The influence of the Vernacular Orthography used in Old Russian birch bark letters on standard book writing in Old Rus’ is traditionally regarded as insignificant, being merely associated with single inclusions. According to our observations, in the 13th century, during the period of the most active use of graphics with a variation of letters о – ъ and е – ь in vernacular writing, this influence in individual handwritings may have been more significant. In the 13th century handwriting of the Gospel from the RGADA collection (manuscript collection, no. 816), the variation of the letters о – ъ and е – ь is represented by hundreds of examples. Their detailed analysis allows us to describe the influential features of Vernacular Orthography on the book spelling system in this period – the normalization mechanisms employed by book scribes to eliminate vernacular effects, along with the most favourable positions for the penetration of these effects into book spelling itself. The article shows that general data on the reflexes of Vernacular Orthography in the manuscript under consideration gloss over the noticeable contrast in the individual positions relevant from the spelling point of view. A more significant influence of the graphic effects е = ь, о = ъ on book spelling occurred in the presence of correlating forms within it, differing in a pair of letters (the flexion of the present tense -еть/-ете, forms of different genders like правъ / право, forms of participle and aorist like падъша / падоша). In some morphemes, the share of vernacular spelling positions in the manuscript may be one third or more than half of all the examples of a given morpheme.

The paper focuses on the Old Polish word kryłos, which was attested twice in court records from Przemyśl in the 15th century. Some existing hypotheses about the word origin and meaning are mentioned, although it has not been discussed before in a satisfactory way. A detailed study of the word’s etymology (concerning Old Ukrainian, Old Russian and Greek) and a precise analysis of the attestations enables us to determine its meaning, different from the meaning proposed in the Dictionary of Old Polish ( Słownik staropolski).

The article analyzes the interrelations between the texts of the Novgorodian‑Sophian group of the first half of the 15th century (Novgorod Karamzin, First Sophian and Forth Novgorod chronicles) on a specific section of the annalistic material. We explore the “links” to some Kievan text in the entries of the late 11th century from the First Sophian Chronicle, their context and probable sources. The compiler of this chronicle has left traces of his activity on early Rus’ history in his drafts (such remarks as “to search in Kievan” and similar) which scholars have considered as evidence of some importance to define the stages of annalistic work of the 15th century in Novgorod and Moscow. It is argued that a set of “links” of the First Sophian was used by the author of the second part of the Novgorod Karamzin Chronicle to fill the gaps in his narrative. However, detailed textual analysis demonstrates the very complicated and clearly later composition in the First Sophian. Therefore both the first and second parts of Novgorod Karamzin Chronicle precede the First Sophian. The paper also pays attention to some aspects of the relations between the Novgorodian‑Sophian group and early Kievan and Novgorod chronicles.

Scribes of the oldest part of the manuscript posted their names in two notes. In the fi rst note the final letter of the scribe’s name is seriously damaged. It is generally believed that his name was Mičьka (Мичька). The author proves that the scribe’s name is a derivative from the suffi x –ko (Mičьko). In the second note the name of the scribe is heavily damaged in the initial part, which results in a number of interpretations. According to the author’s studies the name of the scribe was Potamij (Потамий, gr. PÒtamoj).