Russian Old Believer manuscript with about 50 colored illustrations

Lot 11

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Rare Books, Autographs & Maps

By Doyle

Nov 25, 2025

Set Reminder 2025-11-25 10:00:00 2025-11-25 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Rare Books, Autographs & Maps https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/doyle/rare-books-autographs-maps-21321 Auction of Rare Books, Autographs & Maps on Tuesday, November 25, 2025 at 10am Consignments Are Currently Being Accepted for Future Auctions We Invite You to Contact Us for a Complimentary Auction Evaluation of Your Collection Doyle info@doyle.com

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Lot Description

[RUSSIAN OLD BELIEVERS] [Sinodik]. Russian Empire: late 18th–early 19th century. Old Believer manuscript on paper, with watercolor illustrations. Original dark brown leather over boards, traces of old clasps, decorated with a simple gilt St. Andrew's cross; housed in a 20th-century morocco pull-off case. 7 1/2 x 6 inches (18.75 x 15 cm); 69 ff., written in black and dark brown inks in Church Slavonic on a heavy laid paper (with no watermarks discernible), numbered 1 [а҃]-69 [ѯ҃ѳ҃] in Slavonic and thus probably complete; with three illuminated section openings and 52 elaborate full-page watercolor depictions of supernatural events. The binding worn and bowed, the manuscript soiled in places through long years of rough handling, some leaves loosened from the binding, notations in ink on front paste-down. Part of a class of works known as "Sinodiks" in Orthodox Christianity, such compendia were prepared by Old Believers to instill their beliefs in a younger generation, hence the comparatively brief narrative text presented here and the accompanying heterodox iconography. In effect, such manuscripts were children's books, albeit ones with a curiously discomfiting imagery. The apocalyptic narratives depicted here would have been largely unknown to traditional Orthodox Christianity, as Old Believer adherents followed a form of Orthodox rite that had been anathematized during the Great Moscow Synod of 1667, and in consequence, they were isolated and persecuted. In the illustrations, we see men attacked by snakes, nimbed figures held aloft by angels and speaking with the damned in hell, and demons inflicting torments, all vividly depicted.

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