Polotsky Simeon

Polotsky Simeon

Simeon Polotsky (Samuil Emelyanovich Petrovsky-Sitnianovich; 1629-1680) - graduate of Kyiv-Mohyla academy and probably the Vilna Jesuit Collegium. A talented Polish-Lithuanian (Belarusian) Orthodox preacher, scholar polemicist and theologian, translator, "didaskal" and teacher, organizer of school education and printing, who went down in history as one of the most prominent East Slavic poets of the 17th century, having become in Russia in many ways the founder of poetry (syllabic versification) and drama as new types of literature.

Creative heritage

Simeon's poetic style is distinguished by eulogy and didactic allegorism, the desire for logical rethinking images, book erudition and artificiality in general baroque, stylistically and lexically a diverse language, scholastic perception of ancient literature, etc. According to I.P. Eremin, a poem Simeon Polotsky "give the impression of a kind of museum, on the windows of which are placed in a certain order... a wide variety of things, often rare and very ancient. Everything main that I managed was exhibited here for viewing Simeon, a bibliophile and connoisseur, a lover of various' rarities' and 'curies', to collect during his life in his memory ^[1]

The creative heritage of Simeon Polotsky is incredibly great: it is believed that he wrote about 50,000 poetic lines. In addition to "Rhymologion, or Stichoslov," "Vertograd Multicolored," "Mental Lunch," "Evening soulful, "" The Rod of Government, "etc., the" Rifmotvornaya Psalter "is especially famous.

Rhymmotor Psalter

The psalter is one of the main educational and liturgical books, as well as one of the first biblical texts translated into Slavic. Simeon Polotsky was the first to carry out a complete translation of this biblical book in syllabic verse.

• Poetic texts of psalms by Simeon Polotsky. (Sidorovich L.N., preparing the text for publication, 2009), PDF

The "rhymmotor" translation of the "Psalter of the King and the Prophet David" was carried out in an unusually short time - from February 4 to March 28, 1678 and printed in a separate book in the Upper Printing House in 1680. This rhymmotor Psalter presents himself, like the psalter of Jan Kokhanovsky, an almost literal poetic "metaphrasis" of the traditional Slavic Psalter, executed for the purpose of "giving in the hands of the reader understandable, adapted for reading, delighting hearing, and for singing in home setting text. " In 1680, this Psalter was laid on notes by an outstanding Russian composer - a singer clerk V.P. Titov (165 musical compositions were compiled).

According to M.V. Lomonosov, the Psalter of Simeon Polotsky was exactly the book from which he first got acquainted with the Russian poem.

In November 2023, it became known that the National Library of Belarus acquired a rare copy of the Rhymmotor Psalter, printed in 1680. The publication was published in Moscow, in the Upper Printing House, which was organized by Simeon Polotsky.

The publication includes three prefaces of the author, the text of the "Rhymmotor Psalms" itself, as well as Old Testament "songs," "prayers" and "Months" in verse. The prefaces of Simeon Polotsky are addressed to Tsar Theodore Alekseevich and pious readers, one of the prefaces is also written in poetic form.

On one of the pages, Simeon Polotsky used the "typographic game" for the first time in Russia: he began the set of the phrase "Sing Psalms to Our God" from the center of the typesetting strip, so that the phrase can be read from left to right, and from right to left, and from bottom to top, and from top to bottom.

The book is richly decorated with screensavers, endings, pawnshops, typesetting decorations. Includes an engraving of King David performed by the famous icon painter Simon Ushakov. The image became innovative for its time. The image of King David is realistic, the interpretation of the background of the engraving is spatially and in the future.

There are handwritten musical lines in the margins of the book. He put poems to music in 1685 by the sovereign singing clerk, Russian composer Vasily Titov (c. 1650-1710).

As Simeon Polotsky noted, the book was intended not for church and liturgical use, but for the "home rub" of the reader, who appreciates "rimmotor speech."

Literature

• Tatar I. Simeon Polotsky (his life and activity: Experience in research from the history of enlightenment and internal church life in the second half of the 17th century. M., 1886;
• Simeon Polotsky - poet and playwright//Simeon of Polotsk. Elected Op./subg. text, article and comment. I.P. Eremina. M., 1953. C. 223-260;
• Maykov L.N. Essays on the history of Russian literature of the XVII and XVIII centuries. St. Petersburg, 1889. C. 1-162;
• Chemeritsky V.A. Simeon Polotsky//History of Belarusian pre-October literature/ed. V.V. Borisenko, Y.S. Pshirkov, V.A. Chemeritsky. Minsk, 1977. S. 227-232;
• Panchenko A.M. Literature of the "transitional age "//History of Russian literature: in 4 vols. T. 1: Old Russian literature;
• Literature of the XVIII century/ed. D.S. Likhachev, G.P. Makogonenko. M., 1980. S. 398-407;
• Glokke N. "Rifmotvornaya Psalter" by Simeon Polotsky and her attitude to the Polish Psalter Jan Kokhanovsky//University News. Kyiv, 1896. № 9, 11. S. 1-18.

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