Autographic church-choral collections of the music theorist of the 17th century Aleksander Mezents

The author of the article considers all the known chanting manuscript collections, rewritten by Alexander Mezents, including those found among the manuscripts from the scriptorium of the Zvenigorod Savvo-Storozhevsky Monastery of the second half of the 40s - early 50s of the 17th century. The autographs are usually records of separate sections of collections. The half-running hand of the master (semi-uncial) is definitely the best among the hand styles of Storozhevsky scriptorium copyists, that is why Mezenets was used to making titles into books copied by other scribes. The autographs of the outstanding theorist of the 17th century are of great value; and the value increases as they alongside some znamenny neumatic manuscripts provide us with the additional information on the master's biography. This brings us to the conclusion that at least two decades earlier than it was supposed up to this moment the master not only lived in Zvenigorod monastery, but was actively involved in the writing of chant books alongside some other monastery copyists (as a rule, they were kliros (choir) singers, as well).