The Laurentian Chronicle is a handwritten chronicle compilation dated 1377, one of the most important monuments of Old Russian annalistic writing. The Laurentian Chronicle is the oldest surviving dated Russian chronicle; only three Russian parchment chronicles have been preserved, and the Laurentian is among them.[3] It contains the text of the "Tale of Bygone Years" and a number of subsequent chronicles. It was created in Nizhny Novgorod at the court of the Nizhny Novgorod–Suzdal and Gorodets prince Dmitry Konstantinovich of Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorod.
Creation in Nizhny Novgorod
The chronicle was copied in 1377 at the initiative of the Nizhny Novgorod–Suzdal and Gorodets Bishop Dionisy. It was based on worn manuscript books recording the history of Rus beginning with the "Tale of Bygone Years," whose original pages had by that time barely survived. The work was carried out by the monk-scribe Lavrentiy, after whom the compilation received its name. The chronicle was written on parchment — finely processed skin that was extremely expensive in the fourteenth century. In that same year of 1377, shortly after Lavrentiy completed his work, the Nizhny Novgorod forces were defeated on the Pyana River and Nizhny Novgorod was stormed by the Horde, and scholars consider it a fortunate coincidence that the freshly written chronicle survived these events.
The chronicle's text is adorned with red cinnabar headings and an ornamental headpiece at the beginning; it is written in the oldest forms of Russian script — ustav (uncial) and poluustav (semi-uncial).[3][1] The Laurentian Chronicle is the sole source in which the text of Vladimir Monomakh's "Instruction" has been preserved.[1] The question of the precise place of the chronicle's creation remains debated: V. L. Komarovich, on the basis of a textological analysis of the chronicle's eulogy to Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich, identified the Blagoveschenskiy Muzhskoy Monastery as the site of composition and believed Lavrentiy to have been a monk of that monastery; the local historian A. I. Yeliseyev, by contrast, pointed to the Pecherskiy Monastery — the house that Dionisy had founded and headed before his elevation to the episcopal see; N. D. Rusinov, drawing on linguistic evidence, argued for the Nizhny Novgorod origin of the manuscript but declined to favor either version.[2] According to Lavrentiy's own colophon, the book was written between 14 January and 20 March 1377.[2]
Significance for the study of regional history
The Laurentian Chronicle is one of the most reliable sources for the history of the Nizhny Novgorod region in the fourteenth century. Historians use it in particular as a key argument in the debate about the founding of Nizhny Novgorod: the complete absence from the chronicle of any mention of a settlement on the Dyatlov Hills before 1221 serves as an argument against the hypothesis — advanced on the basis of Vasily Tatishchev's writings — that a Bulgar city once stood there. The head of the Regional Studies Research Center of the IIMORI at Lobachevsky University, Doctor of Historical Sciences Fyodor Selyoznyov, noted that the chronicle does not support this thesis, while Tatishchev contains other information likewise unattested in any other source.
Chronicle sources from the same tradition mention a Bulgar town captured in the winter of 1171–1172 by Prince Mstislav Andreyevich; however, the texts contain no direct indication that this fortress was located specifically on the Dyatlov Hills. Since 1811, the manuscript has been held at the Russian National Library (formerly the Imperial Public Library). In 2012, the Russian National Library, together with the Presidential Library named after B. N. Yeltsin and the Center of National Glory, carried out Russia's first project to produce a facsimile edition of a manuscript monument combined with an electronic database and a searchable reference apparatus; the Laurentian Chronicle was the very first publication in that project. In June 2013, the UNESCO Committee added the Laurentian Chronicle to the Memory of the World Register, recognizing it as a monument of world significance.[3][3][3]
Sources
- opentextnn.ru — The Laurentian Chronicle is the oldest surviving dated Russian chronicle. Only three Russian parchment chronicles have been preserved in total, and the Laur (archive)
- Rossiyskaya Gazeta — The Laurentian Chronicle is the sole source in which the text of Vladimir Monomakh's "Instruction" has been preserved. (archive)
- opentextnn.ru — The exact dates of Monk Lavrentiy's work are known from his own colophon: the book was written between 14 January and 20 March 1377. (archive)