Our Notes & References

Lovely, small-format illustrated Old Believers’ almanac, most probably from an important, known monastery whose scriptorium mostly employed women – later banned by the Russian government.

Complete, and preserving its fresh contemporary colours and gilt.

“The arrangement of the church singing and the all-year assembly, from the month of September to the month of August…”, also known as Sviattsy, reminds worshipers when to commemorate different saints and other important events in Christianity. These short daily indications are followed here by Paskhaliia, a table for determining the dates of Easter and other movable feasts for the years 1766-1884 (or 7273-7392), Paskhaliia azbuchnaia zriachaia for calculating days of fasting, and then the schedule of Lunar phases for the entire cycle of 19 years.

Because of the exquisitely rendered calligraphy and the use of gilt in headpieces and in text, this manuscript was very likely created at the Vygovskii monastery in the Karelia region, “one of the first and the largest […] centre of the priestless Old Believers (bespopovtsy) […] In terms of beauty, quality of materials and craftsmanship, the Vygovskii manuscripts rightfully rank first among the majority of manuscripts of the Slavic-Russian tradition created after the Russian Church schism [in the mid-17th century]” (Gudkov, our translation and our underlining here and below ).

The Vygovskii Monastery was founded by the River Vyg in modern-day Karelia in 1694, followed by the establishment of the neighbouring Leksinskii (Leksa) female monastery in 1706. The period during most of the 18th century after 1717 is considered the height of the economic and cultural achievements of the community. Deprived of printing facilities, the monastery, also called Vygoleksinskii (Vyg and Leksa), revived manuscript book production on a significant scale. The Vyg school of calligraphy and miniature painting was formed by the 1720s to develop an “exceptionally skilful and exquisite book design” (Iukhimenko). “A somewhat unusual circumstance for that time was that the majority of the Vygovskii monastery scribes [and artists] were women — residents of the Leksa monastery” (Gudkov).

Such miniature-format almanacs became particularly popular in the 1820-40s and were presented as gifts on special occasions to the monastery’s benefactors and other important members of the Vygovskii community. Unlike most other, comparable examples, this Sviattsy has a dynamic and less rigid structure in its frontispiece and the first page. Some decorative elements, such as birds and flowers, extend beyond their frames, which are filled with yellow backgrounds and hatchings. The head- and tailpieces in red, green, yellow, blue, orange and gilt seem to evolve according to the artist’s taste and are not defined by strict rules.

Its dating remains a bit unclear: it might date from the 1760s if we consider the Paskhaliia as a starting point (it begins in 1766); but it may also have been copied from other, earlier examples, without recalculating the Paskhaliia tables.

In 1838, the Russian government banned the Vygovskii monastery from copying and distributing books, and by 1856, the monastery was shut down.

With near-contemporary marginalia. This copy contains occasional remarks by its mid-19th century anonymous owner, most likely a woman, noting birthdays, name days (“den angela”), and days of deaths of her relatives and friends, including Vasilii Ivanovich Ryntsyn (d. 14 June 1854), Aleksandr Vasilievich Ryntsyn (d. 28 October 1862), Mikhail Aleksandrovich Ryntsyn (15 February 1860 – 28 March 1860), Mikhail and Konstantin Mikhailovich Nesterovs, and Mariia Vasilievna Belka[?]. Different representatives of the Ryntsyn family can be found in record books from the early 19th-late 20th centuries across the Arkhangelsk region, neighbouring the place where the Vygovskii Monastery was located.

Provenance

?Ryntsyn family, Northwestern Russia (1850s-1860s annotations); Private American collection for more than 35 years.

Bibliography

Iukhimenko, Elena. “Vygoleksinskoe obshchezhitelstvo”, Pravoslavnaia Entsiklopediia ; Gudkov A. G. “Staroobriadcheskie knigopisnye shkoly kontsa XVII – nachala XX veka i ikh khudozhestvennye osobennosti”. Obrazovatelnyi portal Slovo.