Manuscrise ale Arhieraticoanelor românești din Biblioteca Academiei Române
Manuscripts of the Romanian Archpriestesses in the Romanian Academy Library

Author(s): Iulian-Ciprian Rusu
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Library and Information Science, Theology and Religion, Comparative Studies of Religion
Published by: Editura Doxologia
Keywords: Archieratikon; Manuscripts; Slujebnik; Romanian Academy Library; cheirotonia; cheirothesia; copyist;
Summary/Abstract: Archieratikon (slav. Chinovnik, eng. Bishop's Service Book) is the name for the service book that includes on one hand the liturgical guide (gr. typikon), together with the content of the services officiated only by the bishops: like cheirotonia and cheirothesia, The Holy Myrrh sanctification, consecration for churches and antimensions and, on the other hand, typikonal rubrics for services with bishop participation: Vespers, Mattins and Holy Liturgy. In the following study we shall use term Archieratikon also with meaning correlated with those fascicle – excerpts from Bishop's Service Book – containing one or more rubrics for bishop liturgical services. The reasoning for this use consists in the following ascertainment: a book named Archieratikon with his properly individuality, with a similar extent or table of contents and an identical name did not existed until 1890, when the first Archieratikon was printed, with the Holy Romanian Orthodox Church Synod approval and blessing. That's why Archieratikon - manuscripts dated before this event have a permissive, discretionary and subjective character. The Romanian Archieratikon books could not afford the expensive luxury of typography, since the book was used, theoretically, by the archiereus only. Every bishop used to extract only what he subjectively considered necessary, and he was paying a copyist to make his own Archieratikon. Although the uniformity of services and typicon order has suffered in this context, there was a very high positive impact on ecclesial culture, consisting of manuscripts with ornaments, miniatures, frontispieces – real pieces of art, Romanian treasures of culture and spirituality. Therewith, studying these manuscripts, we can affirm that their development was an essential factor in Romanian language evolution and maturation.

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