Летописи о гибели посадника Остромира (заказчика древнейшей рукописной книги Руси)

Abstract

The focus of the work are conflicting reports of Russian Chronicles about the death of the Novgorod mayor Ostromir. The latter went down in history as a customer of one of the oldest Russian manuscripts, the so-called Ostromir Gospels. It was the PostScript to this greatest monument of Russian literature that cast doubt on other dates of the campaign of Novgorod troops on Chud` and death of the mayor informed 1057. However, the datings described in the sources of the events of the second half of the 1050-ies in Vladimir chronicler somewhat differ from the chronology of other chronicles. This fact allows us to pay more attention to the evidence of the source, to consider more precisely the sequence of events and identify additional arguments in favor of a particular date. Since the Chronicler of Vladimir — the chronicle of the 15 c., preserved in two lists of the 16 c. (state historical Museum, Synod. Coll., No. 793 and SWAT. Chertkov, No. 362) — brought us a unique testimony, the source of which was obviously the Novgorod 4 Chronicle and the Moscow Chronicles of the 15 c., based on one of the Moscow Grand-Ducal annalistic arches, it makes it quite reliable. Despite the fact that he was known to historians of the 18 – early 19 c., as “the Chronicler Krivoborsky” (named after the owner of Chertkov manuscripts of the 17 century), in later years he was forgotten. In 30-ies of the 20 century it was re-discovered by M.N. Tikhomirov who noted its similarity with the Chronicle of Simeon and available fragments of the annals of Trinity. These features of the Vladimir Chronicler make it a very important source including the early history of Russia. Thus, the analysis of the Dating of the Vladimir Chronicler and consideration of evidence of other Chronicles in combination with the information of the assignment to the “Evangelio” help to narrow the chronological framework of events of the mid-11 century and to ascertain the date of death of a Novgorod political figure, Governor and mayor Ostromir.