Priests Belozerovs and some scenes from the history of booklore in Perm region: what inscriptions on cyrillic books of the 17th — 18th centuries say

This article is devoted to the inscriptions on books of the 17th and 18th cc. in which notes of the priests Belozerovs from the town of Solikamsk occur. In all, 34 books that contain 51 notes of members of this family have been identifi ed. The study of this complex of sources has allowed us to reconstruct a range of storylines. In particular, the history of four generations of the Belozerov family has been traced. Thus, three generations of this family, at least from 1728 (the date of the fi rst mention of the forefather of the family Ioann Nikiforovich Belozerov) to 1810, served as sextons and deacons at the Church of the Epiphany in Solikamsk. I. N. Belozerov’s great grandson Mikhail Semenovich in the period of 1822–1836 served as a priest in the church of the village of Dedyukhino, located not far from Solikamsk. The Belozerovs were keepers of libraries of the two aforementioned churches: they registered the donations and left corresponding notes on the books (and, apparently, in record-keeping documents), ordered the sending of books from the сonsistory. In fi ve cases out of eight, the books were sent by order of Lavrentiy, bishop of Vyatka and Great Perm, who occupied the see in 1774–1796. The identifi ed records clearly demonstrate the order of forming and operating of provincial church libraries in the 18th and 19th cc. as well as the make-up of their donors. The latter is an important source for the local history because the donors belonged to the upper circle of local society: the merchants Anufrievs (Gerasim Anufriev was burgomaster of Solikamsk), Rostovshchikovs etc. The documents published here are the ahnentafel of the Belozerovs and relevant records cited in modern spelling