In 1985, while preparing a catalogue of ancient Russian
parchment manuscripts held at the Central State Archive
of Ancient Statements (today the Russian State Archive
of Ancient Statements, henceforth cited as RSAAS),
O. A. Kniazevskaya discovered that one of them -
Lestvitsa (“The Stairs”) by a Sinai monk John Lestvichnik
(ca. 525 – ca. 600), dated to the thirteenth century
(ф. 181, No. 452; CK No. 354 ), — was written on
interleaved parchment and paper. Palaeographic
dating indicated that “the present case represents the
earliest use of paper in ancient Russian manuscripts”.
O. A. Kniazevskaya noted that “the paper is thick, well
glossed, without watermarks. Judging by its quality, it
resembles paper of Byzantine manuscripts”. The last
remark is of special interest, as it enumerates the distinguishing
characteristics of Eastern paper, not attested
previously in ancient Russian manuscripts, although the
question of its possible use has been raised previously
by some scholars...
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