Autographic church-choral collections of the music theorist of the 17th century Aleksander Mezents

Аннотация

The author of the article considers all the known chanting manuscript collections, rewritten
by Alexander Mezents, including those found among the manuscripts from the scriptorium of the
Zvenigorod Savvo-Storozhevsky Monastery of the second half of the 40s — early 50s of the 17th
century. The autographs are usually records of separate sections of collections. The half-running hand
of the master (semi-uncial) is definitely the best among the hand styles of Storozhevsky scriptorium
copyists, that is why Mezenets was used to making titles into books copied by other scribes. The
autographs of the outstanding theorist of the 17th century are of great value; and the value increases
as they alongside some znamenny neumatic manuscripts provide us with the additional information
on the master’s biography. This brings us to the conclusion that at least two decades earlier than it
was supposed up to this moment the master not only lived in Zvenigorod monastery, but was actively
involved in the writing of chant books alongside some other monastery copyists (as a rule, they were
kliros (choir) singers, as well).