Abstract:
The article is devoted to a new interpretation of the well-known postscript in
the so-called Ostromir Gospels—the earliest Russian manuscript, wriË en in
1056/1057. In this afterword on fols. 294r and 294v, one of scribes (deacon Gregory
by name) twice asked for a blessing for Ostromir the “Posadnik,” who had paid
for the creation of this outstanding manuscript. The fi rst blessing requested is the blessing of the Holy Evangelists. Although it is perfectly appropriate for
someone who ordered such an expensive Gospel book to ask for blessings from
the evangelists, the names of the evangelists were listed in an unusual sequence.
The order of names corresponds to the order in which selected fragments of
the Gospels (Peri copes) are read in “aprakos” Gospels: John, MaË hew, Luke,
Mark. The second blessing is quite uncommon. Gregory asks the three biblical
patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—to bless Ostromir. The most reliable
explanation of this request is the Christian name of Ostromir, which is
mentioned in the scribe’s note—Joseph. In Old Rus’ people considered everyone
named Joseph as a bearer of the name of Joseph the All-Comely (Genesis). So
Gregory appears to fl aË er Ostromir implicitly by calling him the all-comely son
of Jacob, grandson of Isaac, and great-grandson of Abraham. But to stress the
desirable and hoped-for similarity, Deacon Gregory mentions Ostromir-Joseph
twice as the fi rst aç er the Great Duke of Kiev, just as the biblical Joseph was
named the fi rst aç er Pharaoh. This shows that in pre-Mongol Rus’ there was
a thorough knowledge of the texts of the Old Testament and that there was a
readiness to include these skills in a complicated intellectual game.
