and
C are identical, are omitted. In this connection variants in
В that fall into the following categories are not footnoted: variants between the etymological spelling of the letter
е and its actual pronunciation, e.g.
Ввсеконечно,
чреслех,
телец,
прилежанием,
А ,
Свсеконечно, чреслех. телец, прилежанием; variants between traditional and non-traditional spellings of words with prefixes ending in
c and
з, e.g.
Ввоставитель, бесмертен, бесценную, съшел, восъприяти, возъможем, изъбежа, изъшедшу, изърек,
А,
Свозставитель. безсмертен, безценную, сшел, восприяти, возможем, избежа, изшедшу, изрек; variants in the suffixes
-н- and —
нн-, e.g.
Ввреждены, окаяный,
А.
Сврежденны,
окаянный; variants in the spelling of vowels after hush-sibilants, e.g.
Вближайший,
грешащых,
плачют, молча,
А,
Сближайший, грешащих, плачут, молчя; the presence or absence of
ъ and
ь before suffixes and endings, e.g.
Всоборъныя,
песньми.
А,
Ссоборныя, песнми; variants between the Russian and Church Slavonic spelling of case endings, e.g.
Воного,
А,
Сонаго; variants in the spelling of personal names, e.g.
ВЗахариа, Моисей, Аминодав,А,
СЗахария. Моисий, Аминадав; spelling errors that occur only in
B, e.g.
писпены (for
писмены),
Христо (for
Христос),
жизи (for
жизни),
злезну (for
слезну),
едиродна (for
единородна); and the occurrence in
В of superscript literal numbers to indicate the transposition of words. A particular problem in recording variants concerns the fact that 17th-century cursive writing does not usually distinguish between final
jer and
jer» (
ъ and
ь). It is not clear, for example, whether
A has
Иудифь or
Иудифъ,
вещь or
вещъ,
имуть or
имутъ. For this reason the editors decided to record the form that occurs in
C without attempting to indicate variants in
A and
B, even though this has meant forfeiting some valuable information about the hardness or softness of consonants.
In general, vermilion (kinovarˊ) is used in copies В and C for poem titles and the initial letters of poems, but the practice is far from consistent. In C vermilion might be used for the whole title of a poem (e.g., Аминадав ), or for the initial letter of the title only (e.g., Авраам ), or for all of the title except the inital letter (e.g., Велениепротивное ). It was decided, therefore, not to burden the printed edition with continuous and precise information about the incidence of what is clearly a graphic rather than literary or linguistic phenomenon. Folio numbers in C appear on the recto of each folio in the copyist's hand, beginning on the first page of poetry. Another set of folio numbers, beginning on the title-page, has been entered on the recto of each folio in a later (19th-century?) hand. In the printed edition the correct folio number, both recto and verso, is given in square brackets in the left-hand margin, followed by the copyist's number not enclosed in brackets. Line numbers, which do not appear in the manuscripts, have been added in the right-hand margin for any poem that exceeds five lines. Where there is more than one poem under the same title this edition follows the pattern laid down in