A Glossary of Slavonic Lettering

by Nikita Simmons
(organized by thematic content, not alphabetically)

Кни'га — book.
Кни'жица — booklet.
Сви'ток — roll, scroll.
Рукопи'сь — manuscript. (related words: Летопи'сь — chronicle; Живопи'сь — written life of a saint) CHECK ACCENTS

А'збука — a) the alphabet; b) a Primer (or abecedarium) [also called Буква'рь] for learning the alphabet and basic reading skills
Бу'ква, бу'квы — letter(s) of the alphabet.
Загла'вная бу'ква — a) capital letter, majescule, upper case; b) initial. Note that in pre-Nikonian printed texts, capital letters do not sit on the "baseline", but descend below it; this is usually not a feature of post-Nikonian typography.
Стро'чная бу'ква — small letter, miniscule, lower case.
Ти'тло, ти'тлы — abbreviation(s). The word is derived from the Greek "titlos".... (investigate)

Загла'вие — title; title page of a book. (Here is an example from chant book of the Vyg Monastery [original link].)
Глава' — chapter
Абза'ц — paragraph, indentation (check accent). In Pre-Nikonian service books, it was common to conclude a chapter by tapering the text of the paragraph to a point and adding a graphic (концо'вка – see below), as this image demonstrates.
Лист — a) In pre-Nikonian times: page, sheaf (the sheet of paper, including both sides); b) in post-Nikonian times: a page (only one side of a sheet of paper); recto (see below).
На оборо'те — “on the reverse”; i.e., on the back side of the page or “sheaf”; verso (see below). In pre-Nikonian manuscripts and books (before c. 1660) pages were numbered on the lower right corner of the right facing page (recto, folio), while the back side of the sheet of paper was considered to be the reverse (verso) side of the page (or sheaf), and not a page unto itself. Page numbers in Church Slavonic books until modern times used Slavonic letters for numerals, while books printed in the modern civil script use European numbers.

Note the technical terms used in English to describe pages (derived from Latin):

Глаго'лица — the earliest form of the Old Slavonic alphabet, believed to have been devised by St. Cyril in the 9th century; in the 10th century it was replaced (by one of St. Cyril’s disciples) by the “Cyrillic” alphabet that we are familiar with, which was derived from the Greek uncial alphabet. It is obsolete in most of the Slavic world, but was maintained until at least the 19th century in Dalmatia (Croatia). [sample]
Кири'ллица — the Cyrillic alphabet, which has numerous forms and styles, including: Устав, Полуустав, Скоропись, Заставка, Завиток, Пропись, Буквица and Вязь. These are each demonstrated below:

(An example of some of these elements combined in the Gospel book.)

Уста'в — uncial bookforms used for main body texts; the early Paleoslavonic alphabet eventually developed into the later standard printed bookforms, both of which are called Ustáv. [sample of Greek Uncial and Miniscule]

Полууста'в — semi-uncial letter forms used in handwriting. The earlier poluustáv was used in manuscripts and approximated the Ustáv (uncial) forms, while later poluustáv was used for formal letter writing and decorative purposes.

Ско'ропи'сь — (check accent) early cursive forms, better described as semi-cursive (literally “swift-writing”), since the letters are not connected by ligatures. It was a beautiful and flexible caligraphic style of writing Church Slavonic and early modern Russian which was used from the 14th to the 17th centuries. Many variations exist, based on time period, regional styles and personal preference. While there are more ornate styles of handwriting, Skóropis' is the designation for the simplest form without ligatures and extraneous ornamentation, maintaining a close connection to Poluustáv forms.

Заста'вка — (a) monograms resembling decorative headpieces; highly decorative, but fundamentally semi-uncial without ligatures (although it is not uncommon to see examples of Zastávka where strokes of characters ascend and descend into neighbouring lines of text, occasionally forming ligatures). There is much use of superscript, abbreviation (see Титло above) and characters “nesting” into and around each other. [See the images at this site.] (b) Illuminated decorative Búkvitsa (see below) texts using various colored inks, paints, pigments (red, green, yellow and ochre being most common) and gold gilding.

  

Зави'ток — an ornate form of Skóropis' with an abundant use of curls and flourishes (similar to Zastávka, but more ornate), usually departing from the stricter Poluustáv forms. Ligatures were usually avoided, but pen strokes of each character usually extended into the horizontal (and vertical) space of neighbouring characters, often wrapping around elements of those characters in a whimsical and playful manner. The execution of Zavítok was obviously a pleasurable past-time for the caligrapher, and it tends to delight the eye and mind of the reader.

  

Про'пись — The most dramatic variation of the Skóropis' style, where the characters are artfully constructed in a most ingenious manner. (Similar examples are found in Persian manuscripts.) Character strokes are both rounded and zig-zag, overlapping neighbouring characters horizontally and vertically, crossing over, forming ligatures, etc., occasionally having wild flourishes that extend out into the margins. The letters are packed tightly together and are almost impossible to distinguish for one not familiar with the process. Própis' is extremely difficult to decipher, and was used by only a handful of caligraphers as a past-time and form of art.

  

Бу'квица — decorative initial capitals (“drop caps”) used to begin a chapter or section or subsection of text (such as the beginning of a psalm or prayer); the size sometimes varies according to its usage. Búkvitsa was used commonly from the earliest manuscripts to pre-Nikonian published books. While still used in post-Nikonian printed books, its use has diminished to make publishing easier. The initial letter extends down into the paragraph and the text wraps around it. Red ink was most commonly used, but sometimes the letters were illuminated (see Zastávka) with colored inks, paints and gold gilding. In the earliest period of manuscripts it was not uncommon to see drawings of men and animals twisted into letter forms, similar to Celtic knotwork illumination.

Вязь — A style of ornamental caligraphy used for decorative book and chapter titles, using elongated uncials, numerous ligatures and “nesting” characters (i.e., where one character extends horizontally into another character’s space). It is common for the elongation of Viaz' characters to reach 1:6 or 1:7 ratios, but there are exaggerated examples that extended to 1:10 or even greater (these usually have to be held at an angle in order to be read). Viaz' can only be used in printed books by using wood cuts or engraved metal stamps (or nowadays by scanned artwork). Red ink was commonly used. – In the 19th century a few typestyles were designed for book and chapter titles based on the Viaz' style, but avoiding the use of ligatures (in order to make it more legible to the reader and because it was technically too difficult to typeset). The ratios are approximatly 1:5 or 1:6, and the ornamentation is kept at a minimum.

Загла'вие, Вене'ц — decorative headpiece above chapter titles
Концо'вка — decorative artwork which is found at the ends of chapters
Note: Both of these types of page ornaments are often coloured in manuscripts, but only black ink in printed books. It should also be noted that earlier manuscripts used various colours of paint and ink on the decorations, but the printed books, even to this day, use only red and black ink for text and graphics.

Кинова'рьная () — red (cinnabar) ink, used for rubrics and titling (check these terms)
Тушева'я кра'ска — black ink, used for standard text

Набор – typesetting

Books and manuscripts have traditionally been bound and covered in wooden boards covered with leather, and secured by means of leather and metal clasps. The leather usually has designs and words carved into it, and sometimes there are metal studs which help raise the surface of the leather off a surface enough to reduce its wear-and-tear. Likewise, most large books also had a wire "rail" inserted into the bottom edge of the leather bindings, so that the book would easily slide into place on a book shelf; this saved the leather from wear and tear, as the leather would not come into direct contact with the wooden shelf. (All of these features create an impressive appearance which inspired users to take good care of their books and treat them with reverence.) The Old Believers continue to this day to bind most of their books in this manner, but the mainstream Russian Church abandoned this costly method of covering books shortly after the schism (c. 1666-67).

convolutus – A compendium, a book made up of selections from various other books, often with sense of order or organization. From Russian:

КОНВОЛЮТ – (от лат. "convolutus" - свёрнутый, сплетённый), сборник, составленный из ранее самостоятельно изданных произведений печати (или рукописей), переплетенных в один том.

Конволю́т – (от лат. "convolutus" - свёрнутый, сплетённый) — самостоятельные печатные или рукописные издания, объединённые (как правило, их владельцем) в одном переплёте. Обычно имеет несколько оглавлений и множество страниц с одинаковыми номерами.

Крюки' — "Hooks", the common term for the neumatic musical notation used by the pre-Nikonian Russian Orthodox Church. The "hooks" are written in black ink above the text of the hymns.
Поме'ты — "Marks", the musical pitches and inflections added to the neumatic "kriuki" notation c. 1600 by Ivan Shaidurov. The "marks" are written in red (cinnabar) ink.
Двозна'менник — A musical manuscript which has both neumatic and staff notation above the text.