromirov Gospel. However, one cannot ignore the historical realities, namely the wide dynastic ties of the Kyiv princely house, which spread throughout the world. Data are known about 38 marriages of Rurikovich in the 11th century, of which 8 cases occur in Germany, 2 - in France, 5 - in the Scandinavian kingdoms and England, 7 - in Poland, 6 - in Hungary, 3 marriages with Polovtsian princesses, 1 - with a Byzantine princess, 2 with representatives of the Byzantine aristocracy. Thus, 27 marriages unite the princely house with the Catholic West, and only 3 marriages with Byzantium. Doesn't this also explain the breadth of cultural orientation that determined the unique combination of different traditions in the decoration of the Ostromirov Gospel?

One way or another, but in combination, these observations lead to the conclusion about the special status that the Ostromir Gospel had as a book of truly state significance. Undoubtedly, the Ostromir Gospel was intended by the customer for a precious contribution to the St. Sophia Cathedral - the main temple of northwestern Rus', which was erected in 1045-1050. in Veliky Novgorod on the model of St. Sophia of Kyiv (this temple was founded in 1037).

The fate of the Ostromir Gospel, almost a thousand-year history of the existence of the book - a witness to the entire historical development of our state, is known, however, only in general terms. On the first page of the book there is a shorthand entry of the 17th century: “The Gospel of Sophia Aprakos”. This indicates that the manuscript belonged to some Sophia church. Most likely, for several centuries the Ostromir Gospel was kept in the St. Sophia Cathedral in Veliky Novgorod until it was taken to Moscow (when this happened is unknown). Documentary history of the manuscript can be traced only from the XVIII century. An inventory of the property of the Resurrection Church of the Moscow Kremlin, compiled in 1701, indicates that at that time the Ostromir Gospel was in this Moscow church. In 1720, the ancient book was sent to St. Petersburg, where traces of it are again lost. In 1805, the Ostromir Gospel was discovered by Ya. A. Druzhinin, personal secretary of Catherine II, among the property of the late empress, who during her lifetime had shown great interest in Russian history.

In 1806, Emperor Alexander I transferred the Ostromir Gospel to the Public Library, where the oldest Russian manuscript found its place of permanent storage. From this moment begins the history of the scientific study of the Ostromirov Gospel, and all of it is most directly connected with the Public Library. It is extremely important that the research work on this monument, which has the exact date of its creation (it is the dated monuments that are the basis for the formation of one or another historical and cultural concept), formed the basis for the formation and development of both Slavic-Russian paleography and Slavic studies in general. The Department of Manuscripts, or, as it was said then, the Depot of Manuscripts, of the Public Library was established just a year earlier - in 1805. Thus, the Ostromir Gospel stands at the origins of the formation of the richest funds of the Department of Manuscripts of the National Library of Russia - the oldest state public repository of manuscripts.

The first researchers of the Ostromirov Gospel were, who in 1811 became the director of the Imperial Public Library, and the keeper of the Depot of Manuscripts. A note by A. N. Olenin to Ya. A. Druzhinin with questions regarding the history of the Ostromirov Gospel and with Druzhinin’s answers attributed on the same sheet (dated April 20, 1806) has been preserved. These answers do not clarify anything in the circumstances of the "Petersburg" period of the life of the book, except for the time and place of its discovery in the chambers of Catherine - Ya. A. Druzhinin did not know when and under what circumstances the Ostromir Gospel came to Catherine II.

If the name of A. N. Olenin, the author of the textbook paleographic work - “Letter on the Tmutarakan Stone”, is widely known, then the name of Alexander Ivanovich Ermolaev remains “in the shadows” to this day, primarily because not a single work of his the custodian did not publish. The Department of Manuscripts of the National Library of Russia has a small archival fund of A. I. Ermolaev, which stores the creative heritage of a man who is rightfully considered the first Russian paleographer (he was the teacher of paleography not only A. N. Olenin, who provided significant professional assistance in his scientific work , but also the historian N. M. Karamzin). With his detailed descriptions of the manuscripts, A. I. Ermolaev laid the foundation for the scientific description of the Department’s collections, which he himself supplemented with a valuable gift - a list of the Ipatiev Chronicle (“Yermolaev List”). Relatively recently, the only surviving portrait image of A. I. Ermolaev was discovered. All these materials are still waiting for their researcher. Here it is important to note one work of A. I. Ermolaev. This is a handwritten copy of the entire text of the Ostromirov Gospel made by him, which is still kept in the fund of the OR RNB ( № 51 : F.I.55). Folio on Russian paper with a white date "1805", in a typical cardboard cover, pasted over with marbled paper. The already mentioned note by Olenin with Druzhinin's answers is glued to the first sheet. The text of the Ostromirov Gospel was reproduced by Yermolaev line by line, letter by letter, with all superscripts and litters. The features of the design of the book are noted. The work undertaken by A. I. Ermolaev to create this manuscript is truly a feat of the custodian. It is important to emphasize that this is the first security copy purposefully made in the first state repository and designed precisely to expand access to the study of the monument without damaging the original.

According to the copy made by A. I. Ermolaev, the first linguistic study of the Ostromirov Gospel was made. And here it is necessary to remember the name of another undeservedly remaining "in the shadow" figure of Russian culture - this is Pyotr Kuzmich Frolov (1775-1839). Today, everyone is well aware of the role, the most valuable collection of which laid the foundation for the formation of the collections of the Manuscripts Department of the Public Library. The second major addition was the collection of P. K. Frolov, acquired by the Library in 1817 and numbering more than 200 manuscript books and scrolls. By the nature of his main occupations, P.K. Frolov was a mining engineer, served at the Kolyvano-Voskresensky factories and entered the history of technology as a designer and builder of the first rail (horse-cast iron) road in Russia for factory needs, the builder of the first railway bridge in Russia, as an engineer who first carried out the extraction of coke from coal and began the smelting of iron and steel on coke. At the same time, P.K. Frolov directed factory libraries and schools on the vast territories of the Kolyvanovsky factories, and in 1827 he founded the first local history museum in Siberia (in Barnaul).

Assuming the Novgorod origin of the Ostromirov Gospel, P.K. Frolov tried to find in the text ancient manuscript features of the Novgorod dialect, for which he made a word-by-word comparison of the Ostromirov Gospel with the Milyatin Gospel of the 12th century, which belonged to him, written in Novgorod ( № 29 : F.p.I.7), and with the Gospel of the XIV century. (F.p.I.17), having features of the Novgorod-Pskov dialect. Differences were noted on the pages of the Ermolaev copy and were made out as page notes. The reconciliation was not completed, since it became obvious that the text of the Ostromirov Gospel did not contain a complex of Novgorodian linguistic features.

Speaking about the first stage of the scientific study of the Ostromirov Gospel in the Public Library, it is important to note that the researchers readily communicated the results of this work to all those interested, including N. M. Karamzin (the first publisher of the Afterword of Deacon Gregory), Evgeny Bolkhovitinov, Count N. P Rumyantsev and others. Received in the state storage fund unique monument was immediately introduced into wide scientific circulation.

Next milestone The study of the Ostromirov Gospel is associated with a name that served for 28 years in the Public Library. In 1815, A. Kh. Vostokov entered the library as an assistant curator of the Department of Manuscripts (that is, A. I. Ermolaev) and directly joined the richest material for scientific work, and already in 1820 his “Discourse on the Slavic Language” saw the light of day, immediately putting Vostokov into the first row of linguist philologists, known not only in Russia, but in all Slavic countries. In 1828, after the death of A. I. Ermolaev, A. Kh. Vostokov became the curator of the Department of Manuscripts. The works of Vostokov showed that the Ostromir Gospel is a monument not of the regional dialect, but of the all-Russian literary language, genetically related to language Slavic peoples, primarily Bulgarians.

A. Kh. Vostokov prepared the first scientific edition of the Ostromirov Gospel, which was published in 1843. The publication was carried out with funds allocated by the Academy of Sciences, provided at the disposal of the Academy in 1835 by the archaeologist and historian A. D. Chertkov with the intended purpose of sending them to publication of some ancient Russian manuscript (the amount was half the Demidov Prize received by A. D. Chertkov for the book “Description of ancient Russian coins”). The text of the Ostromirov Gospel in Vostokov's edition is typed in exact accordance with the original in a special font, similar in form to the letter of the original and made with the participation of Vostokov himself. The appendix contains lithographed drawings of all three miniatures of the Ostromirov Gospel and facsimile images of two sheets (sheet 89 and sheet 210 rev.). The text of the Ostromirov Gospel is supplemented by the corresponding Greek Gospel text (for this, A. Kh. Vostokov used two editions of the New Testament, published in 1703 and 1830). The scientific apparatus is composed of detailed paleographic notes, linguistic analysis text and volume index. The edition of A. Kh. Vostokov has not lost its scientific significance to this day, although it has long since become a bibliographic rarity.

Thanks to wide scientific relations A. Kh. Vostokova The Ostromir Gospel has become the object of research by many scientists in the Slavic countries and throughout the world. Suffice it to name the Czech linguist Josef Dobrovsky (in his book “Cyril and Methodius – Slavic Apostles” published in 1823, who attached a snapshot of the Lord’s Prayer “Our Father” from the Ostromirov Gospel transmitted by Vostokovsky), the Czech poet and philologist Vaclav Ganka (in 1853 in Prague, who published the first foreign edition of the Ostromir Gospel on the basis of Vostokov’s edition), the Slovenian scholar Bartholomew Kopitar (who in 1830 found the famous Glagolitic “Klotsev collection”, similar in spelling to the Ostromir Gospel), a Slovak historian and linguist, one of the founders of the comparative study of the language, literature and ethnography of the Slavic peoples of Pavel Shafarik.

After A. Kh. Vostokov, in 1844, a historian, archeographer, bibliographer, later an academician and director of the Public Library became the custodian of the Department of Manuscripts. On the big list printed works there are several articles devoted to the Ostromirov gospel. In one of them, A.F. Bychkov drew attention to ekphonetic signs, noting that they are not present in their entire composition in the Ostromir Gospel. But the main direction of the study of the Ostromirov Gospel at that time remained its linguistic study as a monument of Russian writing and language. The gospels about Ostromirov were written by prominent scientists: F. I. Buslaev, I. I. Sreznevsky, A. A. Potebnya, V. N. Shchepkin. At the same time, the study of the monument was carried out according to the publication of Academician A. Kh. Vostokov.

The exhibition of the Ostromirov Gospel and other illuminated manuscripts, organized by A.F. Bychkov in 1856 for the 800th anniversary of the monument, played an important role in expanding the scope of the study. At the jubilee exhibition, the Ostromir Gospel was first seen by an employee of the Library, an art critic. This was the beginning of the art history study of the manuscript. V. V. Stasov noted that the initials of the Ostromirov Gospel have features that are not found in either Russian or Byzantine manuscripts of the 9th–11th centuries. The Ostromir gospel did not become the subject of a special study by V.V. Stasov, but is constantly mentioned in his works on the history of ornament. The main conclusion of V. V. Stasov about the decoration of the Ostromirov Gospel comes down to the conclusion that it was made by an artel of Russian miniaturists and ornamentalists (at least three miniaturists and two ornamentalists).

In 1881, A. F. Bychkov was replaced as curator of the Department of Manuscripts by his son, a well-known archeographer, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences. Having served in the Department of Manuscripts until his death, I. A. Bychkov for several decades contributed in every possible way to the study of the Ostromirov Gospel, although there is not a single work dedicated specifically to this monument in the list of his works.

80s 19th century were marked by the publication of a photolithographed edition of the Ostromirov Gospel, issued in two editions (1882 and 1889) at the expense of the merchant Ilya Kirillovich Savinkov. This edition made the Ostromir Gospel widely known in Russia; in many higher and secondary educational institutions of the country, texts were read from this edition when studying the Old Church Slavonic language.

Largely due to the circulation of Savinkov's edition, a period of new studies of the monument began, which increasingly included paleographic observations, leading to important conclusions regarding the history of the book's creation. So, M. M. Kozlovsky, studying the language of the Ostromirov Gospel, was the first to notice that the manuscript was written by more than one scribe. F. F. Fortunatov established language differences different parts manuscripts and suggested that two manuscripts served as protographers for the Ostromirov Gospel, which explained the identified linguistic differences. N. M. Karinsky conducted a thorough paleographic analysis of the text and convincingly showed that Fortunatov’s linguistic conclusions are confirmed not by the presence of two protographers, but by the fact that the text was rewritten by two scribes (while another, third scribe wrote in gold the headings of individual readings).

Extraordinary Splash scientific interest to the Ostromirov Gospel in the middle of the 20th century. occurred in connection with the celebration of the 900th anniversary of the monument. It was at this time that the first restoration study of the Ostromirov Gospel was carried out and its thorough restoration was carried out (restorer Elena Khristianovna Trey). The scientific effect of the jubilee exhibition, organized in May 1957 in the Department of Manuscripts by the custodian of ancient Russian funds, book scholar, and archeographer, was especially significant. N. N. Rozov thoroughly described the history of scientific study and publication of the Ostromirov Gospel, published archival documents that shed light on many curious details. At the exhibition prepared by N. N. Rozov, specialists had the opportunity to get acquainted with the priceless original. Using this opportunity, L.P. Zhukovskaya summed up the results of the previous period and outlined the prospects for further linguistic research of the monument. Having considered the grammatical, morphological, lexical and other aspects of studying the language of the Ostromirov Gospel, L.P. Zhukovskaya came to the important conclusion that it is impossible to resolve the issue of the place of creation of the Ostromirov Gospel on the basis of linguistic data. The exposition in the Department of Manuscripts also intensified attention to the artistic side of the monument. So, A. N. Svirin emphasized the iconographic proximity of the miniatures of the Ostromirov Gospel and the miniatures of the Mstislav Gospel, created in 1103–1117. by order Prince of Novgorod Mstislav scribe Alexa. Taking into account the complete identity of ornamental motifs, A. N. Svirin suggested that deacon Gregory and, 60 years later, Alexa could use some common original.

In 1957, in the course of scientific events that actualized attention to the monument, which requires a comprehensive study, experts put forward the task of facsimile edition of the Ostromirov Gospel. This edition was prepared with the leading participation of N. N. Rozov and the support of the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate. The facsimile edition of the Ostromirov Gospel was published in 1988, on the occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus', and currently plays the role of the main security copy of the priceless monument.

The scientific apparatus of the facsimile edition of the Ostromirov Gospel testifies to the expansion of the range of cultural and historical issues in the context of which this handwritten monument is considered. In addition to the multifaceted article by N. N. Rozov, a study by Metropolitan Pitirim (Nechaev) of Volokolamsk and Yuryevsk is presented on the features of the composition of liturgical readings and the structural division of the text in the Ostromir Gospel. The author gives an overview of the development of the principles and methods of dividing the gospel text, starting from the 5th century, when liturgical passages (“perikopes”, from the Greek “cut”; in Slavonic usage - “conception”) began to be distinguished in red letters, to II– 3rd century n. e., when the deacon of the Alexandrian church, Ammonius, proposed that system of division (the so-called “Ammonian domes”), which was reflected in the Ostromir Gospel and was preserved in Rus' until the 17th century. The history of the creation of the Ostromir Gospel against the broad socio-cultural background of the era of Kievan Rus is considered by N. N. Lisov, who comes to the conclusion about the Kiev origin of the Ostromir Gospel. A. N. Svirin continued his observations on the decoration of the book. If N. N. Rozov was inclined to see in the unusual initials of the Ostromir Gospel the echoes of the ancient Slavic pagan myths, then Svirin found in one of the initials (on sheet 66v.) an image of the ancient Iranian deity Senmurv-paskuja, corresponding to the Slavic Simargl. Perhaps the most ancient Russian book reflected the situation of dual faith - a mixture of paganism and Christianity.

The facsimile edition contributed not only to the preservation of the original, but also to the deepening of a comprehensive study of the Ostromirov Gospel. Significant results were achieved by the art criticism study of the monument. The authoritative judgment of V. N. Lazarev that the decoration of the Ostromirov Gospel is Byzantine in nature, but has features Western European art, and that the type of depiction of the evangelists with their symbols presented in the monument is not found in Eastern Christian and Byzantine manuscripts and, on the contrary, is very common in Carolingian and Ottonian manuscripts, was creatively developed by O. S. Popova and resulted in a harmonious concept of the artistic system of the Ostromirov Gospel. Drawing on a wide comparative material, O. S. Popova comes to the conclusion that the Ostromir Gospel is a model Byzantine art transitional period from the late Macedonian stage to the early Comnenos. At the same time, the artistic system of the monument organically includes elements of Western Ottonian art, and such a free combination of different traditions could only take place on an “autonomous” territory in relation to these traditions - in Rus'. O. S. Popova emphasizes that the writing and decoration of the book were created at the same time and in one place, since they are subject to a common plan. Analyzing in detail creative manners performance of the miniatures of the Ostromirov Gospel, O. S. Popova singles out two masters who may have taken part in writing the “masks” in the initials. At least one of these masters was a Byzantine artist, but he worked in Rus'. Interesting Observations, which serve as a justification for the above conclusions, the reader will find in the article by O. S. Popova.

A special stage in the study of the Ostromirov Gospel is a specialized study undertaken by a well-known Slavic philologist, paleographer and archeographer. A student of N. N. Rozov, V. M. Zagrebin for 30 years was the custodian of the Old Russian funds of the Department of Manuscripts of the Russian national library. The fundamental work of V. M. Zagrebin "Diacritics of medieval Slavic manuscripts", based on the material of dozens of South Slavic and Old Russian manuscripts, includes a chapter devoted to the study of ekphonetic signs in the Ostromir Gospel and in the Kupriyanov (Novgorod) leaflets ( № 14 ) is a surviving fragment of the Aprakos Gospel of the 10th-11th centuries. Comparing the ekphonetic signs of these monuments with Greek manuscripts of the same period, V.M. Zagrebin noted that the graphic features, color and system of arranging signs in the Kupriyanov leaflets and in the Ostromir Gospel suggest a direct dependence of the Slavic ekphonetic notation on the Greek one. In the process of carefully studying the notated fragments of the text of the Ostromirov Gospel according to the original, using a strong magnifying glass, V. M. Zagrebin established that the ekphonetic signs in the manuscript were later edited, and described the nature of the editing. It turned out to be impossible to directly compare the Kupriyanov leaflets with the text in the Ostromir Gospel corresponding to this fragment in terms of the use of ekphonetic signs, since there is no notation in these readings in the Ostromir Gospel. Nevertheless, V. M. Zagrebin draws attention to the observations of the Yugoslav musicologist D. Stefanovich, who noticed that in the fragment of the text of the Ostromirov Gospel corresponding to the Kupriyanov sheets there are somewhat enlarged spaces between words in those places where ekphonetic signs are found in the Kupriyanov sheets, then there is a place for these signs in the Ostromir gospel, as it were, deliberately left.

This conclusion makes us once again turn to the question of the relationship between the two monuments - the Ostromirov Gospel and the Kupriyanov Sheets. F.F. Fortunatov wrote about the connection between these manuscripts, who, based on linguistic data, came to the conclusion that both monuments had one common protograph (however, F.F. Fortunatov considered the language of the Ostromirov Gospel to be older than the language of Kupriyanov sheets). The famous Yugoslav paleographer and historian V. A. Moshin, having considered a complex of linguistic, spelling and artistic features Kupriyanov leaflets and the Ostromirov gospel, and drawing on an analysis of the political events of the 10th–11th centuries, suggested that the Kupriyanov leaflets are a fragment of the code that served as a protograph when creating the Ostromirov gospel. This assumption finds convincing textual substantiation in the results of the research project of the Slavic manuscript tradition of the New Testament carried out under the direction of A. A. Alekseev in the St. Petersburg Branch of the Russian Bible Society. The whole complex of weighty arguments of a historical and philological nature in support of the fact that the Ostromir Gospel was copied from the codex, fragments of which are the Kupriyanov leaflets, is presented in the article by A. A. Alekseev in this catalogue. This conclusion, in turn, serves as a justification for the Novgorod origin of the Ostromirov Gospel - after all, fragments of the protograph of the book survived into the 19th century. were discovered by I.K. Kupriyanov in Novgorod!

The problem of the genetic connection between the two oldest Slavic Cyrillic monuments - the Kupriyanov sheets and the Ostromirov Gospel - makes us once again turn to the remaining debatable issue of the place where the Ostromirov Gospel was created. Indeed, the only direct source of information about the birth of the book - the afterword of deacon Gregory - is silent about where the responsible order of the posadnik Ostromir was carried out. The high craftsmanship of the production of the manuscript - both the writing itself and the decoration - speaks of the creation of the codex in a professional scriptorium, especially since three scribes and several artists took part in the work. But where was this scriptorium? Ostromir had sufficient funds to order work not only in Kyiv or Novgorod, but also in Constantinople. The material of the manuscript itself, parchment, is extremely expensive. It should be noted here that the parchment of the Ostromirov Gospel, although it cannot be categorized as High Quality dressing, but it is quite thin and could not be made in Rus' in the 11th century. At the same time, a significant argument against the Constantinopolitan origin of the manuscript is the fact that in Byzantine scriptoria it was customary to cover parchment with a special composition based on egg yolk before writing, but the sheets of the Ostromir Gospel do not have traces of such processing. Obviously, the manuscript was created in Rus' on "imported" material, which, however, could be delivered both to Kyiv and Novgorod. Do not help to resolve the issue and attempts to establish the ethnicity of the scribe, Deacon Gregory. The name Gregory was common throughout the Christian world - it could be worn by a Slav, a Greek, and a monk who belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. And the linguistic, dialectal characteristics, according to the manuscript, turned out to be extremely difficult due to the high professionalism of the scribe - Deacon Gregory carefully and accurately copied the original he had, not allowing distortions of the sacred text presented in the language that was common at that time. bookish language all Slavs. Only in the text of the Afterword, and even in several Slavic names of the months in the month-word part (“glow” - August, “prosinets” - January), are linguistic features indicated that Deacon Gregory was Eastern Slav, ancient Russian man. But it is not known whether it was a Novgorodian or a Kievan, which, incidentally, plays almost no role in the issue of the localization of the manuscript, because a professional scribe could move from one book center to another.

The logical assumption that the book destined for Novgorod was and was created there is a hypothesis that P.K. Frolov tried to substantiate linguistically and which currently finds support in a whole complex of historical and textual arguments. The special nature of the Afterword leaves no doubt that all the data indicated in it are not accidental, but correspond to a specially developed ideological concept. Therefore, the absence of one or another mention should not be accidental. And here you can pay attention to the fact that in the Afterword not only the place of creation of the book is not indicated, but not a single name of the clergyman is given. We can find an explanation in the church-political situation that took place just at the time of the book's creation.

In Kyiv at that time, the metropolitan was Ephraim, a Greek sent by the Patriarchate of Constantinople. And the Rusich Metropolitan Hilarion, who enjoyed tremendous authority, who played an outstanding role in the enlightenment of Rus' and the struggle for the autocephaly of the Russian Church, was removed from the Kiev metropolitan see and subsequently retired to the Kiev Caves Monastery. In the Novgorod II Chronicle under 1055, the new Metropolitan Ephraim is already mentioned (the practice of appointing a Greek hierarch as the head of the Russian Church existed before Hilarion and many centuries later). In Novgorod, at that very time, the hierarch was absent: Novgorodian Luka Zhidyata, appointed as a bishop of Novgorod back in 1036, was slandered in 1055, exiled to Kiev and detained there until 1058 (having been released, he died on the way to Novgorod in 1059 /1060). If in the book of state status, which was the Ostromir Gospel, the name of the Greek Metropolitan Efrem, who was then the head of the Russian church, was mentioned, this would be discordant with the general ideological setting of the monument. And the mention of the Novgorod bishop would forever link the book with an ambiguous situation, while the silence about him formally corresponded to the state of affairs, for Luka Zhidyata was not in Novgorod at that time. Against the background of the absence in the text of the Afterword of the names of the hierarchs of the church, the significance of the date when work on the book began is even brighter. By choosing October 21, the day of memory of Hilarion the Great, Deacon Gregory got the opportunity to indirectly mention in the Afterword the one who must certainly be mentioned in accordance with the ideological concept of the creation of the book - the Russian Metropolitan Hilarion, who thus seemed to bless the undertaken work. It becomes clear that Deacon Gregory had no need to specify the place where he worked on the manuscript - much more important for him and, above all, for the customer of the Ostromir manuscript, was that the book was created in Rus'.

Nevertheless, the scientific question of the place of creation of the Ostromirov Gospel continues to excite researchers. Perhaps some additional arguments can be obtained on the basis of special codicological observations, which, however, encounter a serious obstacle in the insufficiency of comparative material: too few Slavic manuscripts have survived to this day from that distant era. On the other hand, dozens, hundreds of book monuments have been preserved, created in Rus' in subsequent centuries and forming the richest thousand-year tradition of the art of the handwritten book, that tradition, at the beginning of which stands the Ostromir Gospel.

The sea of ​​ancient Russian handwritten literature is boundless and varied, just as the whole multitude of works of ancient Russian literature preserved by handwritten sources is boundless. In this diversity, a bright jet of the manuscript tradition of the New Testament stands out. Old Russian literature, like any other European literature, begins with the Gospel, the text of which not only underlies the work of the first Russian writers - Metropolitan Hilarion of Kiev, Bishop Kirill of Turov, Bishop Serapion of Vladimir, and other unnamed authors - but permeates each work with obvious or subtle reminiscences on the great thousand-year path of Russian literature. The gospel text as a sacred narrative at all times demanded absolutely special treatment to its reproduction in the book, therefore, the handwritten Gospels give an idea of ​​the highest achievements of the art of book writing of a particular era. These peaks are presented in this exhibition, which allows us to place the highest of them - the Ostromir Gospel - in the context of the previous Byzantine and subsequent Slavic manuscript tradition of the New Testament texts.

More than a quarter of a century has passed since one venerable hierarch of our Church, in a confidential conversation, suggested that I begin work on the translation of the New Testament. Then I was afraid of such a responsible task - and now, in all honesty, I think that I was right. I too clearly lacked then the experience of translation work, special knowledge in theology, Semitology, etc., not to mention inner experience. But I did not forget the task set before me in that conversation and tried to prepare myself for it by various activities. When I finally decided to sit down to translate the Synoptic Gospels, I had, first of all, two interconnected thoughts: about the fear of God and about the Hippocratic imperative “do not harm!”

Nowadays, more and more new translations of the New Testament texts appear. For a person who has not completely forgotten the fear of God, there is something to think about. Our popular English religious writer C. S. Lewis, who was by no means a fundamentalist or an obscurantist, once remarked, “The more the Bible is translated, the less it is known.” To understand Lewis's position in its entirety, one must, of course, take into account that he himself defended the idea of ​​modern biblical translations and, at the end of his life, did not refuse to participate in the commission that was engaged precisely in the preparation of such, so that his attitude to the issue was in no way reduced to negativism. . But his cautionary remark is worth considering. When the Translation is the only one, the simple believer, who is neither a professional philologist nor a professional theologian, feels like just reading the Word of God, not thinking about the Translation at all; when there are many translations, this feeling willy-nilly (p. 306) goes away. Defending the practice of new translations, we refer to the needs of our contemporaries, who are what they are, but just as much in need of soul salvation as the bearers of the old religious culture; but just the thought of these needs obliges us to take into account the problems of those same contemporaries who find it difficult to understand how now, say, to quote something Holy Bible(whether in a conversation with another or in an internal conversation with oneself).

Life gets complicated; meanwhile, opinions that come into conflict with each other, on the contrary, are clearly simplified, becoming less and less nuanced, more and more monosyllabic. Our time is characterized by a sharp polarization of views on a variety of issues, including the question of how the word of Holy Scripture should appear to the modern reader. At one extreme is the same idea of ​​the impregnable sacredness of this word, which at one time made it so difficult for the formation and appearance of the Synodal Translation. At the other extreme, on the contrary, is the demand for maximum modernity, "looseness", in a word, proximity to the reader, accessibility.

In the face of these extreme positions, I would like to take and perhaps more consistently practice the middle position. It must be, however, precisely a position, not eclecticism and not simply a compromise. The most important thing is that only the middle path, in my opinion, corresponds to the fundamental complexity of the very essence of the matter.

The availability of a Bible translation is both a legitimate and problematic requirement. The Lord, about whom the Gospels speak, is so accessible that he sits at the table of such people with whom every self-respecting Jew avoided communication (Luke 5:30 ( “But the scribes and the Pharisees murmured and said to His disciples: why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”)), and He is so inaccessible that Magdalene hears from the Risen One: "do not touch me"(Jo 20:17). “The Christian reader of Scripture is commanded to enter through the narrow gate, to walk in the narrow way (Mt 7:13-14 ( “13 Enter through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many go through it; 14 For narrow is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”)): the translator has not only the right, but also the duty to carefully remove from the narrow path every extra stone that happens to be there, but he cannot turn the narrow path into a wide one. The Gospels depict the reaction of the first hearers of Christ's words: "Never has a man said so,(p. 307) like this man"(Jo 7:46); and again: “This word is difficult [Synod. — how strange these words], who can listen to him” (Jo 6:60). We must do everything so that the Word is not vague, vague, unintelligible. But we cannot make it stop being difficult.

A heatedly, not without vehemence, discussed question is whether our contemporaries should read Holy Scripture in a special, "sacred", "sublime" language, kept at an even distance from the prose of everyday life, or in an equally uniformly "modern" language, at every point close to habits of the reader, nothing surprising him, "uninhibited" and smooth - is it set correctly? After all, no matter how you decide it, its very staging presupposes, in both solutions, the stylistic and semantic homogeneity of the text. Meanwhile, not to mention the Old Testament, which combines prosaic and poetic works of very different eras and genres, not to mention the whole canon of the New Testament, within the limits of the one and only Gospel of Luke, moreover, its very first page, we find a sharp contrast between the prologue (1: 1-4 ( “1 As many have already begun to compose narratives about events that are completely known between us, 2 as they were handed down to us by those who were from the very beginning eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word, 3 it was also decided for me, after a careful study of everything from the beginning, to describe to you in order, venerable Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the solid foundation of the doctrine in which you have been instructed.”)) built according to the Greek school rules, and immediately after it follows (beginning with 1:5) the story about the parents of John the Baptist, sustained in the angular-Semitic style of the Septuagint (cf. Joshua 1:1 ( “After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of Moses…”); Judgment 1:1 ( “After the death of Jesus, the sons of Israel inquired of the Lord, saying, Which of us will go first against the Canaanites to fight against them?”); Ruth 1:1 ( “In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And a man went out from Bethlehem of Judea with his wife and his two sons to dwell in the fields of Moab.”); 1 Samuel 1:1 ( “There was a man from Ramathaim-Zophim, from Mount Ephraim, his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Eli, the son of Tohu, the son of Zeph, the Ephrathian”) and other beginnings). The first phrase is a smoothly unfolding and rounded period in the taste of good Greek rhetoric; the phenomenon of the literary norm; the second phrase, on the contrary, suggests a semiotically articulated intonation of the biblical narrative. Is it possible to translate both in the same key? In my opinion, this incident already removes the too indiscriminately posed question about the need or uselessness of a special “biblical” tone and color for our translations. When the evangelist does not need "biblicalisms", he does without them; when he needs them, he resolutely introduces them. In other words, the beginning of the Gospel of Luke gives us in a particularly clear form the paradigm of movement between the poles of missionary "accommodation" to secular culture - and the introduction of the reader into a special world, referring (p. 308) to some established tradition. The teacher's address to the student before the lesson - and then the beginning of the lesson itself: the voice sounds differently dialogical openness replaces focus on the subject We should not just think about different intonations, different "stylistic keys"; this is the religious pedagogy of the Evangelist, now removing the reader's sense of distance, then restoring this feeling. If we refuse either the first (as the Synodal translation) or the second (as the modernizing translations), we are sinning against the will of the Evangelist. I am afraid that we will sin against the will of the Lord Himself. When He offers in parables purely concrete, purely prosaic and worldly images Everyday life, these images should be tangibly worldly, perhaps more visual, the vocabulary should not be too “soaring”. But when Christ uses words that already in His time were, so to speak, “Biblicalisms”, for they referred to the texts of the Old Testament or, more often, to a special dictionary of eschatological aspirations, the rejection of their stylistic isolation will lead not to more, but to less intelligibility. The stylistic singling out of formulas, which even then pointed to a special, in no way worldly meaning, is justified not by aesthetic, still less aesthetic considerations, but by the imperative of semantic articulation - and, in my opinion, by the duty to orient the reader. A word referring to the Old Testament or to eschatological concepts is a sign and a sign. The symbolic word, which clearly signals its function, is no less understandable in this function, but more understandable than the more worldly one.

“Modern Russian language” is a phrase whose meaning is far from being as simple, self-evident and unambiguous as it might seem at first glance. It is quite often used to denote common language, excluding absolutely everything that sounds "archaic". The use of such language creates the illusion that the environment in which the action takes place is modernity; moreover, modernity, quite equal to itself, excluding everything inherited from former times, that is, modernity as the absolute idea of ​​modernity, as chemically pure “fatherlessness”. Thank God, there is no such purity of the phenomenon even today; all the more it could not have been in (p. 309) ancient times. Christianity, unlike a number of other teachings, not only does not deny historical time, but affirms its spiritual significance. In our Creed, this is reminiscent of the words “under Pontius Pilate”: the eternal God’s plan to save the world comes true in the era of the Roman Empire, especially under such and such a local ruler (dating technique was normal in ancient times), - concreteness "chronotope" is one of the aspects of the doctrinal truth about the Incarnation. In a certain, very specific sense, the believer perhaps feels himself a contemporary of the earthly life of Christ, as Kierkegaard insisted, but this does not mean at all that the earthly life of Christ is contemporary with our present. Modernity is not only reality; it is also the (more or less anti-Christian) ideology of modernity. "You have to be modern." Lewis, already quoted by me, called this chronological provincialism. Christ comes to the believer in the reality of the present; but I fear that He will not come into an isolationist ideological space that does not want to know anything but itself. Therefore, it seems to me impossible to use lexemes for translating the Gospels that have arisen quite recently, in our memory, and so strongly associated with the wickedness of today. Thank God, the modern Russian language in the reasonable understanding of this formula cannot be reduced to such lexemes. On the other hand, our real, objectively given localization in time in a certain way rearranges our view of the older layers of the language, just as the perspective changes when looking back from different points along the path. It is impossible to raise the question of archaisms in general - some archaisms, alas, for the modern reader are obscured in their meaning, others, while retaining the stylistic quality of archaisms, turn out to be quite understandable; some are rejected by the modern ear, others are acceptable to him.

I have also tried to avoid sweeping decisions in my approach to what the Synodal Translation has to offer. If this translation did not contain, in my opinion, a number of significant incoherences, a number of inconsistent acts of choice - what is worth, against the background of a number of literalisms, Inaccurate "subject of contention" (Luke 2:34 ( “And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, His mother: Behold, this lies for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel and for the subject of controversy”)) where we are talking about a sign and (p. 310) a sign! - I would hardly even sit down for a new translation. But the desire to move away from the Synodal translation as far as possible was alien to me. The Russian religious lexicon is so significantly shaped by him (and even more so, of course, by the Slavic translation) that without a sharp break with the past, which, in my opinion, I could not wish for, it is impossible to re-coin designations for a certain set of key concepts. On the other hand, there are cases when it seemed to me that I had to change a very familiar rendering of a Greek word. So, I strove to go the middle way - so that the feeling of national tradition obliges, but does not bind and does not cover the great debt to the original. Whether I succeeded, I don’t know - no one is my own judge.