Dahl, V.I. Proverbs of the Russian people: Sat. proverbs, sayings, utterances, pure words of jokes, riddles, beliefs and so on. Pub. Imperial History and Antiquities Society. Moscow Univ. Press, 1862. – [4], XL, 1096, 6p.; 23.2×16 cm. – (Library of Russian and foreign writers).In half-leather binding, stylized under the bindings of the era. SKUANTT34/619 In a half-leather binding, stylized to resemble bindings of the era, Vladimir Ivanovich Dal (1801-1872) was an outstanding Russian philologist, lexicographer, and author of the famous “Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language.” For several years, V. Dal collected folklore and ethnographic materials in the Orenburg region. He then traveled throughout Russia, carrying out assignments from Count L.A. Perovsky, while also interacting with the people and collecting proverbs, sayings, and witty words. Each of his publications was a true revelation about the life and culture of the people, and the author was aware of the immense importance of his work, striving for maximum completeness in collecting and publishing important types of Russian folklore. “The Proverbs of the Russian People” is Dal’s second most significant work. In it, the scholar collected 30,000 proverbs, sayings, and adages, deeply convinced that the collection of Russian proverbs should appear before the reader as a “collection of folk experiential wisdom and folly,” as “groans and sighs, weeping and wailing, joy and merriment, sorrow and solace in faces.” He arranged the collected proverbs by themes such as “God – Faith,” “Life – Death,” “Human Being,” “Happiness – Fortune,” “Joy – Sorrow,” “Fate – Patience – Hope,” “Rus’ – Homeland,” “Youth – Old Age,” “Trade,” “Drunkenness,” and so on. Proverbs provide information about the deep layers of folk and national consciousness, allowing us to identify important cultural concepts and determine ethical attitudes and the people’s relationship to themselves and their neighbors. In his initial attempts to publish the collected proverbs, V. Dal encountered strong resistance from various guardians of “purity and order.” This opposition was so unexpected and persistent that the desperate scholar planned to “put all the material he had collected on the fire and burn it.” This is likely why the epigraph on the title page of the publication reads: “A proverb is beyond reproach.” Only in 1861-1862 were “The Proverbs of the Russian People” printed in the works of the Society of History and Antiquities of Russian. The book was reprinted in 1879 and 1904, after V. Dal’s death.