The Old Russian Chronograph of the Third Redaction in 182 Chap ters. Part 1: The Chronograph of the 1680s from the Patriarchal Scriptorium

Abstract

The article deals with the special version of the third redaction of the Old Russian Chronograph from the collection of V. M. Undolsky. It is quite different from other copies of this text. The compiler of the manuscript not only revised the traditional structure of the third redaction of the Chronograph by increasing the number of its chapters from 169 to 182 but also fundamentally changed its historical meaning. The vast majority of manuscripts of the third redaction of the Chronograph brought its narrative up to the end of the Time of Troubles in 1618, thereby emphasizing the end of the “rebellious” period in Russian history and the relative “unimportance” of the following years of quiet rule of the first Romanovs. The Chronograph in 182 chapters continues its narrative of Russian history up to the Eternal Peace Treaty of 1686 and pays much attention to the military events and rebellions of the early Romanov era. This codex was written in the patriarchal scriptorium between 1686 and 1696 (most likely in 1686–1689). The paper on which it is written was actively used in other textually related manuscripts from the patriarchal scriptorium in the late 1680s– 1690s. The Undolsky’s copy of the third redaction of the Old Russian Chronograph is not the only version enlarged by additional chapters. More chapters than in the “classical” version can be found in Rumyantsev’s second copy of the Chronograph. Both Undolsky’s and Rumyantsev’s manuscripts derive from a common protograph — a special form of the third redaction of the Chronograph in 179 chapters. The Undolsky manuscript, however, is continued by the Patriarchal Chronicle for the years 1619–1686. Accordingly, the number of chapters is increased to 182. In contrast, the Rumyantsev manuscript is augmented by the Tale of Mosokh and retains the original 179 chapters. Both manuscripts are supplemented by various excerpts from the Book of Royal Degrees. Simultaneously with them, there also appeared other variants of the Chronograph that expressed the patriarchal bookmen’s thoughts about Russian and world history in the 1680s and 1690s: the Fokhtov Chronograph in 187 chapters and its revised version – the Vologodsky Chronograph in 189 chapters, and also the Tikhonravov Chronograph in 184 chapters. The changes that became fixed in some codices from the last quarter of the 17th century were the results of editorial work of patriarchal and other scribes, who compiled new chronographs and their brief redactions (“chronographets”) in the 1680s – 1690s