Church Slavonic numeral. Old Slavonic number system

Old Slavonic number system

Story

In the Middle Ages, in the lands where the Slavs lived, they used the Cyrillic alphabet, and a system of writing numbers based on this alphabet was widespread. Indian numerals appeared in 1611. By that time, Slavic numbering was used, consisting of 27 letters of the Cyrillic alphabet. Above the letters, denoting numbers, a mark was placed - a title. At the beginning of the 18th century. as a result of the reform introduced by Peter I, Indian numbers and the Indian number system supplanted Slavic numbering from use, although in the Russian Orthodox Church (in books) it is used to this day. Cyrillic numerals originate from Greek ones. In form, these are ordinary letters of the alphabet with special marks indicating their numerical reading. The Greek and Old Slavonic ways of writing numbers had much in common, but there were also differences. The first Russian monument of mathematical content is still considered to be the handwritten work of the Novgorod monk Kirik, written by him in 1136. In this work, Kirik showed himself to be a very skillful calculator and a great lover of numbers. The main tasks that Kirik considers are of chronological order: calculating time, flow between any events. When making calculations, Kirik used a numbering system called a small list and expressed in the following terms:

10000 – darkness

100,000 – legion

In addition to the small list, in Ancient Rus' there was also a large list, which made it possible to operate with very large numbers. In the system of a large list of basic digit units had the same names as in the small one, but the relationship between these units was different, namely:

a thousand thousand is darkness,

darkness to darkness is legion,

legion of legions - leodr,

leodr leodriv - raven,

10 ravens - a log.

About the last of these numbers, that is, about the log, it was said: “And more than this is borne by the human mind.” Units, tens and hundreds were depicted in Slavic letters with a ~ sign placed above them, called “titlo”, to distinguish numbers from letters. Darkness, legion and leodr were depicted with the same letters, but to distinguish them from units, tens, hundreds and thousand, they were circled. With numerous fractions of one hour, Kirik introduced his system of fractional units, and he called the fifth part the second hour, the twenty-fifth - three hours, the one hundred and twenty-fifth - four hours, etc. The smallest fraction he had was seven hours, and he believed that there can no longer be smaller fractions of hours: “This does not happen anymore, there are no seventh fractions, of which there will be 987,500 in days.” When making calculations, Kirik did the operations of addition and multiplication, and distribution, in all likelihood, he carried out shlyakhompidbora, considering successive multiples for a given dividend and divisor. Kirik made the main chronological calculations from the date that was accepted in Ancient Rus' as the date of the creation of the world. Calculating the moment of writing his work in this way, Kirik (with an error of 24 months) claims that 79,728 months have passed since the creation of the world, or 200 unknown and 90 unknown and 1 unknown and 652 hours. By the same kind of calculation, Kirik determines his age, and we learn that he was born in 1110. Operating with fractional hours, Kirik was essentially dealing with a geometric progression with a denominator of 5. In Kirik’s work, space is also given to the issue of calculating Easter, so important for clergy and being one of the most difficult arithmetic questions the ministers of the church had to solve. If Kirik does not give general methods for this kind of calculations, then in any case he shows his ability to do them. Kirik's handwritten work is the only mathematical document that has come down to us from those distant times. However, this does not mean that other mathematical works did not exist in Rus' at that time. It must be assumed that many manuscripts are lost to us due to the fact that they were lost during the troubled years of princely civil strife, perished in fires, and always accompanied the raids of neighboring peoples on Rus'.

Learning to count

Let's write the numbers 23 and 444 in the Slavic number system.

We see that the entry is no longer than our decimal. This is because alphabetic systems used at least 27 "digits". But these systems were convenient only for writing numbers up to 1000. True, the Slavs, like the Greeks, knew how to write numbers greater than 1000. For this, new notations were added to the alphabetic system. So, for example, the numbers 1000, 2000, 3000... were written in the same “digits” as 1, 2, 3..., only a special sign was placed in front of the “digit” at the bottom left. The number 10000 was denoted by the same letter as 1, only without a title, it was circled. This number was called “darkness”. This is where the expression “darkness to the people” comes from.


Thus, to indicate “themes” (plural of the word darkness), the first 9 “digits” were circled.

10 topics, or 100,000, was the highest level unit. They called it "legion". 10 legions made up the leord. The largest of the quantities that have their own designation was called “deck”; it was equal to 1050. It was believed that “the human mind cannot comprehend more than this.” This method of writing numbers, as in the alphabetic system, can be considered as the beginnings of a positional system, since in it the same symbols were used to designate units of different digits, to which only special signs were added to determine the value of the digit. Alphabetic number systems were not very suitable for handling large numbers. During the development of human society, these systems gave way to positional systems.

It is not always easy to determine which edition is in front of you, especially when the copy is incomplete (incomplete, as bibliophiles say). For example, when there are no last pages. And multiple Old Believer reprints of “Donikon” publications greatly complicate the attribution process. In the Slavic books of the Kirill press, information about the title of the book and its author, the place of publication, the printing house, the names of printers and publishers, as well as the date of publication of the book were placed at the end of the publication. Very few Church Slavonic books have a title page in the form familiar to the modern reader; after all, the beginnings of a title page appear in them almost in the middle of the 17th century. And as always, the question arises about the correct identification of these books. Let's start with something small: the language itself. Like any other language, the Church Slavonic language has changed over time. The language of Cyril and Methodius is not at all the same as it was at the time of the Baptism of Rus', or during the period of the unification of Rus', etc. This is confirmed by several reforms of liturgical texts and texts of the Holy Scriptures carried out at one time. Cyrillic Old Church SlavonicThe alphabet has 43 letters. In addition to the usual 36 letters, it contains seven more Greek letters, which are necessary for the correct transmission of Greek liturgical words and regular digital numbering.

If you suddenly need to quickly insert a c/s letter into the text, copy it from here:
Ѣѣ Ѥѥ Ѧѧ Ѩѩ Ѫѫ Ѭѭ Ѯѯ Ѱѱ Ѳѳ Ѹѹ Ѻѻ Ѡѡ Ѽѽ Ѿѿ Ѵѵ ҂ ҃ ҄




May 24 is a holiday in Bulgaria and Russia:Day of Slavic Literature and Culture (Day of Saints Cyril and Methodius). On this day, the memory of Cyril and Methodius, who are called Slavic enlighteners, is honored. Brothers Cyril and Methodius, Greeks or Macedonian Bulgarians by nationality, lived in the 9th century. Bulgaria was then a powerful military and cultural power, waging continuous wars with the equally powerful Byzantium for spheres of influence in the Balkans and Asia Minor. It got its name from the Kama Bulgarians, who once conquered the Danube Slavs. The winners soon mixed with the local Slavic population, adopted their culture, began to speak the local Slavic language, but gave the country their own name. Cyril and Methodius invented the alphabet for the local Old Bulgarian language, which we now call Old Church Slavonic. It was understandable to every Slav, so it became the common literary language of the Slavic world, like a connecting link of a single information space from the Volga to the Danube. This is its great significance. Using this alphabet they wrote in Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, KyivRus',Muscovy, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and other Slavic countries.The Late Church Slavonic Alphabet consists of the following characters:

Az

 Word

Beeches

Firmly

Lead

Uk ("y-gamma-shaped)

Verb

Uk, onyk ("ou-digraph"),reads like "u"

Good

Firth

Yes (regular and wide)

Dick

live

From (that's how it reads)

Zelo (pronounced "z")

Tsy

Earth

Worm

Izhe (and-octal)

Sha

I-decimalreads like "and"

Now
Also short

Er

Kako

eras

People

Er

Think

Yat,read as "e"

Our

He

I (“ia-digraph”), that’s how it’s read

O-wide

Small yus (read as "I")

Omega (read as "o")

Xi (pronounced "ks")

Ole (or, "omega-beautiful", read as "o")

Psi (pronounced "ps")

Peace

Fita (pronounced "f")

Rtsy

Izhitsa (read as “and” if there is a superscript, or “in” if not)

In addition, some letters disappeared from the alphabet for various reasons and at different times. Very rarely (to denote vrutseleta when calculating the time of Easter) you may encounter a large , usually only in capital case and small case . These letters denoted nasal vowels, which very early turned into the sounds “u” or “ya”. Accordingly, the letters denoting these nasal sounds became duplicates"u" and "ya", although they were used before Peter's time. The letter "yat" conveyed the middle sound between "i" and "e" (scientists call it a long closed "e"). These two sounds began to coincide in the 14th century and finally coincided in the literary language by the 18th century. The letter "yat" was abolished as superfluous only in 1918.

As in Russian, a capital letter can only appear:

a) at the beginning of words (more specifically, at the beginning of sentences);

b) in phrases typed in a capitalized style (usually these are headings and footers, and inside regular text - the titles of the imperial family).

In Church Slavonic, proper names are usually written with a small letter.

The word cannot begin with ,, (instead they are used , , ,), and also, as in Russian, with , , . In Church Slavonic, only one word begins with a letter - and all are derivatives. In liturgical literature there are only two words starting with “yat”: (To the Supreme Apostles Peter and Paul, irmos of the 4th song of the canon, tone 8) and (Rite of consecration of the chariot).

In addition to the basic letters, the language has a powerful system of superscripts. Let's divide them into two categories: accent superscripts and abbreviations.

Accent superscripts:

Acute stress (oks And I)

Aspiration with acute accent ( And co)

Heavy stress (var And I)

Aspiration with heavy stress ( A postrophe)

Finished accent (kam O ra)

Two dashes for Izhitsa (used only above Izhitsa to indicate its publicity)

Aspiration (sound A little body)

Accent superscripts in Church Slavonic can only be placed above vowels. A word can contain no more than one stress. An aspirated superscript can only be placed above the first letter of a word if it is a vowel. And vice versa, the first letter of any word, if it is a vowel, must be accompanied by aspiration.

Letter abbreviation signs. These include (paerok), (simple title) and a whole set of letter-titles.

Paerok replaces the hard sign (er) and is found both at the end and in the middle of words above consonants.

Using a title is more difficult. In the general case, several letters in a row are removed from the abbreviated word, and either a simple title or one of the removed letters is placed above or next to the place of removal, or one of the removed letters is placed as a title letter. In the Church Slavonic language, the number of cases subject to titlo-abbreviation, although relatively large, is strictly fixed. In the Old Slavic language, titlo-abbreviation is used much more often and less formally (there it would perhaps be more correct to call title-letters as extension letters).

In the Church Slavonic language, the following letter-titles are used: v, g, d, zh, z, n, o, r, s, x, h. They are called by the name of the letter of the alphabet with the addition - “titlo”: word-title, good- title Here's what they look like:

Actually, paerok can also be considered a letter-title, “er-title”.

Title ,,,, are used often (especially and ), the rest are relatively rare.

Church Slavonic numbering. An important section, since numbers appear frequently in liturgical texts: number of repetitions, links to chapters and pages, voice numbers, etc.

Numbers in Church Slavonic texts, following the Byzantine model, are written in letters. In the digital meaning, the letters were accompanied by superscripts - titles and were separated from the surrounding text by dots. In the Cyrillic alphabet, only those letters that were borrowed from the Greek alphabet have a numerical value: even specifically Greek ones - "xi", - "psi", - "omega", which are not in the Slavic language. The letters are actually Slavic V, and, w, sch, ъ, s, b and others do not have digital meanings in Cyrillic. Of the specially Slavic letters - "zelo", - "worm", - "yus small" replaced the obsolete letters "wow" and "stigma" (number 6), "koppu" (number 90) and "sampi" (number 900) in digital terms. The Greeks used these last three signs only in the classical era only as numbers. The 28 letters of the alphabet have the following numerical values, and two letters and represent the same number 900:


1


2


3


4


5


6


7


8


9


10


20


30


40


50


60


70


80


90


100


200


300


400


500


600


700


800

/
900

In the era of the second South Slavic influence (from the end of the 14th century), the sign “yus small” in the value of 900 was replaced by the sign “c”, which is reflected in our table.

First they write the letter of hundreds, then tens, then units. To distinguish words from numbers, a simple title is placed above the number. The list of words subject to title abbreviation is constructed in such a way that abbreviated words under a simple title never intersect with numbers. If there is more than one letter in a number, the title is usually placed above the second. Numerals from 11 to 90 were indicated by adding units to tens.If in the decimal notation of a number the last two positions contain numbers from 11 to 19, the letter is placed last, before the units letter:

11 ...

12 ...

13 ...

14 ... ... and so on.

For numerals 20-90, units were placed in second place:

22 ... etc.

When writing numbers over 1000, the number of thousands is written in the same letters, but with a sign added in front of them. For example:

1000

More on the use of superscripts from the point of view of font design.

Letter. If there are no superscripts above it, two dots are placed above it. Capital letters are traditionally used without periods, but this depends on the typeface. For example, in publications of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, i-decimal is consistently used with dots in both registers: If there is a superscript above i, in the New Church Slavonic language it is certainly used without dots. When writing numbers, it is used without dots, even if the simple title is not above it.

Letter. Superscripts are not placed above it.

Letter. A paerok can be used above it, and a simple title can be used in numbers. True, this letter stands for “800”, and such large numbers are rare.

Letter. Only a simple title in the recording of numbers.

Letter. Of the superscripts above it, there can only be accents.

Letters and . are used only at the beginning of words, mainly in the middle and end. At the beginning of a word, small yus occurs only in the words and (the pronoun “their”).

Output sheet at the end of Fedorovsky

New Testament with Psalter (Ostrog, 1580)

with information about the time of publication

(dates are indicated from the “creation of the world” and from the “Nativity of Christ”).

Converting dates from September to January. The calculation of time that developed among the ancient Slavs influenced the chronology of the subsequent period, when, together with the adoption of Christianity (988), the Julian calendar was finally introduced in Rus'. Since Rus' adopted Christianity according to the Byzantine model, counting years according to the Constantinople era - from the “creation of the world” - came into use here. At the same time, the pre-Christian spring New Year was preserved in Rus'. The counting of the days of the year began not from September 1, but from March 1. Since the era of South Slavic influence in Rus', the September Byzantine church year has appeared in civil use. In the 15th century in Rus' both years were still in use, but from the 16th century. We no longer find the March year. As you know, on December 19, 7208, Peter I signed a decree on the reform of the calendar in Russia, according to which a new beginning of the year was introduced - from January 1 and a new era - from the “Nativity of Christ”. Meanwhile, old Rus' just four months ago celebrated its September New Year - 7208 from the “creation of the world.” These 4 months - from September to December - according to the new calculation system were now assigned to the previous year, 1699. The same months of 7207 were now assigned to 1698, etc. According to Byzantine chronology from the “creation of the world” to “Christmas” Christ" 5508 years have passed. Thus, to convert the date to modern chronology, it is necessary to subtract from the old date 5508 , and if the date refers to the last four months (September - December), then - 5509 . If the month is not specified in the date, then it is subtracted 5508 .

Let's look, for example, at the output pages of the Psalter:it began to be printed on September 25, 7159.

This means that from 7159 we subtract 5509, since it was printed during the last four months of the year, and we get the publication date according to modern chronology - 1650. We find two dates - one from the “creation of the world”, the other from the “Nativity of Christ” - in Slavic printed books: Serbian - Montenegrin XV-XVI centuries. (Cetino, Venetian), Western Russian XVI-XVII centuries, Moscow second half of the XVII century. (in the publications of Patriarch Nikon and later). One of the significant difficulties in dating editions of the Cyrillic font is that only about 60% of them have complete imprint data. Dating of publications that, due to various circumstances, do not have imprint data is established by font and ornament, by the degree of wear of the printing material, by paper, by mentions of historical persons in the text, by Easter, by cinnabar highlights in the text, by dated entries on books. Much depends on the availability of reference books and practice. Above, we met with the simplest case of dating books in the Cyrillic script - those that have retained the “output”: information about the place and time of publication of the book, learned to read Old Church Slavonic letters, numbers, determine dates and convert them to modern chronology. But the output information from books is not always preserved. A significant number of editions of the Kirill press have reached us in defective copies. Among them there may be unique publications that have survived in single copies (such as the ABC, printed by Ivan Fedorov in Lvov in 1574 and known in only 2 copies), are still listed as missing in libraries or were not known at all in bibliographies. Suffice it to say that copies of more than 200 Moscow editions of the 17th century, known only from bibliographic and archival sources, have not been found in any of the Russian and foreign repositories. Perhaps they came to us in defective copies and have not yet been identified. Maybe you personally own some of them, but don’t know about it yet. How can you identify defective editions of the Kirill font? What should you pay attention to? What dating features are contained in the typesetting strip itself? Firstly, these are the external signs of publications, which are usually noted in printed catalogues: format, number of lines in a page, foliation and pagination, absence or presence of signatures, number of sheets in a notebook, price indication placed in the publication. Secondly, column numbers, custodes, printers' marks, circulations, techniques for correcting text in a circulation. Thirdly, these are historical realities mentioned in the text, which help in dating the publications. Let's start with the simplest and most understandable, which does not require special knowledge or knowledge of printing terminology. Namely, from historical realities that can be found in the text: direct and indirect references to historical persons, indications of the titles of the mentioned persons. For example, if the text mentions “the blessed Tsar and Grand Duke”, “our sovereign and holy Tsar”, then we can assume that the book was published before December 1721. In this year, Peter I was given the title of “Emperor and Autocrat of All Russia” and Instead of the royal title, the imperial title began to be used in all books. Since that time, in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv and Chernigov, publications mention not only the name of the emperor (or empress), but also list members of his family. Then, taking into account the dates of birth, death, marriage of all persons mentioned in the book, it is possible to date the book quite accurately. Let's give examples. We have before us two copies of the book without a title page, “The Psalter with Recitation,” published in the second half of the sheet (2°). In the first, on sheets 120 verso and 473 verso, the following are mentioned: imp. Ekaterina Alekseevna, lead. book Pavel Petrovich, leader. book Maria Fedorovna, their children: Alexander and Konstantin. And the daughter Alexandra, born on July 29, 1783, is not mentioned. Based on this information, the date of publication can be determined by the period of time - after April 1779 (date of birth of Constantine) - until July 1783 (date of birth of Alexandra).

Psalter with resurrection. M., XI 1782.

During this period, three editions of the “Psalter with Recitation” are known: X. 1779, V. 1781, XI. 1782. All these publications match letter by letter and line by line, so further independent clarification is difficult without a specialist. But in any case, we already have a choice of three editions, and not from the 22 that were published in the 18th century during the reign of Catherine II. In the second “Psalter with Resurrection” on the same sheets, the name of Alexandra Pavlovna is added to the list of children, and the next child, Elena Pavlovna, born on December 13, 1784, is not yet mentioned. This means that the book was published between July 29, 1783 (Alexandra’s date of birth) and December 13, 1784. And at this time, the bibliography notes only one edition of “Psalms with Recitation”, in 2°, which was published in January 1784.

Psalter with resurrection. M., I 1784.

In Ukrainian and Belarusian editions of the 17th-18th centuries. “Prefaces to the reader” were often signed with the names of archimandrites, typographers, and publishers. For example, in a defective copy of the “Akathist to St. Barbara,” the “Preface to the Scribe” is signed by Archimandrite of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra Ioannikiy “with his brothers.”

Akathist to St. Varvara. Kyiv, 1728.

There was only one archimandrite with this name in the Lavra - Ioannikiy Senyutovich, transferred from the Kiev-Mikhailovsky Monastery on July 24, 1715, died on November 12, 1729. During this period, only one edition of the “Akathist to St. Barbara” is recorded in the bibliography - 1728 ( in total, 24 editions of this Akathist were published in Ukraine just before 1800). Now let's move on to the typographical features that can help with dating defective copies of editions of the Kirill font.

The number of lines in the type strip. Indication of the number of lines in the typesetting board is not only an obligatory element of the bibliographic description of early printed publications, it is also a dating feature. The researchers found that “changes in the number of lines of body text are directly related to changes in font size.” And for publications of the 16th-17th centuries. the general trend was a gradual decrease in font size and, accordingly, an increase in the number of lines in a strip. The format for old printed editions of the Cyrillic font is determined in fractions of a paper sheet, that is, it conveys the ratio of the book sheet to the size of the paper sheets on which the book was printed. If a book was printed on paper, the sheet of which was folded in half, then the publication format was defined as 2° (in “ten”), if folded in four, then - 4° (in “half ten”), etc.



Thus, if we see a defective copy of a publication measuring 2°, having more than 25 lines in the typesetting page, it means that we have before us a book published no earlier than 1650. Chronological table of the number of lines in the typesetting page of Moscow and St. Petersburg editions of the second half of the 16th century -XVIII centuries and An alphabetical table of the number of lines in the typesetting page of the same publications can be found in Appendices 2 and 3 of the methodological recommendations of Guseva A.A. “Identification of copies of Moscow editions of the Kirill font...” (p. 32-52). For similar tables for publications of the Ukrainian press, see Appendix 4 (pp. 53-66) of the same publication; Belarusian - Appendix 5 (p. 67-71). But for publications of the 18th century this dating feature is not suitable. Most of the liturgical books of this period are reprinted line by line. For example, publications of the Apostle, published in 1713-1797. (18 editions), have 27 lines per page; editions of the Trebnik 1708-1796. (18 editions) - 28 lines each. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account all available dating features not individually, but in their totality.

Foliation (numbering by sheets) and pagination (numbering by pages). As a rule, books in the Cyrillic script published in Moscow in the 16th-18th centuries were numbered by sheet.

Only during the four years of Nikon’s patriarchate (1655-1658) and in the 60-90s. In the 17th century, pagination was introduced - page numbering.

It is available in 23 Nikon editions and 13 editions of the second half of the 17th century. Thus, if a defective copy of a publication of Moscow origin has page numbers rather than sheets, it can safely be attributed to publications no earlier than the second half of the 17th century.



Absence or presence of signatures. A signature (medieval Latin signatura - sign, from the Latin signo - I indicate, designate) is a sequential numbering of a printed sheet, affixed in the printing house either by hand or printed on the front side of the first sheet of the notebook in the middle under the typesetting strip, almost at the very bottom margin. Quite a few copies with inscribed signatures have survived, since they were usually cut off during binding. The printed signature appeared for the first time in the pre-Fedorov narrow-font Gospel (dating around 1553-1554).


Narrow font Gospel.

[M., Anonymous type., 1553-1554]

In the books of the Moscow press the signature was only digital; in the books



Ukrainian and Belarusian printing - alphabetic,



pictographic


and in the form of punctuation marks.



Based on this feature, it is easy to distinguish Moscow publications from Ukrainian and Belarusian ones.

Column digits. Colonnumerals - numbers (numbers) indicating the serial number of the page of a printed publication, first appear in the edition of the Lenten Triodion, published around 1555-1556. Until 1655, in books of the Moscow press, the numeral was always placed in the right corner under the typesetting strip. Then it moves to the upper right corner, for the first time in the 1655 edition of the Service Book.

Missal. Moscow, Pechatny Dvor, 31. VIII. 1655. ss. 166-167.

During the interpatriarchal period (from the end of 1660 to 1664), the column number was again printed at the bottom, and from the late 60s - early 70s. - at the outer edge of the top strip. As a rule, in the early period of printing. in the 16th century, one method of numbering (or signature, or column number) was used. Or they were introduced simultaneously, but not sequentially. We regularly find double numbering in publications starting from 1642. In Moscow editions, the column number usually stands alone. In Ukrainian and Belarusian it is necessarily accompanied by a certain verbal designation


New Testament with psalter. Ostrog, stove Ivan Fedorov, 1580.

Spread and sheet 142.



or familiar. In the second half of the 16th century. The last character of the column digit was emphasized.



This tradition was continued by Ukrainian typographers until the 10s. XVII century, and from the 20s. with the column number, in addition to the accent, there is also a dot (in all editions of the Lviv printing houses - from 1614 to 1739 and the Kyiv printing houses - from 1619 to 1725, in the Chernigov - in 1646, 1682-1720, in the Vunev - 1670- 1747). In Belarusian publications: in the Vilna fraternal printing house - from 1622 to 1697, Kutein - from 1632 to 1637, 1651-1654, Evye - from 1638 to 1644, Suprasl - from 1692 to 1722, Mogilev - from 1693 to 1730. Thus, the presence of certain signs in the colonnumber makes it possible to distinguish Ukrainian and Belarusian editions from the total mass of books of the Cyrillic press, and the chronological framework of the design of the colonnumber makes it possible to roughly date these books.

Number of sheets in a notebook. The safety of a copy of a publication cannot be determined without referring to the sheet formula of this publication. But the sheet formula, the simplest calculation of the number of sheets included in a notebook, can also be a dating feature. Researchers have noticed that in Moscow editions, regardless of the book format, the notebook always consists of eight sheets. In Ukrainian and Belarusian editions, the number of sheets in a notebook can be from two to eight, depending on the format of the book. Moreover, eight sheets are found only in books printed in 8° sheets. Therefore, the publication, which has notebooks of 8 sheets, is 90% Moscow editions.

Price indication included in the publication. For the first time, the price of books began to be marked in printing in the publications of Moscow printing houses in 1753, and in St. Petersburg in 1782.16 Until the end of the century, prices were marked on 40% of all Kirill editions. Indicating the price on the publication can be used to date defective copies of the Moscow and St. Petersburg editions.

Custods. A custode is an auxiliary technical element that helps ensure the correct selection of sheets during binding and facilitates reading when moving from one page to another. This is the first word, or part of a word on the next page, that was placed in the lower right corner of the previous page.

The appearance of the custodian in Moscow book printing is associated with the activities of Patriarch Nikon. The first books in which the custod appeared were the Apostle and the Missal of 1655. Thus, based on the presence or absence of the custod, it is possible, albeit approximately, to date the book: before or after 1655.

Printers' marks. From 1623 until the end of the 18th century, in books published in Moscow, initials, names and numbers were printed in the margins of each notebook. These signs were printed in both black and red inks.

An appeal to archival materials, specifically to the documents of the Printing Order, showed that these names and initials were the “stamps” of printers who were responsible for the quality of certain sheets of the publication. Each printer served certain printing mills, and it is likely that the numbers with names and initials may indicate the numbers of these mills. The combination of printers’ “stamps” and serial numbers of notebooks in each individual publication is individual. This feature is especially important for identifying publications that have been reprinted line by line from a previous edition, when determining the output of defective copies. On the same sheets of two editions, the printers' marks are always different. In publications of the first half of the 17th century. initials were usually placed on the spine margin (2° format), in the early 40s. XVII century They also began to be placed under the typesetting strip (2°, 4°, 8° format), sometimes they can be found above the typesetting strip (4° format). In the second half of the 18th century. these marks were always located under the typesetting strip, at the end of the 18th century. this information could be combined with a signature. A detailed list of masters who took part in the preparation of books for publication and their printing at the Moscow Printing Yard can be found in the study: I.V. Pozdeeva, V.P. Pushkov, A.V. Dadykin “Moscow Printing Yard - a fact and factor of Russian culture 1618-1652.” From recovery after death in the Time of Troubles to Patriarch Nikon" (M, 2001, pp. 444-511).

Above, we examined such external features of publications of the Kirill press that do not have an output sheet, such as format, number of lines in a strip, foliation and pagination, presence and absence of signatures, and others, which allow, if not accurately identify the publication you have, then make it possible to significantly narrow time frame. If we consider that there are books of the Kirill press with false imprint information and publications of secret Old Believer printing houses, then it is not so easy for an inexperienced owner or collector to determine the type - the name of the old printed book, if it is not written on the imprint sheet. And without this, no matter how you narrow the time frame, clarity will not increase. Therefore, we will very briefly look at what features in the typesetting strip itself can be used to determine the title of a book. It's no secret that the first books were translated in Rus' for the needs of the church. One of the main books, the liturgical use of which dates back to the first centuries of Christianity, is the Gospel. Its texts are read continuously throughout the year, and specific readings are assigned for each day of the week. Initially, the texts in the early pre-printed gospels (Gospel aprakos, that is, weekly) were arranged according to the weekly order of readings - according to the beginnings, as prescribed by the Charter. However, in the practice of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Four Gospels (Gospel-Tetr) were accepted, in which the texts were arranged according to the authors - the Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Each of them has its own number of conceptions, references to which we find in the margins of the printed Gospels. Therefore, if we see the word “conceived” in the margin of the book, then we can be sure that this is either an edition of the Gospel or this is the Apostle.

Apostle. Lviv, type. Ivana Fedorova, 15. II. 1574.

It must be borne in mind that in the Gospels the count of conceptions is within each of them: the Gospel of Matthew - a total of 116 conceptions, from Mark - 71, from Luke - 114, from John -67. In the Apostle, the count is continuous: everyone was conceived before the Apocalypse - 335. Therefore, if the number of the conception is more than 116, then this is the Apostle. You can easily distinguish the edition of the Gospel from the Apostle by the notes in the margins of the pages. In the Gospel they indicate the names of the evangelists, in the Apostle they indicate the title of each individual message.

Gospel. M., Anonymous type., 1559/1560.


Gospel. Lviv, type. Brotherhoods, print. Mich. Tear, 20. VIII. 1636.


Apostol, Lviv, type. Ivana Fedorova, 15. II. 1574.

In terms of the composition of the included texts, all printed editions of the Gospels are almost identical. At the beginning are usually placed: a prayer, then the table of contents of the Gospel of Matthew, the preface of Theophylact the Archbishop of the Bulgarian Gospel of Matthew, the text of the Gospel itself, the table of contents of the Gospel of Mark, the preface of the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Mark, and so on. In addition to the texts of the gospels with tables of contents and prefaces, the publication usually includes special additions: Collector for the 12th month; A story about how the Sunday and daily gospels are read at matins and liturgies; The Gospel is different for the saints, the Gospel is different for every need, and some others.

Gospel. M., print. Onisim Mikhailov Radishevsky, 29. VI. 1606.

The gospel is teaching. Zabludov, stove. Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Mstislavets.

17.III. 1569.

Sunday Teaching Gospel. M., Printing Yard. I. 1697.

Most of the editions of the Gospel tetras of the 16th-17th centuries. are not a bibliographic rarity, but, for example, not many books published in Moscow in the so-called Anonymous Printing House have survived: Gospel around 1553/1554 - 36 copies; around 1558/1559 - 32 copies; around 1563/1564 - 23 copies. Very rare editions of the Gospels were published in some Belarusian printing houses, for example, in Tyapin - no later than 1580 - 2 copies; in Wallachia - in the monastery of John the Baptist near Bucharest 1582 - 9 copies. Gospels published in Brasov (Transylvania) at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries. and in 1500, 1565 and 1577, were not preserved at all. They are known only from printed and handwritten sources. In addition to the Gospel-tetras, there was also the Teaching Gospel of Constantine the Presbyter of Bulgaria. It is a collection of teachings based on the texts of the Gospels and other canonical works, intended for Sunday reading. This type of book includes the well-known Zabludov edition of Ivan Fedorov and Peter Mstislavets in 1569. In the teaching Gospels, the title of the book is usually given in the upper left margin - the gospel, and on the opposite strip - an indication at what time this text is read. The third type is the Explanatory Gospel, written by Archbishop Theophylact of Bulgaria, which contains commentaries on the Gospel texts. On the upper margin of the left stripe there is a link to the author of the Gospel, on the right - an indication of the chapter number.

Theophylact of Bulgaria. The Gospel is sensible. M., I. 1764.

This book is also easy to distinguish from other gospels by the words in the text (usually printed in red): gospel..., interpretation. The Apostle, whose liturgical use also dates back to the first centuries of Christianity, contains the Acts of the Holy Apostles, seven conciliar epistles, 14 epistles of the Apostle Paul and sometimes the Apocalypse.

Apostle. Lviv, stove Mikhail Slezka, 8.VI. 1639.

The entire Apostle is also divided into conceptions (excluding the Apocalypse), and the account conceived one common one. In the Apostle, as in the Gospel, at each conception, below there is an indication of the day or holiday on which this text is supposed to be read. In addition to the text of the Acts, the Apostolic Epistles (each with a table of contents and a preface) and the Apocalypse, the publication usually includes various additions: at the beginning of the book - “The Tale of St. Epiphanius about the 12 Apostles” and “On the Election of the 70 Holy Apostles Dorotheus Bishop of Tire”, at the end - Monthly Dictionary - Compendium of the 12 months, prokemenes and antiphons “all days”. In addition to the ordinary Apostle, there was also an Intelligent Apostle. This huge book, in addition to the text of the Apostle itself, included interpretations of it. The text in it is divided into very small fragments (sometimes down to one word), and an interpretation is given for each. The Explanatory Apostle includes only epistles; Acts is omitted here. The names of the authors of the interpretations are indicated in the margins. This book has never been printed and is known from a few manuscript copies.

Psalter, Alesandrovskaya Sloboda, stove. Andronik Timofeev Nevezha, 31.I. 1577.

Psalter, M., print. Andronik Timofeev Nevezha, 30. XI. 1602.

The Psalter is probably one of the most popular and multifunctional books of the Russian Middle Ages. It was used for public and private worship, for teaching literacy and even for fortune telling. Only in Moscow in the XVI-XVII centuries. it was published 67 times (compare: Gospel-book - 25; teaching - 8; explanatory - 2; Apostle - 22 editions), but it was also “read through” faster than other books. Many Psalms have survived in single copies, and not only those published, for example in Brasov, known in 1-2 copies, and sometimes in fragments, but also Moscow editions: Psalter of the Anonymous Printing House around 1559/1560 - 6 copies, around 1564 /1565 - 5 copies, printed by Nikifor Tarasiev and Nevezha Timofeev in 1568 - 8 copies. Only in the second half of the 16th century. 23 editions of the Psalms were published, copies of which have not survived. Therefore, treat this book with attention; perhaps you are holding in your hands a copy of an unknown or rare edition.

Psalter with resurrection. M., Pechatny Dvor, 5. XI. 1625.

All psalms in the Psalter are divided into 20 kathismas - groups of psalms into which the book is divided for convenience during worship. Therefore, if we see an indication of “kathisma” in any of the margins of the publication, it means that we have before us the Psalter. In addition to the psalms (150 and one “out of number”), the Charter is printed in the Psalter - indicating when and what kathismas “all summer” (all year) are supposed to be read, the Follow-up on the departure of the soul from the body. There are several types of Psalms. The simple psalter (small, private), as the name suggests, is intended primarily for private use. It includes, in addition to the above, several prefaces - “An Exposition on the Faith and Questions and Answers about the Divine Services of Blessed Anastasius, Patriarch of Antioch and St. Cyril of Alexandria”, “An Exposition on the Faith of St. Maximus the Confessor”, cell rules on prayer. The educational psalter has a preface (or afterword) to teachers and the Legend of Cyril the Philosopher. The following Psalter, intended for use during church services, has appendices in addition to the Psalter itself. This is first of all the Book of Hours; troparia and kontakion selected from all liturgical books; prayer canons; following Holy Communion; “The Word of Saint Cyril on the Exodus of the Soul and the Second Coming of Christ”; Easter and Lunnik. Above we examined only those books of the Cyril press that are associated with public and private worship. Others, the use of which relates only to private worship, - Trebnik, Canonnik, Saints (Monthly Book), Prayer Book, we will consider below.

Above, we looked at how to determine the name of books in the Cyrillic font if the output sheets were not preserved, and at the same time we looked at three types of books - the Gospel, the Apostle, the Psalter. Here we will continue this topic and consider one of the main books, the use of which applies only to private worship - the Trebnik. The Breviary (among the Old Believers - Consume), contains rites that are performed on special occasions at the request (according to needs, needs) of one or more people in the special circumstances of their lives. The Trebnik was first translated into Slavic by the High Hierarchs Cyril and Methodius (9th century). The oldest Slavic handwritten lists of Trebniks date back to the 11th-12th centuries. The earliest Slavic copy of the Trebnik is Glagolitic, the so-called Sinai Euchologium (11th century), which is kept in the library of the Sinai Monastery of St. Catherine. It represents an incomplete translation (from Greek and Old High German) of special prayers and services for various occasions, as well as a translation of the so-called Commandments of St. Fathers translated from Latin. See: Consolidated catalog of Slavic-Russian handwritten books stored in the USSR. XI-XIII centuries M, 1984. p. 77. Subsequently, under the Grand Duke John Danilovich Kalita, in 1328, the Trebnik was translated again under the supervision of the Greek Theognostus, who was appointed Metropolitan of All Russia. His Trebnik came into general use in the Russian Church. With the advent of printing in Rus', handwritten Breviaries were corrected many times: under Patriarchs Philaret (1619-1633), Joasaph I (1634-1640), Joseph (1642-1652), Nikon (1652-1666), Joasaph II (1667-1672), Joachim (1674-1690). There are several types of Trebnik: large, small, additional. The Great Breviary consists of two parts. The first part includes further examination of the six Sacraments (Baptism, Confirmation, Wedding, Blessing of Anointing, Repentance, Priesthood) and other services: burial of the deceased, blessing of water, tonsure into monasticism.

The second part of the Great Trebnik contains mainly prayers for various liturgical and religious-everyday rituals, for example: prayers for the consecration of things, buildings and

buildings; prayers for the consecration of vegetables (fruits) and grapes (bunches); prayers for permission from an oath;

Prayers at the beginning of any business; prayer of the holy seven youths of Ephesus for the weak and not sleeping (those suffering from insomnia);

Breviary. Kyiv, type. Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, 16.VIII.1681.

Prayer over salt; succession to sonhood (that is, when adopting someone); prayers about driving away evil spirits, “for every request” and others.

The second part of the Breviary also contains some additional investigations related to public worship, the rite of washing the feet on Maundy Thursday, the words of St. John Chrysostom on Maundy Thursday and Holy Easter and kneeling prayers at Vespers on the day of Pentecost, prayer chants for various occasions, rites for consecration temple.

In addition, the Great Trebnik contains two additional chapters, constituting, as it were, its third part. The first contains a month book, the second - an “estate” or alphabetical index of the names of saints.

The Great Trebnik was first published under Patriarch Joseph in 1651. The Small Trebnik is a shortened version of the Great Trebnik. It contains the sequences of sacred rites and prayers that the parish priest most often has to perform. This type of Trebnik includes, for example, the Trebnik published by Joasaph II in 1671. The third type of Breviary - the Additional Breviary - contains the rites of consecration of the temple and things belonging mainly to the temple: the cross on the temple, vessels, sacred clothes, icons, iconostasis, bells, cross worn on the chest, etc. This also includes the rite of consecration of artos (fermented, sour bread, consecrated on the first day of Easter and distributed on Saturday of Holy Week to the people) and prayers for the consecration of objects and things that are used by Christians outside the church, in everyday life. This type of Trebnik was first published in Kyiv in 1868. One of the most famous and frequently found publications on the antique market is the Trebnik of Metropolitan Peter of Kyiv Mohyla. (Peter Mogila - Metropolitan of Kiev (1596-1647). Published the following books: “The Teaching Gospel, teachings on holidays and Sundays of the Patriarch Callistus of Constantinople” (1637; in 1616 this Gospel was published for the first time in the Western Russian literary language); “ Anthologion, that is, prayers, teachings that are beneficial to the soul for the spiritual benefit of the Spudeans" (1636); prepared for publication the Catechism for all Orthodox Christians (Amsterdam, 1662 in Greek); "Collection of a short science on the articles of faith of Orthodox Catholic Christians" (1645). For Peter Mogila published the book of Athanasius Kalnofoysky "Teratupgema" (Greek, 1638), Peter himself delivered stories about the miracles of Pechersk; took a large part in the compilation of the polemical work "Lithos" (Greek). Two of Peter Mogila's sermons are known: "The Teaching on the Cross of Our Lord and every Christian" and "Word on the Marriage of Janusz Radziwill." The notes of Peter Mohyla were partially published in the "Kiev Diocesan Gazette" of 1861-1862. This book was compiled and published by him in the printing house of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra in 1646 with the aim of giving south- Western clergy a complete practical guide to all cases of private worship). In addition to the traditional articles for this book, the Metropolitan of Kiev included in his Trebnik 37 rites that had never before been found in the liturgical books of the Orthodox Church. Although the Metropolitan himself claimed that he found them in various Greek and Slavic sources, many of them (the rites for the consecration of liturgical vestments, bells, and others) are revised translations from Latin from the Roman Trebnik of 16156, edited for the first time under Pope Paul V in 1603 . About 20 sequences, which had no analogues in either the Orthodox or Catholic Trebniks, were probably compiled by Metropolitan Peter Mogila himself.

Euchologion (Trebnik). Kyiv, type. Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, 16.XII.1646.

In addition to the new rites, the Trebnik of 1646 contains a number of articles commenting on the sacraments in the categories of scholastic theology: for each sacrament, matter, form, intention (see Intentio), and ritual are highlighted. These comments contradict Orthodox teaching on the sacraments in significant ways. For example, they state that at the liturgy, bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ when the words of the Lord are pronounced (see Institutio), the mystery of marriage is concluded with the mutual consent of the spouses in the face of the priest (it was Metropolitan Peter who introduced questions about intentions of the bride and groom), the sacrament of anointing can only be taught to the dying, and so on. The Trebnik of Peter the Mogila includes many specific instructions on how to act in certain difficult cases. Some of them were translated from similar Latin texts, and some were borrowed from the Vilna Service Book of 1617. Among them are instructions on baptism in controversial cases, instructions on how to act in the event of various unexpected events that arise during the liturgy, and on visiting the sick. The Breviary prescribes a change in the order of the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, associated with the conviction of Metropolitan Peter that even after the immersion of St. The Lamb is placed in the Chalice at the Liturgy of the Presanctified; simple wine remains in it. The Breviary is not a rare book; it has been published many times. For the first time in 1495 in the printing house of Makarija in Cetinje, then, around 1539, in the second printing house of Bozidar Vukovic in Venice, and in 1546 - in the monastery in Milesevo.

Breviary. Cetinje, type. Macaria, 1495.

Breviary. Venice, type. Bozidar Vukovic, ca. 1539.

In Moscow alone, in the 17th-18th centuries, 54 editions of the Trebnik were published (in the 17th century - 17, in the 18th century - 37), in Ukraine (in Kiev, Lvov, Unev, Chernigov, Pochaev) during the same period 42 editions were published (in XVII century - 15, in the XVIII -27). An absolute rarity among them are the Trebniks of the 16th century, Moscow editions of 1624, 1671, 1687, which have survived in a small number of copies. Of the Ukrainian publications, the Kiev missals published by the printing house of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in 1676 (1 copy is kept in the National Library of Russia), 1677 and 1727 (1 copy each has the Lviv Museum of Ukrainian Art), (1 defective copy belongs to the Lviv Scientific Library), are a rarity. and also published in the Unevsky Monastery in 1681 (2 copies). As we see, in both the Moscow and Ukrainian editions of the missals, the short form of the title of each of the texts listed above is indicated on the spread of the upper margin of the sheets. Therefore, having an idea of ​​the composition of the book as a whole, they can be easily distinguished from other books in the Kirill font. We will consider other books, the use of which relates only to private worship - the Canon, Saints (Monthly Book), Prayer Book - later. Author of a richly illustrated unfinished article by Seraphim Chicherin (pseudonym). Her “school for the beginning collector”- basics of attribution of Cyrillic press publications. Here Serafima Chicherina conducts a kind of “teaching” on dating old printed Cyrillic books according to the principle: from easy to complex - from books that have preserved the “output”, information about the place and time of publication, to cases that are complex and require special knowledge and reference to reference books. ..

Church Slavonic numerals Greek numerals Hebrew numerals Roman numerals

Numbers in Church Slavonic (as well as in Greek, Hebrew and Latin) books are indicated by letters. The Church Slavonic letter-number has a dot above and after it. In two-digit and multi-digit numbers, the title is placed on the second letter from the end.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Units a҃. v҃. g҃. d҃. є҃. ѕ҃. z҃. i҃. ѳ҃.
Dozens і҃. k҃. l҃. m҃. n҃. ѯ҃. ѻ҃. p҃. ch҃.
Hundreds р҃. s҃. t҃. u҃. f҃. x҃. ѱ҃. ѿ҃. ts҃.

Thousands are written with the same letters as units, tens and hundreds, but with the addition of a symbol before the letter ҂ . Numbers are composed in the same way as in modern Arabic notation: first thousands are written, then hundreds, then tens and ones, with the exception of numbers ending in 11...19, where the last two characters are rearranged according to the Slavic reading (for example, one-by-twenty, that is first “one” and then “twenty” = 10).

g҃. - 3 days. — 14 tmє. — 345 ҂иѿп҃и. — 8888 ҂р҂к҂г҃ѕ. — 123456

If in a multi-digit number the number of hundreds, tens or units is zero, then no sign like zero is substituted in their place, and the number becomes shorter.

҂вѳ҃і. — 2019 ҂в҃к. — 2020 January. — 2000

Large numbers (tens and hundreds of thousands, millions and billions) in different sources may not be expressed through the sign ҂ , but a specially circled letter used to designate units. However, for large numbers these notations were quite unstable.

10,000 — ҂і҃, (tma)
100,000 — ҂р҃, (legeon, ignorant)
1,000,000 — ҂҂а, (leodr)
10 000 000 — (corvid)
100 000 000 — (deck)
1000 000 000 — (tma topics)

The Church Slavonic number system is an absolute tracing of the Greek number system.

The Greek (Ionian, Modern Greek) number system is an alphabetical notation of numbers in which the letters of the classical Greek alphabet and some letters of the pre-classical era are used as symbols for counting ϝ (digamma), ϟ (coppa) and ϡ (sampi).

γʹ - 3 ιδʹ - 14 τμεʹ - 345 ͵ηωπηʹ - 8888 ͵ρ͵κ͵γυνϛʹ - 123456

The Hebrew number system uses the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet as numbers. Alphabetical notations for numbers were borrowed by the Jews from the ancient Greeks. Hebrew numbers are written from right to left; the last (left) letter is preceded by a double quotation mark - gershaim ( ״ ). If there is only one letter, then a single quotation mark is placed after it - geresh ( ׳ ). To denote 1-9 thousand, the first nine letters are used, followed by an apostrophe. The exceptions are numbers ending in 15 and 16, which are represented as 9+6 and 9+7 respectively (for “Thou shalt not take the Name of God in vain”).

ג׳ — 3 י״ד — 14 שמ״ה — 345 ח’תתפ״ח — 8888

Unlike the first three, in the Roman number system, only 7 letters of the Latin alphabet are used to represent any number: I (1), V (5), X (10), L (50), C (100), D (500) and M (1000). Subsequently, 4 more symbols were added to them (from 5,000 to 100,000). To correctly write large numbers in Roman numerals, you must first write the number of thousands, then hundreds, then tens, and finally units. Numbers are written by repeating these numbers. Moreover, if a larger number comes before a smaller one, then they are added, but if a smaller one comes before a larger one, then the smaller one is subtracted from the larger one.

III - 3 XIV - 14 CCCXLV - 345 ↁMMMDCCCLXXXVIII - 8888 ↈↂↂMMMCDLVI - 123456

In ancient times in Rus', numbers were designated by letters. Very often, beginners are interested in these designations for dating coins. This article will help you deal with this problem.

Church Slavonic numbers.

In ancient Slavic times, single numbers were written using letters above which the “titlo” symbol was placed.

  • The number one was designated by the letter "az" - a;
  • number two - "lead" - in;
  • number three - “verb” - g;
  • number four - "good" - d;
  • number five - “is” - letter e in the other direction;
  • number six - “zelo” - s;
  • number seven - “earth” - z;
  • number eight - “like” - and;
  • number nine - "fita" - similar to the letter d (having an oval shape, crossed out at the bottom).

Decimal numbers.

  • The number ten is the letter "i" - i;
  • number twenty - "kako" - k;
  • number thirty - “people” - l;
  • number forty - “think” - m;
  • fifty - “our” - n;
  • sixty - the letter "xi" - the letter z with horns at the top - Ѯ;
  • seventy - "he" - about;
  • eighty - "peace" - p;
  • ninety - "worm" - part.

Hundreds of numbers.

  • The number one hundred - "rtsy" - p;
  • two hundred - "word" - s;
  • three hundred - “firmly” - t;
  • four hundred - "uk" - y;
  • five hundred - "fert" - f;
  • six hundred - "dick" - x;
  • seven hundred - "psi" - trident - Ѱ. By the way, a fairly common symbol. For example, in the area of ​​the Tsimlyansk reservoir, people found a limestone with the symbol of a “trident”. Volgodonsk local historian and lover of Chalykh believes that this is a symbol of the Khazars, denoting the runic letter “x”. But it can be assumed that the Khazars used Slavic alphabetic numbers, and this sign indicates the seven hundredth year of our era;
  • eight hundred - "o" - ὼ;
  • nine hundred - "tsy" - ts. There was also a story with this figure recently. A man found an old church book, where the year was indicated by numbers, where the second symbol corresponded to the letter - c. When I said that it was only for the year 1900, the person did not want to believe it, believing that the book was much older, since it had a letter marking the date of issue.

Thousands.

The thousandth numbers had a corresponding sign in front of them - an oblique line crossed out twice. That is, the number in front had an oblique crossed out line, and then the number was called with letters. For example, 1000 corresponded to - the letter - "az" - a, and so on according to the name of single numbers.

Slavic numbers were used for counting and recording. This counting system used symbols in sequential alphabetical order. In many ways it is similar to the Greek system of writing numerical symbols. Slavic numbers are the designation of numbers using letters of ancient alphabets -

Title - special designation

Many ancient peoples used letters from their alphabets to write numbers. The Slavs were no exception. They denoted Slavic numbers with letters from the Cyrillic alphabet.

In order to distinguish a letter from a number, a special icon was used - a title. All Slavic numbers had it above the letter. The symbol is written at the top and is a wavy line. As an example, the image of the first three numbers in the Old Slavonic notation is given.

This sign is also used in other ancient counting systems. It only changes its shape slightly. Initially, this type of designation came from Cyril and Methodius, since they developed our alphabet based on the Greek. The title was written both with more rounded edges and with sharp ones. Both options were considered correct and were used everywhere.

Features of number designation

The designation of numbers on the letter occurred from left to right. The exception was the numbers from "11" to "19". They were written from right to left. Historically, this has been preserved in the names of modern numerals ( eleven twelve etc., that is, the first is the letter denoting units, the second is tens). Each letter of the alphabet represented numbers from 1 to 9, from 10 to 100 to 900.

Not all letters of the Slavic alphabet were used to represent numbers. Thus, “F” and “B” were not used for numbering. They simply were not in the Greek alphabet, which was adopted as a model). Also, the countdown began from one, and not from the usual zero.

Sometimes a mixed number designation system was used on coins - from the Cyrillic alphabet and most often only lowercase letters were used.

When Slavic characters from the alphabet represent numbers, some of them change their configuration. For example, the letter "i" in this case is written without a dot with the sign "titlo" and means 10. The number 400 could be written in two ways, depending on the geographical location of the monastery. Thus, in the Old Russian printed chronicles the use of the letter “ika” is typical for this figure, and in the Old Ukrainian ones - “Izhitsy”.

What are Slavic numbers?

Our ancestors used special notations to write dates and necessary numbers in chronicles, documents, coins, and letters. Complex numbers up to 999 were denoted by several letters in a row under the general sign “titlo”. For example, 743 in writing was indicated by the following letters:

  • Z (earth) - "7";
  • D (good) - "4";
  • G (verb) - "3".

All these letters were united under a common icon.

Slavic numbers that denoted 1000 were written with a special sign ҂. It was placed in front of the desired letter with a title. If it was necessary to write a numeral greater than 10,000, special characters were used:

  • "Az" in a circle - 10,000 (darkness);
  • "Az" in a circle of dots - 100,000 (legion);
  • "Az" in a circle consisting of commas - 1,000,000 (leodr).

A letter with the required digital value is placed in these circles.

Examples of using Slavic numerals

This designation could be found in documentation and on ancient coins. The first such numbers can be seen on Peter's silver coins in 1699. They were minted with this designation for 23 years. These coins are now considered rarities and are highly valued among collectors.

Symbols have been stamped on gold coins for 6 years, since 1701. Copper coins with Slavic numerals were in use from 1700 to 1721.

In ancient times, the church had a huge influence on politics and the life of society as a whole. Church Slavonic numerals were also used to record orders and chronicles. They were designated in writing according to the same principle.

Children were also educated in churches. Therefore, the children learned spelling and counting precisely from publications and chronicles using Church Slavonic letters and numbers. This training was quite difficult, since the designation of large numbers with several letters had to be simply learned by heart.

All sovereign decrees were also written using Slavic numbers. Clerks of that time were required not only to know by heart the entire Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabet, but also the designation of absolutely all numbers and the rules for writing them. Ordinary residents of the state were often ignorant of this, because literacy was the privilege of very few.