“I’ll write the short chronicle for my own purpose...” Archbishop Pahomiy’s Chronograph and Russian amateur historians of 17th century

Abstract

In attention center of this work is a Chronograph compiled by Astrakhan’ archbishop Pahomiy in the middle of 17th century. This is one of the so-called ‘chronographs with special composition’ based on later variants of Russian Chronograph. This unpublished monument of Russian historical literature of 17th century was a most popular text of this group. There are 21 manuscript copies and seven different editions of Pahomiy’s Chronograph. The main conclusions of article: 1) Chrongraphwas very interesting for 17th c. amateur historians by its conceptionof legendary Rus’ history. Pahomiy’s Chronograph contains all of the most well-known legendary tales of its time, such as ‘The Tale of Sloven and Rus’, ‘The Tale of Monomakh’s Gifts’ and some others. This compilation of historical legends makes Pahomiy’s Chronograph an important source for researching influences and relations inside an extant round of Russian historical manuscripts of 17th century. 2) In 17th century compilative chronographs were the popular among well-educated people as an instrument for fixing private historical experience.

Keywords

• Russian history of 17th century
• Astrakhan
• ’ archbishop Pahomiy
• Chronographs
• historical legends