On the Issue of Kyivan Chronicle-Writing in the Fourteenth – Seventeenth Centuries

Abstract

The paper addresses the issue of renewal of Kyivan chronicle-writing under the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Authoress doubts hypothesis regarding its existence in the times of prince Volodymyr Olgerdovych (ca. 1363–1393) and rejects Kyivan provenance of the so called Shorter Volynian Chronicle, known also as Kyivan Shortened. She considers as reliable the possibility of chronicle-writing in Kyiv under Volodymyr’s grandson Semen Olelkovych (1455–1470) whose rule is seen as the period of local Renaissance. In researcher’s opinion, some signs of this narrative tradition may be traced in the Barkulabov Chronograph compiled in the mid-17th century. Authoress also points toward Radziwiłłs’ connections with Kyivan bookmen and thus their probable influence on compiling local chronicles in the f irst half of the 17th century.