The brethren of the Alexander Oshevensky Monastery were always rather small-numbered. After the death of the Venerable Monk Alexander, only five elders remained in the monastery; under Abbot Maxim (1488–1531 — the years of abbacy), the situation somewhat improved. According to later sources, in 1648 there were 13 elders, in 1712 — about 30 monks, in 1780, together with secular clergymen, there were 19 people; and in the 19th century — only ten.

Despite the small size, the brethren devoted a lot of time to the creation of handwritten books. To date, it has been possible to identify eleven manuscripts created or kept in the Alexander Oshevensky Monastery.

As a rule, the copying was done by monks or novices; book-writing was an individual duty. The pages of handwritten books from the monastery library feature not only dedications or ownership records, but also the names of scribes. Books were copied there by hand not only in the 16th–17th centuries, but also until the beginning of the 20th century.

The first of the examined books of the monastery belong to the 16th century. The manuscripts did not always remain inside the walls of the monastery where they were created: they were often passed as a gift to other monasteries, hermitages and churches and carefully kept there for a long time.

The presented book includes some information about the scribe: he was a novice of the monastery Nikolay Osipovich Zuev.

While working on this book, Nikolay Zuev collected and made extracts from menaia and other service books. In the lower margin of the first sheet he left an entry in Russian and Latin: