VERSES BY DIMITRY OF ROSTOV IN THE MANUSCRIPT COLOPHON BY THE OLD BELIEVER MAXIM FROM AROUND 1820s

Abstract

There are three unique Old Believer manuscript books written on canvas. It is established that all of them were written around the 1820s by Maxim, an adherent of the sect of the beglopopovtsy (“runaway priests”). Two books are anonymous; the third, a prayer book of the “kanonnik” type, contains a colophon in the beginning of which Maxim almost verbatim cited syllabic verses with a mesostic from the Menologium ( Cheti Minei) of Dimitry of Rostov, a renowned critic of Old Believers. Maxim added his own name to the citation. Certain features of the ornament in the canvas codices suggest that Maxim was acquainted with both the Synodal and the Ukrainian-Belarusian book tradition. The citation from Dimitry of Rostov proves this supposition. Maxim’s colophon represents new evidence of Dmitry of Rostov’s literary influence on Old Believers, which has yet received little attention.