The Chronicle of Avraamka [a] (also known as Vilnius Manuscript [b] ) is a collection of Rus' chronicles compiled in 1495 by the scribe Avraamka (also rendered Abraham) at the instruction of Bishop Joseph of Smolensk. Written in the Chancery Slavonic language used in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the compilation preserves texts from various periods. [1] The final section — frequently studied and published separately — is commonly referred to as the Vilnius Chronicle [c] . The work is often regarded as one of the oldest surviving chronicle compiled in Lithuania. [2]
The Vilnius Manuscript was found in Polotsk by Alexander Viktorovich Rachinsky , who donated it to the Vilnius Public Library. [3] [4] [d] In 1866, the manuscript was transferred to the Imperial Archaeographic Commission for publication. [4] The text of Fol. 1r – 437r of the manuscript was first published as the Collection of chronicles, called the Chronicle of Avraamka [e] in volume 16 of the Complete Collection of Rus' Chronicles (PSRL) in 1889. [4] In PSRL Volume 17 (1907), the text of Fol. 437r – 450v was published separately as "Vilnius Manuscript: Chronicle of Avraamka", along with other works labelled "Northwestern Rus' Chronicles". In PSRL volume 35 (1980), the last part was reprinted as the Vilnius Manuscript [b] or Chronicle of Vilnius, [c] in a collection of Belarusian-Lithuanian Chronicles. [7]
The Vilnius Manuscript is preserved as "F. 22–49" in the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in Vilnius (previously known as the Library of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian SSR). [3] It is the only copy of the Lithuanian Chronicles preserved in Lithuania. [8]
The manuscript has 450 folios (sheets, leaves) in total. [9] Folios 1 to 435 are written in a clear semi-uncial script from the late 15th to early 16th centuries, while fol. 436–450 are written in a smaller semi-uncial script, almost half the size of the previous one. [9]
The Chronicle of Avraamka is a complex chronicle and literary compilation. It was named after Avraamka, a White Ruthenian (Belarusian) scribe of the late 15th century. Apart from the Vilnius Manuscript — the only one where the note with Avraamka's name has been preserved, [4] versions of the chronicle are contained in the Synodal, Tolstovsky, Pogodinsky, Tikhanskoy manuscripts, and the Supraśl Manuscript. [10]
Various manuscripts of Avraamka's chronicle begin with a chronograph dating back to the times of the Byzantine emperors Leo III and Constantine V, based on the text of Paley, followed by the edited text of the Novgorod Chronicle, based on a version of the Novgorod Fourth Chronicle , close to the Rogozh Chronicler and supplemented by the Abridged Chronicle. One part, from the beginning of the 14th century to 1446, is very close to the Novgorod Fifth Chronicle. The part of the text from 1446 to 1469 again approaches the Novgorod Fourth Chronicle, but, unlike it, contains a number of unique reports, mainly of Novgorodian-Pskovian origin. As a rule, the copies of the Chronicle of Avraamka differ in the part after 1469 [6977]. [10]
After the Chronicle of Avraamka, the Vilnius Manuscript contains articles of legal, genealogical and chronological content, similar to the articles of the Commission manuscript (Komissionyy) of the Novgorod First Chronicle , an excerpt from the Novgorod Fourth Chronicle for 945–988, Avraamka's own colophon about the conclusion of this manuscript in 1495, followed by the text of the Chronicle of Vilnius, which belongs to the Belarusian-Lithuanian Chronicles. [10] According to Boris Kloss (2000), it is more likely that Avraamka of Smolensk was only responsible for rewriting the last part of the manuscript, the Chronicle of Vilnius (fol. 437r – 450v). [4]
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