Technological Peculiarities of Old Russian Books as Reflected in Early Modern Inventories of Monastic Libraries

The paper analyzes inventories of the late 15th–17th centuries from four major Russian monasteries: St Cyril’s Belozersk, Solovetsky monastery, Joseph-Volokolamsk and Holy Trinity – Sergius monastery. These list monasteries’ property for its safekeeping. monastic libraries contain valuable information about system book keeping development bibliography in Old Rus’. They also provide some clues attribution books, which can help reconstructing concepts bookmaking technologies Early Modern period. technological notes descriptions books are organized according to created by compilers: format, binding, artistic values, type technique writing, page’s composition, writing material, state preservation. shows that goal creating these was single out most important elements allowing recognize book. Yet description not uniform. attention mainly directed external a From second half 16th century cursive so-called metnoe pismo (a sort scrittura usuale) were already recognized as different standard had be distinguished indicated inventories. reflected those characteristics librarians therefore shaped certain semantic structures professional mentality bookmen. For modern scholars they serve markers follow process