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Abstract:

For the first time, this article examines the historical forms of commentary in Cyrillic book printing in Western and Eastern Europe during the 16^th and 17^th centuries. Commentary on theological, liturgical, homiletical, and educational books is carried out through articles supplementary to the main body, written in prose or verse and encompassing different genres (preambles, epilogues, novels, inscriptions, tables of contents, indexes, coats of arms, emblems, printer’s marks) and styles (documentary, autobiography, exegetical, publicistic, literary critic). Commenting elements are also contained in detailed book titles on the front pages and in the imprint. In Cyrillic editions, commentaries are printed in Church Slavic, Rumanian, Slovenian, Croatian, the so-called “common mova”, Greek, German and Latin. In the first printed books, prefaces and afterwords were created in the borderland of medieval traditions and the development of new cultural influences. They took in its didactic tendency, Biblical symbolism and figurative style, set formulas of the thematic unity “author-reader-book” from the old literary tradition. There are innovations as well: 16^th and 17^th-century scholars are conscious of their mission, use vernaculars, and pay attention to contemporary problems about language and style. Supplementary articles in 16^th and 17^th century Cyrillic books offer a space to realize different forms of commentary (historiographic, textual, linguistic and, broader, historical, and cultural) on published works.