The book is the most complete collection of Russian manuscript conspiracies of the 17th - first half of the 19th century. and includes about 500 texts from 36 manuscripts stored in 8 archives in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv and Yaroslavl. For the first time, an outstanding monument of literature of the 2nd quarter of the 17th century is published in full. - Olonets collection, which includes 130 texts in Russian and the Karelian-Veps dialect. The scientific apparatus of the publication includes articles, archaeographic descriptions of manuscripts, comments and indexes. All texts are printed in manuscripts in accordance with modern editional norms.