THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOUTH-WEST RUSSIAN AND MOSCOW ORTHOGRAPHICAL NORMS IN THE PERIOD OF NIKON’S REVISION OF CHURCH BOOKS

The article discusses the process of working with south-west Russian corrected books during the revision of books under Patriarch Nikon (second half of the 1650s), and the reaction of the editors of the Moscow Printing Court to south-west Russian spelling norms. We consider the corrected Kiev Lenten Triode of 1648 and two Moscow Lenten Triodes, pre-reform of 1650 and post-reform of 1656, to show that spelling corrections in the corrected books were rather rare. The spelling changes were made while printing, therefore, to understand the interaction between Kiev and Moscow spelling it wasn’t the corrections that mattered, but the lack of them.

The spelling of the Moscow Lenten Triode of 1656 often matched with the Moscow edition of 1650 and differed from the Kiev edition. Nikon’s editors eliminated specific south-west Russian spellings and followed the Moscow orthographical norms formed in the 1640s under Patriarch Joseph (1642–1652). In cases where the previous Moscow norm fluctuated, there were the differences between the Lenten Triode of 1656 and the previous Moscow and Kiev editions. Sometimes the spelling of the Lenten Triode of 1656 coincided with the Kiev edition and differed from the Moscow edition of 1650. These were, on the one hand, the mistakes of the editors, and on the other hand, the orthographical innovations due to south-west Russian influence.