The Azbukovnik of David Zamaray, a Proofreader of the Moscow Print Yard: Time and Word

This article examines the Alphabet Book (Rus. Azbukovnik) by David Zamaray, a proofreader of the Moscow Print Yard in the 1620s. Relying on the existing lexicographic tradition, David Zamaray created a new type of Azbukovnik, one mostly related to his professional activity. Zamaray’s Azbukovnik reflects the new vocabulary that came to Muscovite Russia with books of the so-called “Lithuanian press”. The selection and fixation of this vocabulary in the new dictionary are determined by the lexicographer’s individual approach. At the same time, the few remaining copies indicate not only the elitist nature of Zamaray’s work, but are also characteristic of different periods in its creator’s life. The late sixteenth century (1596) witnessed the publication of works by Lavrenty Zizany (including his Lexis) and saw the release of the so-called “concise” version of Zamaray’s Azbukovnik. At the time, he was still a monk at the monastery of St Anthony of Rome in Novgorod, the western boundary of Muscovite Russia. In the 1620s, Zamaray worked for the Moscow Print Yard; the interest of the Moscow authorities in the books of the Lithuanian press grew, and a new version of Zamaray’s Azbukovnik was created. In the 1630s, the dictionary’s creator was supposedly exiled due to the changes caused by the death of Patriarch Filaret and the approval of the final text of his lexicographic work. Each of these periods is reflected in Zamaray’s Azbukovnik. Being at the centre of the ideological reforms initiated and suspended by Patriarch Filaret, Zamaray was forced to take into account the changing political situation in the Muscovite state. This author of the early modern period created a new type of Azbukovnik, one which not only pays tribute to tradition, but also shows more and more individual traits of the creator.