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[KEY BOOK OF OLD BELIEVERS] Pomorian Answers

Moscow: Khristianskaya tipografiya pri Preobrazhenskom bogadelnom dome, 1911. Item #18

[Pomorskiye otvety pustynnozhitelei na voprosy ieromonakha Neofita]

7, 412 pp.: ill.; 36x23 cm.
4to. Contemporary leather binding. Numerous chromolitographic
initials, vignettes, miniature illustrations. Full page colorful frontispiece
showing Denisov next to the ornamented title page. Toned side edge. A
very good copy. Slight traces of fire on the spine, rare soiling to the
pages. One clasp is lost.

First edition. One of the finest examples of Old Believers' printing.
This is the synodical work of monks from Vygoretskaya obitel who
were led by eminent figure of Pomorian Church Andrei Denisov. He is
mostly responsible for the formulation, writing and editing of Otvety.
The content of the book is a plain logic and systematized
explanation of the "old belief". It is stated in a form of answers to
questions given by Hieromonk Neofit.
Old believers have the rich tradition of manuscript books – that's
why for some time Otvety was circulating only in manuscript form. Also
the printing of book was disallowed in Russian empire. That's why the
text of Otvety was printed outside of Russia in 1887.
This is the first Russian edition which imitates the manuscript –
chromolitographic ornaments were made by copying the ornaments of
the handwritten Otvety. As a result the printed version of the key book
for Old Believers movement became one of the most pictoresque books
among those printed in Russia in early XX century.
Worldcat locates only one copy in the West (Bavarian State Library).

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