The notebook and convolute of Archimandrite Laurentius Cordet, 1720-1781

A notebook and a collection of astronomical publications by Archimandrite Lawrence Kordet (1720-1781)

In the XVIII century, there were no ready-made notebooks in our understanding of the word. A wealthy person could afford to order a personal binding, in which, as a rule, he collected interesting fragments of books and blank sheets, which we see in this copy. Luck and rarity is the exact indication of the notebook's ownership. In this case, the owner's entry is made on the pages of the text: "From the books of the Kursk Bogoroditsky Znamensky Monastery of Father Archimandrite Lawrence Kordet."

Fragments of various scientific books of astronomical content are woven into the copy, and the owner's records contain information about church laws, state and economic management and are written in different handwriting in Russian, Latin and French. Most of the records were made by Vladyka Lawrence, and after his death, his personal library, along with a notebook, most likely passed to the next abbot, and he continued writing.

Archimandrite Lawrence was an outstanding church speaker. Among the papers left after his death were several volumes of handwritten sermons, between them two volumes of words and teachings compiled by students when he was rector of the Kharkov Collegium (proto-seminary). As a very educated man for his time and interested in secular literature, Archimandrite Lawrence took a lively part in the work on compiling a geographical dictionary undertaken by the Free Russian Assembly at the Imperial Moscow University; for his works he was elected a member of the Free Economic Society.