An Old Believers’ Convolute with a 17th Century Manuscript in the Zabai’kalskaya Collection of SPSTL SB RAS

The purpose of this article is to present the results of a codicological study of the convolute F.III.26 in the Zabaikal’skaya (Transbaikal) collection of rare books and manuscripts in the Ancient Depository named after E. I. Dergacheva-Skop of SPSTL SB RAS (Novosibirsk). The study found that the convolute was compiled in Siberia around 1805 by Old Believer fur traders that operated via the city of Irkutsk. The book's location in the vicinity of Bichura, an Old Believer village in Buryatia, where it was discovered by archaeographers in 1959, has been traced since the late 19^th century. Furthermore, the article provides a scientific description of four manuscripts that make up the convolute. The oldest of them dates back to the second quarter of the 17th century, and contains one of the earliest copies of the Tale of Ioann and Longin of Yarenga. The Pomor village of Yarenga in the Russian North has been identified as the original location of the manuscripts from inscriptions. The other three manuscripts in the book are Old Believer in origin, two of them having been written shortly before the compilation of the convolute. 

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