Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature

1607-6192 2713-2226

IWL RAS

https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2026-25-254-285

Research Article and Publication of Archival Documents

Articles

Statement ‘Concerning the Composition of Ink’: on the Issue of the Existence of Old Russian Technological Literature

Belova

Anna B.

old-rus@imli.ru

2026

25 254 285

2026

The statement “Concerning the composition of ink” is the most common Old Russian ink recipe and is known in 17 copies from the 16th–17th centuries, the earliest of which dates back to the 1590s. It was created and usually existed as part of a stable complex, together with an statement on cinnabar dye. As the 18th century approached, these two statements were increasingly copied separately. The statement “Concerning the composition of ink” is presented in the Main Version and its derivative Brief Versions. In the course of its existence, the text was not expanded by improving the recipe and adding additional recommendations to it, but, on the contrary, was shortened. The changes to the text mainly concerned its literary, rather than pragmatic (recipe) side. The statement “Concerning the composition of ink” existed as part of Old Russian compilations of various content: at the end of the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries, it was usually found in compilations of theological and encyclopedic content with grammatical and historical works, and closer to the end of the 17th century, it was found in craft compilations and iconographic manuscripts. Its inclusion in the relatively stable cycle “Decrees on various statements” played a major role in the dissemination of this statement. There is a group of texts for which the statement “Concerning the composition of ink” served as a model, so that they adopted its structure and vocabulary. Among them is the article “On Ink” from the collection of Jonah of Solovetsky.

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