Old believer comics in the handwritten miscellany of spiritual poems of the Vyatka region

The design of the Russian manuscript book of the late tradition, in continuation of the Old Russian one, has always been distinguished by the close interaction of the text and the illustrative parts. Miniatures of manuscripts were often supplied with written comments on the depicted plot in order to explain more clearly the illustration, the thought inherent in a particular plot and the general idea of the essay. A term for the combination of pictorial components with verbal ones - creolized text (CT) - appeared in the 1990s. CTs are studied by representatives of various fields of knowledge, including in the historical aspect. In the context of CTs, along with popular prints, hagiographic icons with stamps, researchers also examine illuminated manuscripts. Miniatures of manuscripts provided with comments displayed one or several plots. Sometimes artists placed separate pictures in one field of the miniature, which sequentially displayed the action and development of the plot. Such images are usually called comics (showing a story using drawn fragments alternating in time), or protocomics (text and drawing reflect the content of the main text, but do not show the passage of time). The Vyatka Miscellany of spiritual poems of the late 19th century from the Collection of the Ural Federal University's Laboratory of Archaeographic Studies presents variants of images that fully meet the requirements of the comic book form. Three miniatures of the manuscript demonstrate entire literary narratives expanded in time. These are stories on biblical themes ("About Joseph the Beautiful", "The Miracle in Cana of Galilee") and the story about a prisoner, which are reflected in the texts of spiritual verses. The use of comics, along with other methods of designing illustrative material, was one of the ways in which the artist expressed his attitude to the text, and helped him to define the main idea of the collection. Such drawings existed in many regions where the Old Believers lived and accompanied manuscripts of a moralizing nature, patristic texts. Works of G.V. Markelov and V.A. Esipova proved the presence of such images in the regions of the Russian North and Siberia. The illuminated miscellany of the Laboratory Collection shows that a miniature comic was also known in Vyatka, it was used to illustrate the texts of spiritual verses. The rather widespread use of comics as a tool for designing Old Believer manuscripts in various regions of Russia speaks of the stability and spread of this interesting artistic phenomenon, which requires further consideration and study. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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