Golconda of documentological knowledge

The review of the monograph by Yury Nikolaevich Stolyarov (The origins of the book culture [Istoki knizhno kultury] / Yu. N. Stolyarov; Ed. By V. Ya. Rushanin, Chelyabinsk State Institute of Culture. - Chelyabinsk: ChGIK, 2017. - 500 p.) reveals the contribution of Yury Stolyarov into the documentological knowledge. His book is unique due to the scale of presented empirical material and the depth of investigation of the origins of the written culture, namely, the myths, tales, folk stories and songs, epos and religious beliefs. Consistent and appropriate application of the research tools of sociocommunicative, system and culturological approaches enriches significantly the methodology of documentology, contributes to the bibliological knowledge and facilitates further understanding of the book, document and spiritual culture of the humankind. Yu. Stolyarov innovatively reveals the specific features of each of the book culture origins through the rise and development of the document monument system elements, i.e. semantive, signitive, synactive, temporal, pragmative, material and structural. The reviewer substantiates that Yury Stolyarov’s theoretical generalizations based on the study of unprecedentally large-scale empirical material and the deep chronology of book culture origins make this publication by Yury Stolyarov the fundamental, encyclopedic work.