Currently in Russian lexicography there are no author dictionaries describing material of the pre-national period. This niche is occupied by dictionaries of separate texts. At the same time, apparently, historical author lexicography describing language material till the 18th century could exist, and research in the lexicographic form of works of certain authors presents academic interest. Author's material in a historical dictionary is separated in the general language volume by the following criteria: a) statistical criterion, b) criterion of expressiveness: emergence of a unique unit with a set author's purpose of a certain impact on the addressee is the formation of the author's factor. Taking into account a certain fragmentariness of historical evidence, such material can be characterized as conditionally author's, and creation of an author dictionary interpreting material on a wide background of the language of a specific period is justified. The lexicon of a historical dictionary the following conditionally author's elements can be allocated: a) lexical units; b) phraseological units; c) semantic units. In an explanatory historical dictionary these data hardly require special lexicographic marks, but the correct use of the metalanguage of the dictionary and certain techniques shall help the reader of a historical dictionary to see the originality of the author's material. In the article, based on the work experience with a similar material in Slovar' obik-hodnogo russkogo yazyka Moskovskoy Rusi XVI-XVII vv. [Dictionary of the everyday Russian language of Moscow Rus of the 16th-17th centuries], an explanatory historical dictionary of the Russian Middle Ages, some ways of describing such facts in a lexicographic form are considered. The frequency indicator figure specifies the singularity of fixing and signals about the unique author's material. In case of describing the author's material interpretations are of great importance: in some cases conditionally author's units are given very contextual, i.e. following from a quote, interpretation, and sometimes material stands out against the common-language background so that interpretation includes specifying the author's use of this word. To draw attention to non-standard meanings, non-standard transfers, to cases of special functioning some special functional and stylistic marks are used. To transfer the expressive nature of lexemes, emotional and expressive marks of general nature (in cases of derivation in combination with referential interpretation) and descriptive interpretation to express the intensity of action can be used in the dictionary. The author's meaning or the occasional use of a word can need a historical explanation and additional historical or other encyclopedic data which are most often arranged in the form of a special extralinguistic commentary. Thus, when preserving the general system and using the principles of the dictionary authors try to show to the reader the specific author's material against the background of the language of an epoch.

В настоящее время в отечественной лексикографии нет писательских словарей, описывающих материал донационального периода; эту нишу занимают словари отдельных памятников. Актуален вопрос наличия авторского слова в исторических словарях. В статье на базе опыта работы составителей «Словаря обиходного русского языка Московской Руси XVI-XVIIвв.» выдвинуты критерии выделения авторского материала в истории языка и рассмотрены приемы лексикографирования таких единиц.