nasel'nik i svyazochka -- again

[William Ryan]

Dear Steve,
I am afraid Ozhegov and Kuznetsov were guessing, just as Dal' did on
occasion. The magic books of kolduns were routinely called simply
tetradki in court cases in the eighteenth century, and as far as I
recall they are not attested as objects before the 17th century. I know
of no example of the phrase 'black books' in Old Russian (but would be
happy to be corrected). The erratic and fanciful D'iachenko (Polnyi
tserkovonslavianskii slovar', 1900) suggests that the first printed
arithmetic books were so called by simple folk (in the 18th century).
The 'tetradki' certainly did not contain 'cabbalistic signs'. I would
certainly be happy to accept a local origin if the words were in popular
use, but they are in fact mostly (?always) found in ecclesiastical or
legal contexts. And a local origin would still require some motivation
for 'black'. Thanks for the interest - keep thinking!
Will

Steve Marder wrote:
>
> William Ryan wrote:
>
> > And while we are word-hunting in the spiritual realm, can you or
> > anyone suggest the source of the words 'chernoknizhie, chernoknizhnik'.
> > The earliest occurence I can find is in the report of the trial of
> > Maksim Grek. It occurs mostly in religious and legal texts thereafter.
> > It looks like a calque but there appears to be no model in Greek, Latin
> > or German. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
>
> Will,
>
> I agree that it looks like we're dealing with a calque here, although I
> can't suggest any source language.
>
> At the risk of telling you something you already know, in its definition
> of "chernoknizhie," Ozhegov's dictionary (4th ed., 1997) makes reference
> to "so-called black books." And in S.A. Kuznetsov's excellent "Bol'shoy
> tolkovyy slovar' russkogo yazyka," although the color of the books is
> not specified, they
> nevertheless contain "kabalisticheskie znaki, formuly zaklinaniy,
> zagovorov, magicheskie retsepty i t.p." I wonder if there might possibly
> be some support for the origin of the term "chernoknizhie" not from
> without (loan translation), but from within ("internal" word formation).
>
> Steve
>
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--
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W. F. Ryan, MA, DPhil, FBA, FSA
Warburg Institute (School of Advanced Study, University of London)
Woburn Square, LONDON  WC1H 0AB
tel: 020 7862 8940 (direct)
tel: 020 7862 8949 (switchboard)
fax: 020 7862 8939
Institute Webpage  fttp://www.sas.ac.uk/warburg/
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