Bishop Nikita and the brief annals for the 11th century in the Synodal MS. of The First Novgorodian Chronicle
https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2026-3-47-61
Abstract
The earliest extant manuscript of a Rus chronicle, the Synodal MS. of The First Novgorodian Chronicle, has an extremely brief section for the 11th century. Those annals contain mostly excerpts from a Kievan chronicle, supplemented by several notes on Novgorodian events. The time of the composition of this brief section is a subject for discussion; the author has presented elsewhere an argument in support of the mid-1090s. If so, those annals most probably were composed at the beginning of the episcopate of Nikita, formerly a monk of the Kievan Cave Monastery. The Paterikon of the Cave Monastery reports Nikita’s gift of divination: he, for example, announced that Prince Gleb of Novgorod had been killed on a certain day, although the event took place more than one thousand kilometers away from Kiev. The author suggests, hypothetically, a connection between this episode and the presence of the precise date of Gleb’s death in the Synodal MS., as well as the fact that, according to the Synodal MS., Izyaslav Yaroslavich of Kiev was killed earlier than Gleb (in reality, Gleb was killed earlier, and Izyaslav benefited politically from his death). Those observations contribute to our understanding of the process of positioning brief notes on events within the chronological framework – a practice essential for the early stages of annalistic writing and a transitional phenomenon from oral memory to written record.
Keywords
Old Rus,
Novgorod,
Kievan Cave Monastery,
Bishop Nikita,
annals,
chronicles,
source studies,
chronology
Supporting agencies: I am grateful to Mikhail Pechnikov and Aleksei Shchavelev for helpful discussion.
About the Author
T. V. Guimon
Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Timofei V. Guimon - Dr. of Sci. (History), professor of the RAS, Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences.
32a, Leninsky Av., Moscow, 119334
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Review
For citations:
Guimon T.V. Bishop Nikita and the brief annals for the 11th century in the Synodal MS. of The First Novgorodian Chronicle. RSUH/RGGU Bulletin: “Literary Teory. Linguistics. Cultural Studies”, Series. 2026;(3):47-61. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2026-3-47-61
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