Festive Menaion and Octoechos

The manuscript is in two colors (black and red). The book's decoration is complemented by decorative letters and full-color page and opening headpieces. Letter foliation appears in the lower right corner, with letter signatures at the bottom center of the page. The book contains textual insertions pasted into folios 120 and 142. On the flyleaf of the back cover is a provenance note in the form of a handwritten text in brown ink: "Oktay [Octoechos], chanter N. Glushnikov." The book has wooden covers, bound in brown leather with stamping: on the front, a frame with floral and geometric ornament elements, at whose center is a shaped medallion with floral motifs, and above and below, shaped horizontal frames with Church Slavonic ligature script; on the reverse, a frame with floral and geometric ornament elements. On the edges of the covers are two clasps of metal and leather.

The book's interior decoration is executed in the Pomor style.

The book was transferred to the museum by decision of the Committee for State Security of the Ukrainian SSR (the "UKGB") in 1960.

Note: the "Prazdnichnyi obikhod," in znamenny (hook) notation, is a collection of Orthodox church liturgical chants (music and texts) intended for performance during feast-day services (great feasts, the Twelve Great Feasts, and so on). "Znamenny" (or "kryukovoi") refers to the method of musical notation: instead of modern five-line staff notation, this system uses ancient signs — "hooks" (kryuki) or "znamena" (signs). This system reflects the tradition of znamenny chant — a strict, usually monophonic (unison) liturgical singing of Kyivan Rus and medieval Rus, today preserved most actively by the Old Believers.

The Znamenny Octoechos (Eight-Tone Book) is a liturgical book of the Orthodox Church in which religious chants and texts are recorded using ancient Rus non-linear notation — "signs" or "hooks" — instead of modern linear notes. This type of book is a monument of znamenny chant, once widespread in ancient Ukraine and Rus, and today preserved and used most actively in the worship of the Old Believers.