Informative Weekend at Slavic Literature Centre Slovo at VDNH

Informative Weekend at Slovo Museum Centre at VDNH

VDNH invites everyone to visit the Slovo Museum Centre. On 23 and 24 April, there will be lectures—Attempting Ink: Notes of Scribes and Readers in Old Russian Books and Living Clouds and Evil Unicorns: Features of Old Russian Miniatures, as well as Word to the Author tours. Participation is free, by registration in advance.

On Saturday, 23 April at 3:00 p.m., the Attempting Ink: Notes of Scribes and Readers in Old Russian Books lecture will be held. Nikolay Butskikh, a founder of the Zelo Centre for the study of Old Russian culture, curator of Old Russian manuscripts of the Russian National Library and teacher of the Church Slavonic, will talk about the relationship between the reader and the writer in the Middle Ages. For example, the author of a book might leave personal notes in the margins, while the reader might overwrite the name of the previous owner of the book. Scribes encoded their names and left advice to themselves and their descendants, and the owners related what they read to their experiences. Registration in advance is required for participation.

On the same day at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., there will be Word to the Author tours. Visitors will learn in what genres the first Old Russian literary works were written, who were their authors and where the chronicle first appeared. The guide will talk about the continuity of the tradition of 'hagiographic' literature in Christian culture, the appearance of printing and the books that became popular and in-demand under Peter the Great. Participation is by registration.

On Sunday, 24 April at 3:00 p.m., Nikolay Butskikh will give a lecture titled Living Clouds and Evil Unicorns: Features of Old Russian Miniatures. He will tell us what the artist did when he had not the slightest idea of what was being depicted and why ancient Russian miniatures often seem incomprehensible to the reader. Details and registration are on the website.

Slavic Literature Centre Slovo (pavilion No 58) at VDNH is the museum and educational complex for children and adults. Here you can learn how writing is developing in Russia and around the world, what role it plays in the lives of different peoples and how it has been in contact with oral speech for centuries. Tour guides talk about folklore, language patterns and nonverbal communication.

The museum offers lectures, workshops, guided tours and inclusive classes for children. More information is available on the website.