THE NUMBERING OF INTERPRETATIONS, SCHOLIA AND CROSS-REFERENCES IN OLD RUSSIAN MANUSCRIPTS: ON THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE SLAVONIC EXEGETICAL APOSTOL

The article deals with specific signs for footnotes presented in the Eastern Slavonic manuscripts of the Exegetical Аpostol, mainly the Rostov 1220 Аpostol, the 16th century Apostle No. 118 from the Trinity Lavra collection, and especially the mid-12th century Volhynian Christinopol Аpostol. It is demonstrated that the handwriting of the latter is identical to the handwriting of the 1144 Galician Gospel.

In Christinopol and Trinity Аpostols (as well as in the Synodal No. 17) the signs are used to correlate biblical text with interpretations located in separate blocks, like modern footnotes in books. In other manuscripts where biblical text alternates with interpretations these signs are redundant and point to the existence of a protograph, in which explanations were placed in the same way as in the Christinopol or Trinity Аpostols.

The Christinopol Аpostol also has scholia with a different kind of reference signs, some of which are Glagolitic letters in the alphabetical order. In the extant part of the manuscript there is a fragment of an Old Russian Glagolitic abecedarium, with letters from ⱌ (ц) to ⱗ (ѧ).

There are also cross-references in the Christinopol and Trinity Аpostols. One of the signs for cross-referencing is the rare Glagolitic letter ⱒ (‘хлъмъ’) in its archaic shape previously known from a single example in the Assemanian Gospel.

The article concludes that there was a frame catena with Glagolitic footnote signs in the protograph of the examined manuscripts of the Exegetical Аpostol.