Paper: paper of the body text - European handmade paper without watermarks, the distance between chain lines 32–27 mm, 11 laid lines within 10 mm (f. 2–213, 214–287). Paper used for the manuscript restoration, reconstruction of lost fragments, and adding new texts: 1) Russian machine-made paper without labels, early 20th century (f. 1-2, I–II); 2) European handmade paper of the 17th century with a filigree: watermark - steering wheel [?], millstone [?] and letters “РН” or “НР” (f. 288-295, unidentified, It was not found in reference books), distance between chain lines – 37 mm, 11 laid lines within 10 mm.
Writing style: the body text of the manuscript is written in half-uncial script in two columns by 3 scribers of one calligraphic school and have Cyrillic numeric pagination, scribers’ (the numbers are preserved partially because of folios trimming during the restoration) and restorer’s. The texts restored and added (pasted) are written by 2 hands: 1 handwriting, half-uncial script (early 20th century), text in two columns - f. 1-2 (fragment), I-II; 2 handwriting, half-uncial script (the 17th century), text without columns – f. 288-295.
Decoration: headings and initials with Vermilion; headpieces with imitation of Balkan ornament (f. 1, 40; folios are completely or partially restored); headpieces with Balkan ornament (f. 112, 260); headpieces with Balkan ornament and with a cross drawn in the 2nd half of the 19th century (f. 165, 214); headings with Vyaz (f. 1, 40, 112, 165, 214, 260); initial with Balkan ornament – (f. 165); initials with floral ornament (f. 1-213, I-II, 214-284, 288, 289, 291, 292); end-pieces written in the so-called style Playing Text [igra tekstom, игра текстом] – triangle-shaped objects (f. 111, 213, 295).
The Prolog [Synaxarion // Пролог] is a collection of brief lives of saints and homiletic essays of Christian writers, for the days of the year. The manuscript contains texts for the period from September to February and is complemented with texts from The Prolog published in Moscow in 1641 (added in the early 20th century). The dating of body text is made by A.A. Amosov (St. Petersburg). Binding: 4nd quarter of the 18th century – 1st quarter of the 19th century, wooden binding, leather with tooling, fragments of 2 clasps. Enclosure: a fragment of description of the funeral of Peter I. Source (supposedly) – study of S.M. Soloviev, Russian historian of the 19th century, (manuscript of the 2nd half of the 20th century). Owners’ and readers’ notes. Textile bookmarks glued to folios. 4th quarter of the 15th century (restoration of the text in the 17th century and the early 20th century).
2º (size of book block – 347 mm х 224 mm, binding size – 372 mm х 234 mm, binding height – 65 mm); 297 f. = f. 1 and a fragment of the f. 2 (restoration of the early 20th century) + 2 – 213 (4th quarter of the 15th century) + I-II (inset of the early 20th century) + 214-284 (4th quarter of the 15th century) + 284–287 (restoration of the early 20th century) + 288-295 (restoration of the 17th century); Condition: satisfactory.
The manuscript was acquired (gifted) and restored, and texts were added by the community of Old believers-pilgrims living in the Tomsk-Chulym taiga. The manuscript had been restored 4 times before the acquisition by TSU SL: 1) 17th century: text was checked, missed phrases were added, end part of the manuscript was restored (texts from 21 to 29 of February), folios were numbered; 2) 18th century: margins of several folios were pasted with blue handmade paper; 3) 2nd half of the 19th century: headers were added, signature marks were restored partially; manuscript was numbered; 4) early 20th century: folio #1, texts on f. 2, 284-287, and head-pieces on f. 4 and 40 were restored, folios with additional texts were pasted (f. I-II), binding was replaced; edge was repainted. Due to replacing of binding it was required to trim edges of folios and restore headers. The manuscript also was restored at Scientific Library of Tomsk State University.
