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Language and Text
2026. Vol. 13, no. 1, 137–152
doi:10.17759/langt.2026130110
ISSN: 2312-2757 (online)

About title type writing and decorative title ligatures in old Russian handwritten books at the turn of the 14th – 15th centuries

 
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Abstract

Context and relevance. A paleographic study of the revolutionary processes in the change of decorative script types during the crucial period for Old Russian book culture at the turn of the 14th – early 15th centuries is closely connected with the textological and historical-linguistic study of the written monuments of this period and constitutes one of the complex changes in the history of the East Slavic manuscript book: its design, language, and text. Objective. To analyze the process of changing the title type writing and the emergence of a new type of decorative script – decorative title ligatures (vyaz’); to establish the starting time, the features of this process's reflection in Old Russian manuscripts, and the rate of spread of the new phenomenon. Hypothesis. The emergence of a new type of professional decorative script in the Old Russian area is dated to the turn of the 1370s–1380s, quickly becomes known in various book-producing centers of Ancient Rus, and may serve as a dating and localization feature. Methods and materials. The following methods were used in the study: the definition method; the classical paleographic method; the hybrid method of paleographic research; the comparative-historical method; the typological method. The main material of the study consists of dated Old Russian parchment manuscripts of the 14th–15th centuries. Results. Thanks to the clarification of terminological definitions and the application of updated methods of paleographic research, it was possible to establish that Old Russian masters, guided by Byzantine and South Slavic examples, began in the last decades of the 14th century to practice a new style of decorating text headings in the scriptoria of Constantinople and Mount Athos; the new modification of the capital script and the ligature forming on its basis penetrated into the scriptoria of Moscow and Tver, Novgorod, and Pskov. Conclusions. The characteristics of the decorative types of scripts of the 14th/15th centuries can be used as a paleographic marker. The reflection of the identified features in epigraphic material allows extrapolating the results of observations to the analysis (dating, localization, reading) of any Old Russian texts executed in decorative script.

General Information

Keywords: title type writing, decorative title ligatures, Cyrillic paleography, 14th – 15th centuries, parchment handwritten books

Journal rubric: World Literature. Textology

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/langt.2026130110

Acknowledgements. The author is grateful to the staff of the Russian State Library, who organized the International Scientific Conference in Memory of Lydia Petrovna Zhukovskaya, for the opportunity to present the research materials that formed the basis of this article in the form of a report on May 21, 2025, at the Russian State Library (Moscow).

Received 13.01.2026

Revised 28.02.2026

Accepted

Published

For citation: Spasskova, A.M. (2026). About title type writing and decorative title ligatures in old Russian handwritten books at the turn of the 14th – 15th centuries. Language and Text, 13(1), 137–152. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17759/langt.2026130110

© Spasskova A.M., 2026

License: CC BY-NC 4.0

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Information About the Authors

Anna M. Spasskova, Candidate of Science (History), Associate Professor, Department of Economics and Management in the Space Industry, Faculty of Space Research, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-9473-476X, e-mail: spasskova@cosmos.msu.ru

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