Rare Books & Special Collections

Resources (1)

• Elias V. Denissoff Slavonic Collection

  The Right Reverend Denissoff (1893–1971) was born in St. Petersburg, the son of a political figure, and once served as secretary to the prime minister of Russia. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1948, holding positions as professor of philosophy at Illinois Benedictine College and the University of Notre Dame.

  The collection consists primarily of books on Russian history, Russian church history of the 16th and 17th c., philosophy and theology of the Byzantine period, Russian philosophy, and geography of Russia.

  There are also 700 microfilms on Muscovite church history drawn from holdings in the British Library (London); Vatican Library, and library of the Pontifical Oriental Institute (Rome); Bibliotheque Nationale, and Bibliotheque Slave (Paris); Staatsbibliothek, and library of the Orientale Institut (Berlin); and other libraries. (Denissoff's most famous work concerned the monk Maxim the Greek.)

  Also in the collection is an 18th c. codex manuscript in several Old Russian hands that contains a chronicle of ecclesiastical history ("Letopis' keleinyi preosviashchennago Dimitriia mitropolita rostovskago i iaroslavskago to nachala mirobytiia do rozhdestva Khristova") by St. Dimitrii Rostovski (1651–1709), a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church. The codex has a full-leaf illumination of St. Dimitrii writing the chronicle with a quill pen. Inquire about possible restrictions.