О деле Офоньки Науменка и о калабрийском пророке Томмазо Кампанелле: люди эпохи барокко

Abstract

In 1642, the strelets Ofonka Naumenok stood trial in Moscow for intending to “spoil” the tsarina. The proceedings of this trial do not contain specific historical information. As a historical source they are useful mainly in the context of the history of torture. Hundreds of people were involved in the criminal proceedings, which were directed by the boyars and the tsar. The account of the trial gives a good sense of the atmosphere of the time — cruelty, chaos, social dynamism, and a widespread belief in magic. Especially valuable is a text that was found during the investigation and included in the trial proceedings. The text was about a Calabrian prophet who proclaimed himself the son of Christ, the Messiah, who gathered numerous followers. and who intended to create a kingdom of peace and justice. This article connects the legend with the history of the Calabrian uprisings of 1599 and 1633, which were inspired by Tommaso Campanella. Campanella took on the role of a prophet with the intention to create an ideal society and to rejuvenate the world before its impending destruction. The eschatological, messianic, and salvational legend about the Calabrian prophet was bound to find rich resonance in Moscovy, which was marked by re-ligious and social unrest at the end of the 1630s and in the 1640s. In the juxtaposition of the seventeenth-century Western European and Russian phenomena, this study employs the concept of the “Baroque period” developed by the historian Rosario Villari and, in a similar way, by Aleksandr Panchenko.