21 Greatest Treasures: Ancient Slavic Manuscripts

The collection “21 Greatest Treasures: Ancient Slavic Manuscripts” contains the most important works from the Moscow State University Library’s entire collection, and they are among the most important in all of Russia. Many of the manuscripts are well known, but some were published for the first time in this collection. None has been available before in microform.

Religious in nature, the manuscripts include such items as Aprokos Gospels, Books of Psalms, and Euchologia, Saints’ Lives, and a Church Calendar.  Regions that later became Old Believer strongholds, such as the Upper Kamah, Vetka and Irghiz, are well-represented in the collection. There is also a Bessarabian book of Psalms and a Euchologion.

Click here for a complete list of titles in this collection.

The structure of the printed guide to this microfiche collection follows the format developed by the Commission for Archeography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, with necessary adjustments made due to the specific nature of the guide. Entries are arranged chronologically and, within each chronological unit, in alphabetical order by Russian title. The information is provided in both Russian and English.

The elements in each entry include: the Moscow State University Library call number; title and the date of the manuscript; language; size and dimension; number of leaves; material on which the text is written; type of script and description of handwriting(s); information on binding and decorations; notes and markings; contents of the manuscripts; its physical condition; date and source of the acquisition; notes and bibliography.  The Guide is supplemented with the Index of the manuscripts.