Ipatievskaya chronicle according to Khlebnikovsky list

The ''Khlebnikov Codex'' (; ) is a

codex The codex (: codices ) was the historical ancestor format of the modern book. Technically, the vast majority of modern books use the codex format of a stack of pages bound at one edge, along the side of the text. But the term ''codex'' is now r ...

Rus' chronicle The Rus' chronicles, Russian chronicles or Rus' letopis () was the primary Rus' historical literature. Chronicles were composed from the 11th to the 18th centuries, generally written in Old East Slavic (and, later, Ruthenian language, Ruthenian ...

s compiled in the 1560s.

Provenance and physical description

The ''Khlebnikov Codex'' was unexpectedly discovered in the summer of 1809. It is named after one of its previous owners, (), a merchant from

Kolomna Kolomna (, ) is a historic types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, situated at the confluence of the Moskva River, Moskva and Oka Rivers, (by rail) southeast of Moscow. Population: History Mentioned for the fir ...

, Russia. The codex is currently preserved in the

National Library of Russia The National Library of Russia (NLR, , ''РНБ''), located in Saint Petersburg, is the first, and one of three national public libraries in Russia. The NLR is currently ranked among the world's major libraries. It has the second biggest libr ...

with registration number "F.IV.230". Boris Kloss (2007) concluded that the entire text was copied by the same scribes. He identified the

filigree Filigree (also less commonly spelled ''filagree'', and formerly written ''filigrann'' or ''filigrene'') is a form of intricate metalwork used in jewellery and other small forms of metalwork. In jewellery, it is usually of gold and silver, m ...

– variants of a

wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a Suidae, suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The speci ...

– with the no. 3661 type dated to 1560 by (1967), leading Kloss to the conclusion that 'the main part of the manuscript was written in the 1560s'.

Aleksey Shakhmatov Aleksey Aleksandrovich Shakhmatov (, – 16 August 1920) was a Russian philology, philologist and historian credited with laying the foundations for the science of Textual criticism, textology. Shakhmatov held the title of Doctor of Russ ...

(1908) identified the text's language as "southern Rus', with very typical local features". Several notes on the final folio's verso confirm the southwestern provenance; one note mentions a certain "

logothete Logothete (, ''logothétēs'', pl. λογοθέται, ''logothétai''; Med. , pl. ''logothetae''; ; ; ; , ''logotet'') was an administrative title originating in the eastern Roman Empire. In the middle and late Byzantine Empire, it rose to become ...

Vitolt Maroc of the Moldavian land". This "Vitolt Maroc" () was identified as the codex' owner, but the next note says Vitold the logothete "stole" this book from "father governor of Ustia" in the town of "Krosnyk". Oleksiy Tolochko (2007) reported that Vitold Maroc served under Constantin Movilă,

hospodar ''Gospodar'' or ''hospodar'', also ''gospodin'' as a diminutive, is a term of Slavic origin, meaning "lord" or " master". The compound (, , , sh-Latn-Cyrl, gospodar, господар, ) is a derivative of ''gospod'' / ''gospodin'', , or when spe ...

(prince) of

Moldavia Moldavia (, or ; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ) is a historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An initially in ...

(), his brother Jeremiah, Jeremiah's widow in 1615, and Constantin's widow Domna, who lived in Ustia. The ''Khlebnikov Codex'' or a closely related copy may have been present or known in the city of Kiev in the early 1620s, because

marginalia Marginalia (or apostils) are marks made in the margin (typography), margins of a book or other document. They may be scribbles, comments, gloss (annotation), glosses (annotations), critiques, doodles, drolleries, or illuminated manuscript, ...

in chapter four of ''Palinodia'' (1621), which may or may not have been added by author

Zacharias Kopystensky Zacharias Kopystensky (born in Przemyśl, present-day Poland – died 21 March 1627) was archimandrite of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra in Ukraine. He is best known for his polemic work ''Palinodiia'' (1621/3), in which he defended Eastern Orthodoxy aga ...

himself, mentions a "chronicle of Nestor". Although the word нестера ("of Nestor"?) in the opening lines of the ''Khlebnikov Codex'' is known to be a later

interpolation In the mathematics, mathematical field of numerical analysis, interpolation is a type of estimation, a method of constructing (finding) new data points based on the range of a discrete set of known data points. In engineering and science, one ...

because it is not found in any of the other five main textual versions of the ''

Primary Chronicle The ''Primary Chronicle'', shortened from the common ''Russian Primary Chronicle'' (, commonly transcribed ''Povest' vremennykh let'' (PVL), ), is a Rus' chronicle, chronicle of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110. It is believed to have been or ...

'' (PVL), and therefore is not evidence of Nestorian authorship, the ''Khlebnikov Codex'' is the oldest-known extant manuscript to claim that a person named "Nestor" wrote it. Therefore, it is possible that the note in ''Palinodia'' refers to the ''Khlebnikov'' PVL copy or a closely related copy that Kopystensky or a later reader of his work was familiar with. Several pages from the original ''Khlebnikov Codex'' were lost in the 17th century, and a couple of other pages were inserted out of order. To make up for the lost pages, new pages were copied from a different ''Hypatian''-type text, namely folios 130, 131, 182, 224, 225, 332, and 333 (with a filigree dating to 1641–1646); the new folio 182 was unnecessarily copied, because the original was not lost, but reinserted in the wrong place as folio 186. Shakhmatov discovered that corrections in

vermilion Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color family and pigment most often used between antiquity and the 19th century from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide). It is synonymous with red orange, which often takes a moder ...

ink in the first few pages of the ''Khlebnikov Codex'' were based on one of the Tver Compilation copies; Kloss analysed that these corrections could not have been made earlier than the 1640s. Kloss further observed that the

bookbinding Bookbinding is the process of building a book, usually in codex format, from an ordered stack of paper sheets with one's hands and tools, or in modern publishing, by a series of automated processes. Firstly, one binds the sheets of papers alon ...

must have taken place in the late 1750s, as the binding paper has a 1756 filigree of the coat of arms of

Yaroslavl Yaroslavl (; , ) is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historic part of the city is a World Heritage Site, and is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl rivers. ...

, the inserted pages carry the watermark of the Mosolov paper factory from the 1750s, and there are 'many notes in black ink concerning the year 1756, partly cut off near the binding. Therefore the binding must have been done soon after the year 1756.'

Regnal list of Kiev

The first two pages of the ''Khlebnikov Codex'' contain a

regnal list A regnal list or king list is, at its simplest, a list of successive monarchs. Some regnal lists may give the relationship between successive monarchs (e.g., son, brother), the length of reign of each monarch or annotations on important reigns. T ...

grand princes of Kiev The Grand Prince of Kiev (sometimes also Grand Duke) was the title of the monarch of Kievan Rus', residing in Kiev (modern Kyiv) from the 10th to 13th centuries. In the 13th century, Kiev became an appanage principality first of the grand prin ...

: 'Herein are the first names of the Kievan great princes ruling the Kievan great princes ruling in Kiev up until its conquest by Batyja's people living in heathenism. In Kiev, the first to begin reigning together were Dinar and Askold, after them came Olga, after Olga Igor, after Igor Sviatoslav, (...)'. There is no mention of a "

Rurik Rurik (also spelled Rorik, Riurik or Ryurik; ; ; died 879) was a Varangians, Varangian chieftain of the Rus' people, Rus' who, according to tradition, was invited to reign in Veliky Novgorod, Novgorod in the year 862. The ''Primary Chronicle' ...

"; instead, the list starts with "Dinar and Askold", better known as

Askold and Dir Askold and Dir (''Haskuldr'' or ''Hǫskuldr'' and ''Dyr'' or ''Djur'' in Old Norse; died in 882), mentioned in both the ''Primary Chronicle'', the ''Novgorod First Chronicle'', and the ''Nikon Chronicle'', were the earliest known rulers of Kiev. ...

, very similar to the ''

Hypatian Codex The ''Hypatian Codex'', also known as Hypatian Letopis or Ipatiev Letopis, is a compendium of three Rus' chronicle, Rus' chronicles: the ''Primary Chronicle'', ''Kievan Chronicle'' and ''Galician-Volhynian Chronicle''. It is the most important sou ...

''s beginning. Unlike ''Hypatian''s second place for

Oleg the Wise Oleg (, ; ; died 912), also known as Oleg the Wise, was a Varangians, Varangian prince of the Rus' people, Rus' who became Grand Prince of Kiev, prince of Kiev, and laid the foundations of the Kievan Rus' state. According to the ''Primary Chr ...

, however, ''Khlebnikov'' appears to assert

Olga of Kiev Olga (; ; – 11 July 969) was a regent of Kievan Rus' for her son Sviatoslav from 945 until 957. Following her baptism, Olga took the name Elenа. She is known for her subjugation of the Drevlians, a tribe that had killed her husband Igor. E ...

succeeded them, and preceded her own husband

Igor of Kiev Igor (; ; – 945) was Prince of Kiev from 912 to 945. Traditionally, he is considered to be the son of Rurik, who established himself at Novgorod and died in 879 while Igor was an infant. According to the '' Primary Chronicle'', Rurik was succ ...

''Primary Chronicle'' copy

The first part of the codex contains the Khlebnikov manuscript (also spelt Xlebnikov, abbreviated Xle, X, Х, or Kh) which is one of the six main manuscripts preserving the ''

'' (PVL) which scholars study for the purpose of

textual criticism Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts (mss) or of printed books. Such texts may rang ...

. The ''Khlebnikov'' text of the PVL is closely related to the older ''

'' ( 1425), with whom it shares a common ancestor. But during the process of transmission, ''Khlebnikov'' has been "contaminated" by a Radziwiłł/

Academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

-type copy. Gippius (2014) considered the Hypatian/Khlebnikov copies to represent the "southern, Kievan branch" of the PVL, as opposed to the other four ( Laurentian,

Trinity The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, thr ...

, Radziwiłł,

) being of the "

Vladimir-Suzdal The Principality of Suzdal, from 1157 the Grand Principality of Vladimir, commonly known as Vladimir-Suzdal, or simply Suzdalia, was a medieval principality that was established during the disintegration of Kievan Rus'. In historiography, the ...

branch".

''Kievan Chronicle'' copy

The second part of the ''Khlebnikov Codex'' contains a copy of the ''

Kievan Chronicle The ''Kievan Chronicle'' or ''Kyivan Chronicle'' is a chronicle of Kievan Rus'. It was written around 1200 in Vydubychi Monastery as a continuation of the ''Primary Chronicle''. It is known from two manuscripts: a copy in the '' Hypatian Codex'' ...

'', ending with an entry for the year 6704 (1196), unlike in the ''

'' (Ipatiev), which ends its narrative in the year 6706 (1198).

''Galician–Volhynian Chronicle'' copy

The ''Khlebnikov Codex'' third part contains a copy of the ''

Galician–Volhynian Chronicle The ''Galician–Volhynian Chronicle'' (GVC) (, called "Halicz-Wolyn Chronicle" in Polish historiography), also known as ''Chronicle of Halych–Volhynia'' and by other names is a prominent work of Old Ruthenian literature and historiographyKotl ...

'' (GVC), for which it is considered a more reliable source text than the textual witness found in the ''Hypatian Codex''. While the 1843, 1908 and 1962 editions of the GVC published in the ''

Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles The Complete Collection of Russian Chronicles (, abbr. ''PSRL'') is a series of published volumes aimed at collecting all medieval East Slavic chronicles, with various editions published in Imperial Russia, the Soviet Union, and Russian Federat ...

'' (PSRL) and the 1871 Archaeographical Commission edition were still primarily based on the ''Hypatian'' text and only included ''Khlebnikov'' for variant readings, A. Klevanov's 1871 Russian paraphrase was the first work to take the ''Khlebnikov'' text as the foundation for reconstructing the GVC.

References

Bibliography

Primary sources

Literature

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External links

* {{Cite web , title=ОР F.IV.230 Хлебниковский список Ипатьевской летописи. , trans-title=OR F.IV.230. Khlebnikov Codex of the Hypatian Chronicle. , work=Website

, date= , access-date=24 May 2023 , url=https://nlr.ru/manuscripts/RA1527/elektronnyiy-katalog?ab=0B66BF7C-C91B-42AF-B168-4D3721CA8153 , language=ru Primary Chronicle textual witnesses Old East Slavic chronicles 16th-century history books Ukrainian non-fiction books Church Slavonic biblical textual witnesses