"The Seal of King Solomon": astrological bookishness of the Old Believers-Popovites of the XIX century.

Sokolov Aleksandr Vladimirovich ORCID: 0000-0001-5016-3199 Assistant; Department of History and Archaeology; Tolstoy Tula State Pedagogical University 300000, Russia, Tula region, Tula, Mendeleevskaya str., 7, room 9 alks_2@mail.ru

Studying the Tula Old Believers, we discovered a unique monument of writing – the "Seal of King Solomon" in the fund of the Rogozhsky cemetery ^[11]. This semi-printed text, based on marginalia, belonged to a Tula philistine. We did not find any literary monuments with the same name. This monument has a pronounced astrological orientation, later it turned out that the compiler of the "Seal of King Solomon" was an Old Believer. The very fact that the Old Believers created such texts had never been seen by the author before. Therefore, the key task of this work is to introduce the Seal of King Solomon, a previously unexplored monument, into scientific circulation.

The author does not have the goal of a comprehensive study of this text, within the framework of the article – this is impossible. The purpose of the study is to analyze the structure of the book "Seal of King Solomon". To achieve this goal, it is necessary to answer a number of questions. First, is it possible to date the text, establish authorship and understand why it was created? Secondly, what is the attitude towards astrology in the Orthodox environment? Thirdly, what parts does the text consist of? Fourth, is it possible to determine the origin of each part?

The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, objectivity and integrity. The work is based on genetic, hermeneutical and comparative methods, as well as content analysis. Hermeneutical and mathematical methods were also used in the work. We will identify the structural components based on the sources on which this text was based. Quotations from the text of the "Seal ..." will be given based on the norms of the modern Russian language.

There are several ways of dating and authorship of the "Seal...": first, we analyzed the external signs of the book. The monument itself has a leather binding and firmly fixed sheets. The book was either made to order or for sale. The paper of the book is quite dense, but not as thick as dried (this type resembled a modern watman in density), which was actively used in the XVIII century. At the same time, the paper was clearly not cheap, as evidenced by the fact that it does not crumble into fibers. According to its characteristics, it is close to the one on which the Tula Pomeranian scribe D.V. Batov hectographed his writings in the second half of the XIX century. ^[3], however, the quality of the paper "Printing ..." is undoubtedly higher. The text was composed by a semi-author, and a number of factors indicate that we have a seal in front of us, and not a manuscript. First of all, this is the location of the text – it follows clearly defined boundaries in width. It is equally important that the letters are arranged as if on invisible lines. The text will follow them even if the paragraphs have been torn apart by graphic images. Another argument in favor of the fact that it is the printed text in front of us are graphic images, which, when visually analyzed, have obvious signs of printed origin. Graphic images themselves are functional, they explain what a certain celestial phenomenon looks like, although decorative images are also found. Such an approach with a functional image was not peculiar even to educational literature until the beginning of the XIX century. in principle. Engravings in religious texts performed an illustrative or instructive function, but did not imply practical application. All this indirectly suggests that the book originated in the XIX century. The fact that the text was printed indicates that it was aimed at an external user. In other words, the book was created either for a specific order or for sale. So, so far, we can hypothesize that "Printing ...", based on the graphic features and type of paper, originated in the 19th century and most likely in its second half.

Secondly, we tried to identify its affiliation based on the marginalia left on the book. So, on the flyleaf of the front cover we find the following entry "This book belongs to the Tula resident Stepan Tikhonov" ^[11], and on the flyleaf of the lower cover there is an inscription: "This book by Stepan Tikhonov Akaraenkov" ^[11]. Based on the phrase "... to a Tula resident..." we can say that this book belonged to a philistine. Having studied the archival materials on the Old Believers of Tula, we were unable to identify at least some information about the person who owned this book. Thus, the marginalia did not allow us to establish at least approximate information about the date of the book's appearance, nor did they allow us to establish the religious beliefs of this work.

Therefore, thirdly, we analyzed the text itself. In it we find the following title "The Word of the wise King Solomon as she renewed all creatures in former summers" ^{[11, l. 25-vol.]}. This part of the book tells about the events that provoked the "renewal" of living beings. The text speaks of twelve accomplished "updates" of all "creatures", each of which was associated with any major event. These included: the expulsion of Adam from Eden; the imposition of executions on Egypt; the Great Flood; the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; the fall of the walls of Jericho and the destruction of the Canaanites; when the Israelites led the sea and the Pharaoh sank the soldiers; the crucifixion of Christ; the devastation of Jerusalem; "when the Russian kingdom fell into disbelief, rejected the paternal tradition and retreated from the faith"; Tsar Grad was captured (it is not clear from the text what event specifically is being discussed); "when the Slovenes perceived Vera Hrtova and baptised"; "when the Poles elm grad Kiev and ravaged" ^{[11, l. 25-ob]}. In other words, the "updates" of all "creatures" took place during fundamental events, from the point of view of the compiler of the "Seal". He attributed to similar events the period "when the Russian kingdom fell into disbelief, rejected the paternal tradition and retreated from the faith" ^{[11, l. 25-about]}. From the point of view of church history, there was only one such event – it was the Schism of the second half of the XVII century. In the context, we see that the author condemns those who "reject the paternal tradition", in other words, he speaks on behalf of the Old Believers, apparently being an Old Believer himself. The Old Believers' underground printing houses are widely known to the scientific community, but we do not know of cases when a non-Old Believer would write for Old Believers.

No less important is the fact that he writes about the "renewal", which was caused by the crucifixion of Christ, he calls him "Jesus" ^{[11, l. 25-ob]}, and not the traditional Old Believers "Jesus" or in the case form "Isa". Old Believers have long been based on a fundamental rejection of the spelling "Jesus" with two "and", but here we see a similar assumption. This variant of writing became possible only for the Old Believers of the Belokrinitsky accord priests, who accepted the district message in 1862. Which proved the possibility of writing the name of Christ with one "and" and two equally. The origin of the compiler from the environment of the circle is indirectly confirmed by the fact that the "Seal ..." eventually ended up in the fund of the Rogozhsky cemetery – the center of the circle-popovites of the second half of the XIX century.

Thus, after analyzing the external signs of the monument, we came to the conclusion that the "Seal of King Solomon" appeared in the second half of the XIX century. This was confirmed by a meaningful analysis of the text, based on which it becomes obvious that the author of the work was an Old Believer of the district sense, which arose only in 1862. That is why we consider 1862 to be the lower limit of the appearance of the "Seal..." Unfortunately, so far we cannot say who exactly was the compiler of this text, since there are simply no sources pointing to any person. We also found that the book was created either to order or for sale.

Considering the "Seal of King Solomon", we are faced with a number of problems, primarily related to its eclecticism. Eclecticism can be traced both meaningfully and ideologically. The chapters of the book differ quite a lot in language and content. Using fragments from different texts and explicitly adding his own inventions, the compiler did not try to give the text a single structure. So the beginning of the book greets us with the title "Chapter 1" ^{[11, l. 1]}, however, after "Chapter 2" ^{[11, l. 2]} on the next sheet, we will not find such a structure until the end of the book. Further along the text, we are waiting for subheadings, although ideologically there is a gap between the individual parts. By itself, the book was supposed to be an aid in answering the question – "what is the best thing to do?". To find an answer to this question, it was proposed to peer into the sky, looking for a clue in the location of the "heavenly bodies", as well as calculate a certain point in time for a particular action.

First of all, it is necessary to understand how the Orthodox, and therefore the Old Believer tradition, related to astrological texts. The most prominent figure of the Old Believers, Protopope Habakkuk, in his "Life", referring to Dionysus the Areopagus, pointed out that divination by the "luminaries" is nothing more than "external empty talk, nothing, only temptation, corruption and perdition" ^[4]. Other saints also opposed astrology, among them Gregory of Nyssa ^[15], Gregory the Theologian ^[19] and John Chrysostom, most quoted by the Old Believers ^[2]. The general leitmotif was the inability of astrology to predict the future. Criticism of astrology was necessary for the Orthodox understanding of the world, since Christian dogmatics is based on the original freedom of human will. Astrology is characterized by a fatalistic view of life. However, Orthodoxy itself allowed for the possibility of looking into the future, by the XVII century. A picture had developed in which it was possible to foresee only with the favor of God ^[24]. Such a motive implied that a person by himself is not able to look into the future, no matter what is used in this case. Astrology, whether it was "folk" or "scientific", pointed to techniques that allowed one to foresee, technically anyone could know the future.

Another important leitmotif goes back to the "Helmsman" book of 1280. Based on it, astrologers and fortune-tellers are equated with idolaters ^{[8, p. 279]}. In this sense, Archpriest Habakkuk goes further, in his fifth "Conversation" puts Satan – the enemy of the human race – and fortune-tellers on the same plane ^{[5, pp. 138-141]}. Apparently, for Habakkuk, a tough anti-astrological position was dictated by the popularity of fortune-telling texts in his time, which he could not help but associate with the reforms of Patriarch Nikon and with the growing influence of the "Germans" on Russia ^{[5, pp. 138-141]}.

On the other hand, John of Damascus, revered by all branches of Orthodoxy, writes: "The Hellenes say that all our affairs are governed by the ascension, setting and convergence of the stars, as well as the sun and moon; this is what astrology does. On the contrary, we claim that they give omens of rain and lack of rain, wet and dry weather, as well as winds and the like;... Others say.... the stars are, if not the causes, then the omens of wars and that the air quality, depending on the sun, moon and stars, produces different temperaments, skills and dispositions in different ways; but skills relate to what is in our will, for they obey reason and change under its guidance" ^{[6, p. 200]}. In fact, Damascus followed the established tradition – a person is free, the position of the stars does not affect him, moreover, they do not mark any social events. At the same time, reading on cosmic bodies, from the point of view of Damascene, allows you to predict the weather. In fact, he admits the existence of actually functioning astrological texts that would not conflict with the church canon.

John of Damascus also pointed out that in some cases, heavenly signs make it possible to understand the impending future. He pointed out that after the arrival of the comet, one can understand the future ^{[6, p. 200]}. However, he did not explain what exactly could be predicted, limiting himself only to the fact that the arrival of a comet could portend the death of the tsar. Apparently, he was referring to those events that did not depend on the will of a person. At the same time, he pointed out that the solar signs themselves were arranged by God for edification, but do not have a predictive function ^{[6, p. 201]}.

For the Russian tradition, on the contrary, solar eclipses had predictive properties. This can be seen both in the "Word about Igor's Regiment" and in the life of Archpriest Avvakum. Habakkuk, talking about solar eclipses, pointed out that they signified chaos, pestilence and the wrath of God ^[4]. Thus, he actually allows the possibility to learn the future from the "heavenly bodies".

So, we can talk about the ambivalent attitude towards astrology in the church tradition. On the one hand, it was condemned as superstition, idolatry, or even equated with the arrogance of Satan. Such an attitude to astrology was based on the fact that within the framework of Christian dogma, a person is endowed with free will, and astrology restricts it on an ideological level. Moreover, by the 17th century, in the Orthodox tradition, there was an idea that a prediction could only be born of God's favor, but it was impossible for a person to know the future. On the other hand, "reading by the heavenly bodies" of events that did not depend on the will of man, and therefore did not contradict the foundations of Christian teaching, could be considered permissible.

This ambivalent attitude eventually led to the fact that, on the one hand, astrological works began to spread in the XV-XVII centuries. Moreover, monasteries became the centers of their distribution. On the other hand, the church created entire lists of prohibited literature, which included writings claiming to predict the future. After all, fortune-telling literature is at best a superstition, at worst a dangerous delusion or outright heresy. The Church tried to fight the popularity of astrological writings, but it could not completely defeat them. Last but not least, this was due to the fact that the grand dukes, tsars, as well as the first emperor of Russia, Peter I, actively turned to astrology ^{[16, pp. 580, 18]}.

In the XVIII century, the state began to actively fight against "superstitions" and seize old-written books ^{[9, 14]}. The Old Believers, well-known admirers of ancient books and texts, on the contrary, tried to get hold of forbidden books and manuscripts. However, the Old Believers were engaged not only in collecting ancient texts, but also in reprinting, compiling and processing them. Apparently, it was in this format that the book "The Seal of King Solomon" appeared, which will be discussed below.

Speaking about the text directly of the "Seal...", we can note that we have a narrative source in front of us. The story itself is functional, it is aimed at making the reader, as it were, comprehend the secrets revealed to him by God together with Solomon. The book begins with King Solomon asking God for wisdom. Having heard Solomon's plea, "God gave him wisdom at his request: and he went through all the books (read – here and further insert by the author A.V.) and learned stargazing from the planets and the heavenly run, and which stars walk on the belt" ^{[11, l. 1]}. Note that Solomon does not explain which one "wisdom" he wants, in this story God gives him astrological knowledge, which indicates that it is the highest. Let us emphasize, based on the text, astrology is the highest wisdom. However, the reading of "run to heaven" does not begin immediately, previously there is a narrative about how Solomon received his special royal seal, and about the tree on which Christ will be crucified ^{[11, l. 2-2-about]}. Then, the story begins about the structure of the sky, and what in the astrological sense means the movement and radiance of individual stars and planets ^{[11, l. 3-17]}.

Thus, here we can distinguish four semantic blocks: Solomon's petition for wisdom; Solomon's acquisition of a large royal seal; a conversation with the tree on which Christ will be crucified; the structure of heaven. However, these parts do not belong to the authorship of the compiler of the "Seal...", they are textually identical to the text "The Legend of King Solomon, what is the great seal and from where, and how it came to him" ^{[7, pp. 473-507]}. Despite the fact that the "Legend ..." is clearly unpublished in full, for example, there is no part about the "star of Hermes" and "Aphrodite", we can say with confidence that this text formed the basis of the first part of the "Seal ...".

Academician A.I. Sobolevsky believed that the text of the "Legend ..." originated before the XVI century. In his opinion, the text arose as a result of the processing of Greek sources and the literature of the Jews ^{[21, p. 433]}. If the ascent of the text to the Greek narratives is obvious, as indicated by the Hellenized names of planets and cities, then it is difficult to trace the connection of the text with the Jews. The author did not argue or explain his position. Modern researchers date the text from the XVII – early XVIII centuries, based on modern achievements in paleography and textual studies ^{[7, p. 483]}. Thus, this fragment cannot be connected with both the Jews and the clean-up days, which arose only by the end of the XVIII century.

Thus, we can say that the first part of the "Seal ..." is a tracing paper of the "Legend ...". This part demonstrates the structure of the cosmos in a fictional format and provides guidelines for independent astrological interpretation of individual observed "celestial" phenomena. In itself, the "Legend..." arose as a result of the processing of various Greek texts and, possibly, the literature of the Jews.

The next part of the "Seal of King Solomon" is quite different from the previous one, it appears under the title "A month in the environment" ^{[11, l. 17-about]} the narrative disappears here, and information is given according to the type of formula "if-then". The environment here is clearly called the lunar halo, i.e. the second circle of light. As examples, we will give a description of some months: "March is surrounded by many waters; April is surrounded by something that will show internecine warfare; May is surrounded by something that shows to be a great army..." and so on for all months ^{[11, l. 18]}. In this part, fragments of "Thunderbolts" are guessed, from which all predictions concerning thunder itself were cut out. Textually, this part coincides with the Serbian "Gromnik" ^[1], although the domestic version is greatly simplified. In the Serbian version, much more events can be predicted by the Moon. The differences are not surprising, by "Gromnik" they understood and understand not a single text, but a group. The "Gromniks" could differ significantly or directly contradict each other, as well as adapt to local realities ^{[18, p. 545]}. Before the XVIII century . they all had Byzantine origin ^{[18, p. 545]}, however, they could have entered Russia from Serbia and Bulgaria in a slightly modified form ^{[23, p. X]}. Initially, the "Gromniks" settled in monasteries, and they were translated into the Church Slavonic language. They were widely used, but since the XVII century the authorities tried to limit their spread ^{[23, p. 544]}. By the end of the XVIII century, the "Gromniks" were leaving the scene, but their number remained high ^{[12, p. 44]}. Apparently, due to the irrelevance of the "Gromnik" in the "Seal of King Solomon" by the 19th century, it lacks part of the original text, which dealt with the prediction of thunder.

Thus, the second component part of the Seal of King Solomon is a fragment of the Gromnik, which also has a Greek text at its root. At the same time, not the main part was taken from the "Gromnik" itself – dedicated to thunder predictions, but only a fragment dedicated to the Moon.

The following headings in the text of the "Seal ..." are called "Other signs on the moon as for the sake of this month and see it on the 3rd day in this way" ^{[11, l. 18-about-19-about]}, "About the months and about the stars with planets" ^{[11, l. 20]} and "The Sun in the environment such a thing" ^{[11, l. 21-23]}. We tend to combine these subheadings into one part, because stylistically, structurally and meaningfully they are similar. This part is close to the first, but the narrative model is extremely different. If in the first part we have a largely fictional form in front of us, then here we see clear recommendations and instructions. The first part is replete with metaphors, the third is practically devoid of them – the text is much stricter. It should be noted that at present we have not been able to identify the predecessor of this part. By itself, this part, like the first one, is heterogeneous.

The first title in this part is mainly devoted to how to determine whether it will rain or not by the position of the "horns" of the month ^{[11, L. 18-about-19-about]}. This somewhat naive and empirically easily refuted fragment stands next to a part that would not have been possible without a long astronomical tradition. The chapter "On the months and on the stars with planets" ^{[11, l. 20]} demonstrates the calculation of the Lunar phases. The counting techniques themselves are not shown here, but the text is much more complicated than in the previous chapter. We would not have combined these fragments into one part if it were not for the third component. The content of "The Sun is in the environment", as well as this part as a whole, is also not homogeneous. It begins with signs – determining the weather by the sun, but ends with the movement of cosmic bodies. Of course, this text also testifies to the continuing astronomical tradition. If at the beginning of this fragment we see elements of "folk" astrology, then there is a transition to full-fledged astronomy, and the transition is quite abrupt.

The boundary between them can be traced quite clearly, the traces of compilation are obvious, and nevertheless, the originator of the "Seal ..." had, apparently, one source when writing this part.

The next part of the text is linked to the subtitle "The Word of the wise King Solomon on the renewal of heaven and earth and stars" ^{[11, l. 24-ob-25]}. This part goes back to the "Doctrine of how a person can know the number of years" by Kirik of Novgorod, written in the XII century. ^[10] However, if Kirik believes that the sky is renewed every 80 years, the earth – 40, the seas – 60, and the waters – 70, the indication – 15 ^[10], then in the "Seal...", the following update dates are indicated: the celestial circle is updated every 100 years, the stars are 50, the sun is 28, the lunar circle is 19, the indicator is 15, leap year is 4 (leap year) ^{[11, L. 24-vol]}. The dates presented in the "Seal ..." are closer to one of the variations of the "Palea Tolkova", according to which: celestial circle – 100, terrestrial – 90, marine – 60, starry – 5, solar – 28, lunar – 19, windy – 4, indication – 15, leap – 4, aquatic – 70 ^{[7, p. 437]}.

Obviously, this part of the "Seal..." and "Palea..." is based on Kirik's work. However, if "Palea Intelligible" refers not only to Kirik, but also to other mathematical and calendar monuments ^{[7, p. 471]}, then "Seal ..." adds moralizing texts to astronomical texts ^{[11, l. 25]}. Following the purely astronomical text is an insert about human loneliness and that in old age people should not be reproached, but comforted. Such an abrupt transition seems ragged, illogical. Unfortunately, based on the available sources, we cannot explain the reason for this abrupt transition. In the same part, for the first time, mention is made of the "all creatures renewal" ^{[11, l. 25]}. However, it is impossible to connect it with the fragment of the "Seal ..." under the title "The Word of the wise King Solomon, as all creatures were renewed in previous summers," which we wrote above.

To substantiate our position, we analyzed the semantics of the word "renewal" in the context of "all creatures of renewal". The word "renewal" itself had a fairly wide range of meanings ^{[20, pp. 104-106]}. However, in the text we find two clues that allow us to understand the meaning of this word in the context of "creatures of renewal". For the first time, according to the text, the whole "creature" was renewed with the fall of Adam ^{[11, l. 25-vol.]}. Simeon the New Theologian pointed out that since the fall of man, there has been a "renewal" of living beings, they have passed from an "imperishable" existence into a "perishable" one ^{[22, pp. 7-9]}. The author of the book "The Seal of King Solomon" predicts the coming renewal "When all creation is renewed, so God wants us to be saved" ^{[11, l. 26]}, which is consistent with the ideas of Simeon the New Theologian, who points to the coming renewal as a result of the last Judgment. From Simeon's point of view, the new transition for "creatures" will be reversed when they turn from "perishable" to "imperishable" again ^{[22, pp. 7-9]}. In other words, after the fall, the qualitative physical properties of "creatures" changed, however, according to Simeon, their purpose did not change – "creatures" in heaven and on earth were and will be servants of man ^{[22, p. 7]}. Another understanding of "renewal" is presented in the book "Traditions of King Solomon", Here the author pointed to the fundamental "creature renewal" that also occurred after the fall of Adam. Here, "renewal" refers to the emergence of new, "useless" species, for example, the text talks about the appearance of toads, as well as about changing existing species: "terrestrial animals changed into aquatic ones, and those floating in the waters came to earth" ^[13]. Anyway, according to Simeon and "Legend..." the "renewal" was accompanied by physical changes: from the immaterial to the material; from one environment to the opposite, or "useful" animals were replaced by "useless" ones. Both the fall of Adam and the Last Judgment are events that begin and end history, however, based on the text of the Seal of King Solomon, "updates" in the course of history have occurred and will continue to occur between these two points.

The second clue concerns the renewal that occurred after the Flood ^{[11, l. 26]}. Here, apparently, we are talking about replenishing the population, which was reduced to a couple of individuals during the Great Flood. In other words, here we get a different version of the "update", not a high-quality one, but in the "recovery" format. Apparently, a similar understanding of "renewal" was typical for a number of other events. In the text of the source itself, little is said about "renewal" as such, it is noted here that each "creature" is updated according to a "single creature", including a person ^{[11, l. 25]}. At the same time, the very "renewal" of all "creatures" is accompanied by a number of catastrophes: wars, pestilence, famine, earthquakes, etc. ^{[11, l. 25]} Such a scheme fits well into a number of events presented in the text (for example: the Egyptian executions; the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; the same Great Flood, etc.). One could say that "renewal of the whole creature" is one of the tools for punishing humanity for sins, but the author points not only to events that have a clearly negative connotation. According to the text, "the whole creation was renewed" when the Slavs accepted the faith of Christ and were baptized" ^{[11, l. 26]}. Such an event was clearly positive in the eyes of the religious author. It is the mention of this event that destroys the concept of "the whole creature renewal" = punishment.

Another understanding of "renewal" is given to us by the interpretations of the "Second Epistle to the Corinthians", it says: "So whoever is in Christ is a new creature; the ancient things have passed away, now everything is new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). John Chrysostom – the most quoted by both Old Believers and "Niconians" wrote: "Then, in order to explain what was said more and show how we become a new creature, he (the Apostle Paul – A.V.) says: "the ancient has passed, now everything is new" ("ancient mimoidosha, it was all new"). What is "ancient"? Or sins and various kinds of impiety, or all Jewish (rituals); or better, both together. "Everything is new now. Everything is from God" ("Everything was new: everything is from God") (2 Corinthians 5:17-18). But nothing from us. And the remission of sins, and adoption, and incorruptible glory – everything from Him has been granted to us" ^[17]. In this text, "everything is new" does not mean that "everyone" has it. It's "new" here, only for those involved in Christianity. When the text of the "Seal ..." says that "all creatures were renewed" at the baptism of the Slavs ^{[11, l. 26]}, it clearly refers to the interpretation of "renewal" indicated by John Chrysostom. However, this interpretation is not universal. Where it is said about "renewal" in the context of Nikon's reform (they rejected the tradition of the fathers and renounced the faith), it does not apply. If the baptism of the Slavs for the author of the "Seal" brought with it a good renewal, then the deviation from the faith of the fathers is bad. However, here, as in the interpretation of John Chrysostom or the epistle to the Corinthians, "everything" does not mean everyone, but only those involved in this process.

Thus, having analyzed the meaning of "updating" in various contexts, we can talk about the polysemantic meaning of this model. The text implies different "updates": in scale (all-not all), for reasons (punishment – blessing), connotation (bad-good), quality and quantity. The interpretation of the meaning of "all creatures of renewal" requires a deep and separate analysis, which is beyond the scope of our study. Here we can say that the compiler of the "Seal ..." used sources that could not be reduced to a single understanding of the "update". Because of this, we can single out "The Word of the wise King Solomon as all creatures were renewed in previous summers" in a separate separate part of the "Seal".

The following two fragments of the text have subheadings – "The word of the wise King Solomon about the leap year and about the hours which in the 4th year we add to the clock the day will arrive" and "The word of the wise King Solomon about persons born in heaven, and not according to the saints." They have a single set of terms, complement each other, and also have stylistic unity ^{[11, L. 26-about-32-about]}. This relatively large part is the most significant, as indicated by the following sentence: "and whoever is not wise, do not know this wisdom..." ^{[11, l. 27]}. In this way, not the entire work as a whole is characterized, but this particular part. It clearly goes back to the "Teaching..." of Kirik Novgorodets, who distinguished large and fractional clocks ^[10]. However, the text addressed by the compiler of the "Seal..." appeared much later. So, according to Kirik, there are 12 daytime and 12 night hours in one day, each hour is equal to 5 fractional hours. At this point, Kirik's time division stops ^[10]. Here is a large excerpt from the text of "Seals..." to understand the specifics of the text:

"Let's talk about big clocks and fractional clocks and dots, and about the border on everything, you understand how the day will gather over the year in an hour, in two months the big hour will arrive, and in a year 7 big hours will arrive, and in a big hour 366 fractional hours, and points in every fraction 72 and in The day of the big clock is 24 hours. And therefore, in the big hour, there are 1580 fractional hours in the day, and in fractional hours, there are 72 points in each fraction in the day. And therefore, in the big hour 4700 points in the day in all big hours of fractional hours 1584 points, the extreme half is 36 and than on the same 36 of all 7002 points, the extreme ones know the day in every fraction half: and the other half on the black ones know the night that the day is separated from the night by writing some service to the day and the night and in the daytime and at night at 12 o'clock, half the day in the big clock of fractional hours 2308: and fractions of dots 7218, and in the other half, too, how many extreme steel and black halves only then in which month which Delhi is what it means and in this hour and in the hour fraction and fractions point and in points the border is that in some meat an hour is a fraction or something is not used and in a month more than 700 hours and in half a year 4316 hours and in a year" ^{[11, l. 26 vol.]}. So, according to the "Seal..." time is divided into years, months (12 months a year), days, day and night, large clocks, fractional clocks, points and boundaries.

The appeal to such a text in the second half of the 19th century seems unusual. In Russia, mechanical watches have been known since the XV century, and since the XVIII century. they were becoming common. A person who could afford an obviously expensive "Seal..." could also buy a watch. Moreover, as previously mentioned, calendars have been distributed since the end of the XVIII century, which directly informed when and for what the most appropriate time is. We know that calendars were quite common, and were printed on cheap paper, which means they should have been cheaper than "Printing...". The use of calendars was quite simple and understandable, at the same time, "Printing ..." assumed computational operations. These are the things we need to do in order to understand the logic of this text.

In order to get an idea of the integrity of this fragment, we need to translate the following fragment into understandable time units: "the year will arrive at 7 o'clock in the big hour 366 fractional hours, and the points in every fraction are 72." To begin with, we need to convert 1 year into days, we get 365 non-leap days and 366 leap days, then divide both numbers by 7, it turns out that 1 big hour of the year is approximately equal to 52 days. Next, divide the resulting number by 366 and multiply by the daily number of hours and it turns out that in one fractional hour there are approximately 3.4 hours (according to the Greenwich reference frame). After dividing the fractional hour by a point – 72, and then multiplying by 360, we get the number 171, which indicates the number of seconds (Greenwich mean time) at one point.

Further, the text talks about the daily large hours, there are 24 of them, and each hour contains 1580 fractional hours, and 72 dots in each fraction ^{[11, L. 26-vol]}. Doing the same steps as above, we get that 1 fractional hour is approximately equal to 136.7 seconds, and one point is approximately 1.9 seconds. However, the difficulties begin further. "And therefore, in the big hour, 4700 points per day in all..." ^{[11, l. 26-about]}, if we take the calculations that we had for the year, then by simply multiplying 171 seconds by 4700 we get about 9 hours GMT, if we are talking about daily hours, then 4700 points are equal to 2.4 hours GMT. Thus, it is pointless to carry out any calculations here, they do not allow us to come to a common denominator. In the future, the logic of calculations is violated even more, so it makes no sense to carry out calculations in general. Instead of a clear and precise picture of calculations, we are dealing with data that does not allow us to calculate the value of a larger hour, fractional, point and boundary, i.e. to arrive at a common value. This leads to the idea that the figures presented in the text do not fulfill their purpose – it is impossible to determine the time by them. The reason for this, apparently, is that this part was based on different texts that had thematic similarities, but different content, including those using different computational methods of time.

At the same time, according to these calculations, the compiler suggests calculating the time for suitable actions, which is the subject of the second subtitle in this part, "The Word of the wise King Solomon about persons born in Heaven, and not according to the saints." This part resembles a number of published "Lunaries" ^{[7, pp. 543-633]}. As is known, "Moonlighters" were called a fairly large range of works that could not have a single origin, which is why their variation was quite wide ^{[16, pp. 545-547]}. Apparently, the compiler of the "Seal ..." borrowed one of the writings of this type, which assumed the calculation of the most favorable time for a particular activity. Note that recommendations for certain actions are not given for all days, but only for specific, moreover, certain actions/non-actions should have been performed at a specific boundary, a specific point that was part of a specific fractional hour going back to a certain big hour. To comply with these recommendations, an atomic clock would be required ... At the same time, we note that this text is somewhat out of the general picture of such literature, since there is no division into "good" and "evil" hours. Such a division was widespread in such literature ^{[16, pp. 545-547]}, and its absence on the one hand indicates the atypical nature of "Printing ...", and on the other hand may indicate a simplification of certain categories in it. Claiming to be predictive universality, the "Seal..." became physically unworkable.

The last part is the final one. It is dedicated to the praiseworthy word about Solomon and his wisdom ^{[11, l. 32-ob-33]}. It is again emphasized here that there is an equal sign between the wisdom of Solomon and the ability to read signs by the movement of celestial bodies. The zodiacs are mentioned here for the first and last time. It is indicated that Solomon could also read the future from them, however, how exactly is not said. In its stylistics, this part is extremely reminiscent of the "Legend ..." ^{[7, pp. 473-507]} and apparently is its ending.

Thus, we draw a number of conclusions. Firstly, we have established that the text did not appear before 1862, and its compiler was an Old Believer. At the same time, the compiler of the Seal of King Solomon pursued commercial interest, since he clearly wanted to sell this book. The very fact that this work was in the hands of a Tula philistine suggests that he was a bearer of a special Old Believer culture. Contrary to the mainstream, it was not as easy to perceive and apply as, for example, astrological calendars. Secondly, the analysis of the corpus of patristic literature and the writings of Archpriest Avvakum shows a negative attitude among religious ideologists towards astrological texts. In many ways, the negative attitude was dictated by the fact that astrology encroached on the basic principles of Orthodoxy. On the other hand, both Protopope Habakkuk and John of Damascus recognized the limited predictive properties of "reading from the heavenly bodies". Thirdly, we have identified 6 structural units in the text that have different origins. The first part borrows the text of "The Legend of King Solomon, what is the great seal and where and how it came to him," and in full, without making explicit adjustments. The second one appears to be a separate part of the "Gromnik". In the subsequent parts, we were not able to clearly establish their origin, however, we can say that the third was guided by a single source, including the writings of Kirik Novgorodsky, Paley Tolkaya, seven thousand books and a certain moral text. The fourth part, apparently, is a creative attempt to combine events of various meanings under a single denominator "all creatures of renewal". The fifth part includes a "Moonlight", which involves calculating the most favorable time for a particular activity. The sixth, or final part, is textually closest to the first – it is also based on "The Legend of King Solomon, that there is a great seal and from where, and how it came to him." Fourthly, we can say that the work is composite – and includes a body of texts with different origins. The text itself bears traces of an explicit, and often awkward, compilation, and individual fragments have internal contradictions.