The Iosif-Volokolamsk Monastery retained a very large and impressive library of manuscripts and old printed books – over 700 items – until the mid-19th century. In 1859 part of the collection (236 items) was transferred to the Moscow Theological Academy and, from there, in the 1930s to the Manuscripts Division in the Lenin Library, now known as the Russian State Library. This portion of the Iosif-Volokolamsk library was described by Hieromonk Iosif (“Опись рукописей, перенесенных из библиотеки Иосифова монастыря в библиотеку Московской духовной академии,” ЧОИДР 1881, кн. 3 [Москва, 1882]).
In 1863, 432 manuscripts from the Iosif-Volokolamsk monastic library became part of the Moscow Eparchal Library, which were later transferred, in 1921, to the Manuscripts Division of the State Historical Museum (GIM) in Moscow. There are now 428 manuscripts, numbered between 1-432, in GIM. (Mss. 42, 378, 382, and 428 are not part of this collection.)
The Hilandar Research Library has 427 of the Eparchal GIM manuscripts on microfilm. Eparkh.431, a Stoglav, is damaged and was judged too fragile to photograph for preservation purposes.
The manuscripts are described in Dianova, Kostiukhina and Pozdeeva (see below). For the most part, the collection contains Russian manuscripts from the 14th-19th centuries, with the bulk of the materials dating to the 16th century. There are three manuscripts that are designated as Bulgarian: a 15th-century Tetraevangelion (Eparkh. 6), a Psalter with Supplement dating in part to the 14th cent. and in part to the 16th cent. (Eparkh.144), and a Miscellany from the first quarter of the 15th cent. (Eparkh.376).
Sources:
Дианова, Т. М., Л. М. Костюхина, “Рукописные книги Иосифо-Волоколамский библиотеки (По материалам Отдела рукописей Государственного Исторического Музея),” в кн. Книжные центры Древней Руси: Иосифо-Волоколамский монастырь как центр книжности, 100-121. Ленинград: Наука, 1991.
Дианова, Т. М., Л. М. Костюхина, И.В. Поздеева. “Описание рукописей библиотеки Иосифо-Волоколамского монастыря из Епархиального собрания ГИМ,” в кн. Книжные центры Древней Руси: Иосифо-Волоколамский монастырь как центр книжности, 122-475. Ленинград: Наука, 1991.
