A small note about a big misunderstanding, or Whether Saint Philothei (Leshchinsky) was the author of Sibirskij Lestvichnik?

Abstract

The authors focus their attention on the analysis of the late 17th century edition of the manuscript “Sibirskij lestvichnik” (GIM. Sin. sobr. 120 (262)), carried out in 2015 in Tyumen. The publication received numerous praise in the local press, was among the winners of the competition for the best book. Meanwhile, the reference of the manuscript to the authorship of Philofei (Leshchinsky), established in science, raises great objections. The study of the manuscript does not give the right to make such conclusions. The authors express new assumptions about the reasons for the creation of the manuscript and its popularity among readers. The quality of translation, which does not take into account many peculiarities of the manuscript’s language (syntactic, morphological, and stylistic), is equally doubtful, as is the quality of its translation, which distorts the meaning and individual features of the language. The design of the edition does not meet modern requirements to the accuracy of the source of illustrations.