Zertsalo

Zertsalo

 

(1) The title of edifying and educational literary works, popular in ancient times both in Russia and in the West—for example, Velikoe zertsalo (The Great Mirror) and lunosti chestnoe zertsalo (The Honest Mirror of Youth).

(2) The emblem of “law and order” in tsarist Russia that had to stand on the desk in courts and other institutions. The zertsalo, introduced by Peter I, was a trihedral prism crowned with a two-headed eagle; on its three sides were printed three Petrine decrees—the Apr. 17, 1722, decree on the observance of civil rights, the Jan. 21, 1724, decree on honest service in court, and the Jan. 22, 1724, decree on the importance of government regulations.