The Laurentian Version of the Primary Chronicle in the Textual Criticism of the Novgorod-Sofia Group

Abstract

The chronicles of the Novgorodian-Sophian group, that is, Novgorodian Karamzin Chronicle, the First Sophian Chronicle, and the Fourth Novgorodian Chronicle, are complex compilations from the early 15th century, which combine the Vladimir-Suzdal and Novgorod annalistic writing. The Vladimir-Suzdal material some scholars attributed to the impact of the “Chronicle of Andrei Bogolubsky” (not later than 1174) or the “Vladimir compilation kept until 1185”. At the same time, the Novgorod-Sophian chronicles are considered important witnesses to early chronicling. Some scholars even claimed them to be the evidence of the so-called “Initial compilation of the 1090s” which should mean that a distant protograph of these chronicles was formed in the late 11th century. Though their codices contain many fragments of text identical or close to the Primary Chronicle (i.e. A Tale of Bygone Years) they are rarely involved in discussions of it’s textual history.

The purpose of our study is to expand the evidence based information on the influence of the Laurentian Suzdal version of the Primary Chronicle on the Novgorod-Sophian Group.

The scientific novelty lies in the systematization of the Laurentian secondary readings within the Primary Chronicle that passed to the Novgorod-Sophian tradition.

Survey of the texts has been carried out in the field of textual criticism methods.

Conclusions. Nearly 300 readings have been revealed. Of these, the paper deals with around 20 variant readings which are either irrevertibly or very probably secondary. First, it is safe to say that the Novgorod-Sophian group inherited numerous innovations of the Suzdal branch. Second, the material allows us to identify which group of the Suzdal Chronicles applies. The special significance is that we have two different kinds of readings. Those when the Novgorod-Sophian chronicles follow the Laurentian version only, and the others when the Laurentian=Radzivill version. Both varieties of readings are accumulated by the Laurentian manuscript’s protographer. Innovations arose both at the stage of an undivided branch of the Vladimir-Suzdal Chronicle, and later, when the protographers of the Laurentian and Radzivill codices were separated. Thus, it is necessary to reconsider as the stemma of manuscripts tradition as the ideas that the protographer of the Novgorod-Sophian group comes before 1174 or at 1185. The Suzdal impact on Novgorod-Sophian texts was clearly made at the stage when the Laurentian and Radzivill protographers split up. Some details allow us to assume that the innovations were formed later than 1190s, and probably took shape even after the beginning of the 13th century.