Alpha and Omega. Vilnius: In the Printing House of His Royal Majesty Stanislav August, 1786. 302 sheets of text, engraved headpieces. 22.5 x 16.5 cm. Bound in full leather on boards. The collection "Alpha and Omega," compiled from the works of the Church Fathers, was a popular reading book, representing one of the finest examples of didactic literature, encyclopedic in nature and containing sections on both purely theological and prayerful and practical topics. "Alpha and Omega" became extremely popular among Old Believers. The book consists of 90 chapters, including works by ancient Hebrew, ancient Greek, Byzantine, Syriac, Slavic, and other authors. The compiler drew on the works of dozens of authors, including names well known in Russian literature, such as Cyril of Alexandria, John of Damascus, Ephrem the Syrian, and others, as well as little-known and virtually unknown ones: Augustine the Elder, Nicephorus the Historian, Socrates Scholasticus, and others. The book's purpose is defined in the preface to the reader: "For three reasons, beloved reader, I commanded this... book to be written: the first is that man does not live by bread alone; the soul is nourished by words; the second is that not only laymen but also monks have recently begun to read almost no didactic books. The third is that many now disdain their humble Slavic language and turn to other people's fables" (L. 2). The collection "Alpha and Omega," as the text of the book suggests, was compiled by a monk "in a new monastery" under conditions of "a scarcity of books." The author believed that the reading of this book was to be cyclical, corresponding to the four seasons of the year. The book's title is symbolic, denoting, on the one hand, the fullness of the circle of reading and knowledge contained within, and on the other, a quotation from the Book of Revelation: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last."