Larisa Denisovna Demidova,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Early Version of the Life of Monk Epiphanii and the Petition of Monk Avraamii
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2023-2-8
Despite the good knowledge of the polemical heritage of the founding fathers of the Old Believer movement, there are still many source study questions in this area, that the researchers who once raised them for the first time hoped to answer. In the scientific literature the manuscript of RSL Department of manuscripts, f. 17, Barsov coll., No. 654 (late 18th century) is well known. This is due to the fact that the only one to date has preserved the early author's version of the Life of monk Epiphanii (a confederate, comrade-in-arms of Archpriest Avvakum and Pustozersk’s prisoner), which was then revised by him into the main version, known in autographs. One of the features of the early version of the Life of Epiphanii is the presence of a special preface extended, in comparison with the main version, due to quotations from the Apostle and formulaic derogatory expressions. N.F. Drobenkova, who explored this ouevre, assumed that the text of the preface could be both the result of the author's intention of Epiphanii, and a late alteration. It seems possible to answer this question if we compare the Life of Epiphanii with the Petition of monk Avraamii (1670), which is part of the same complex of works in the manuscript. Its special conclusion in Barsov's manuscript is also expanded through the use of quotations from the Gospel and the Apostle, as well as formulaic derogatory phrases that are usually not characteristic of the original writings of the monk Avraamii. The textual analysis of the entire Petition allows us to assert that the conclusion is unlikely to be the author's original. Since both in the preface of the Life and in the conclusion of the Petition there are common methods of creation of the text, as well as textual coincidence in the layer of the original (non-quoted) text, it was concluded that both works are the result of a late alteration. It is possible, however, that it was made on the basis of quotations, which probably go back to the materials of the Pustozersk prisoners. For the manuscript history of the Petition of Avraamii, the alterations, apparently, are not unique, although the conclusion is in Barsov coll., No. 654 and adds a bright touch. However, comparison with the Petition of the rarest early version of the Life of Epiphanii makes it possible to speak quite definitely about the diversity of the layers of the text of the Life, and in the case of the preface, even to distinguish between the author's text of Epiphanii and its later alteration.
Publishing: 28/02/2023
The article has been received by the editor on 15.01.2023
How to cite: Demidova L.D. Early Version of the Life of Monk Epiphanii and the Petition of Monk Avraamii // Historical Courier, 2023, No. 2 (28), pp. 97–107. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2023/ISTKURIER-2023-2-08.pdf]
The article was made on the topic of the state assignment “Memory of the Past in Written Sources of the 16th–20th Centuries: Updating Events, Broadcasting Cultural Traditions, Research Practices” (FWZM-2021-0005).
Links: Issue 2 2023
Keywords: Russian Church; 17th century; Schism (Rascol); The Life of monk Epiphanii; monk Avraamii; Petition of 1670; Old Believers; handwritten collections