The Izmaragd ( rus, Измарагд, p=ɪzmɐˈrakt, from grc, σμάραγδος, smáragdos, emerald) is a Russian moral compilation work, surviving in a number of manuscript copies. Written in codex form, the earliest written copy is from the 14th century. Depending on the version, it contains from 90 to 250 articles, mostly translated from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and adapted to Russian culture and context. The themes covered by the work are various: "revering books", Christian

virtue Virtue ( la, virtus) is moral excellence. A virtue is a trait or quality that is deemed to be morally good and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. In other words, it is a behavior that shows high moral standards ...

s and

sin In a religious context, sin is a transgression against divine law. Each culture has its own interpretation of what it means to commit a sin. While sins are generally considered actions, any thought, word, or act considered immoral, selfish, s ...

s, good and mean wives, education of children and

household A household consists of two or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is i ...

management. The Izmaragd was widely in use until the end of 17th century (20th century in some Old Believers communities), and heavily contributed to the influence of

Domostroy ''Domostroy'' ( rus, Домострой, p=dəmɐˈstroj, ''Domestic Order'') is a 16th-century Russian set of household rules, instructions and advice pertaining to various religious, social, domestic, and family matters of the Russian society. ...

in 15th-16th centuries.

References

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...

{{manuscript-stub East Slavic manuscripts East Slavic literature