Abstract

The circle of zealots of piety, or “Bogolyubtsy”, had a key infl uence on the schism of the Church and the entire Russian society, as well as on the conduct of book correction and the development of church institutions. Among other things, its representatives formed the core of book scholarship of that time. Notes in books belonging to these outstanding figures of Russian book culture and church history of the 17th century are an important historical source. This article introduces previously unknown inscriptions into scholarly circulation, preserved mainly on copies of old printed Cyrillic editions. They belong both to individuals who were part of the zealots of old piety and to some people directly associated with this circle. The author deals with donation and ownership notes in books that once belonged to Grigoriy Neronov, the czar’s confessor Stefan Vnifant’iev (Vonifat’iev), Reverend Dionysius (Zobninovskiy), and Bishop Alexander of Vyatka. The notes examined in the article were mostly identified in recently described state and little-known private collections and were not previously listed in bibliographies. The largest number of discovered copies belongs to the collection of Stefan Vnifant’iev; all were printed at the Moscow Print Yard in the early 1650s and contain the owner’s handwritten autograph notes. No less interesting is the fate of the book donation by Bishop Alexander of Vyatka to the Koryazhma Monastery: the preserved and described book is traced through the monastery’s documentation of the 17th century. A significant addition to the known historiographical corpus of preserved book donations by Reverend Dionysius (Zobninovskiy) are the two old printed editions discovered, which became donations in memory of the recently deceased donor. Furthermore, the article provides a note made on behalf of Grigoriy Neronov, another key participant in the church history events of the mid-17th century, who was well acquainted with Reverend Dionysius, Bishop Alexander and Stefan Vnifant’iev.

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