Handwritten literature of Peter the Great's epoch in the Russian north

The article analyzes some of the changes in the northern Russian manuscript literature of the Peter the Great’s epoch compared with the Old Russian period. The materials for the study were the handwritten books from the Karelian collection of the Pushkin House, Old Believers’ literature, and hagiographic works. The relevance of the research is due to the close attention of modern philological science to the processes of literature transformation in so-called “transitional epochs”. One of the distinctive and significant phenomena of the northern Russian literature of this period is the literary school of the Vyg Old Believers’ Community, which assimilated the traditions of the Old Russian written literature and the Baroque style. The hagiographic works of the Peter the Great’s epoch are characterized by increased documentary accuracy and active absorption of folklore elements. A new phenomenon in the hagiography of that time was the transcription of some saints’ lives or their fragments in verse (verse editions). The analysis of the handwritten books of the XVIII century from the Karelian collection of the Pushkin House indicates that their content was limited mainly to Old Russian “soulful” texts, as secular fiction works had not yet been introduced to local readers. The article also focuses on the Alphabet of 1717, compiled in the Paleostrovsky Monastery and encouraging young readers to study.