Did Feofan Prokopovich Really Write Pravda Voli Monarshei?

Abstract

A chance archival discovery prompted the question which forms the title of this article. Unfortunately, my attempts to answer the question soon revealed that the attribution to Feofan Prokopovich of the celebrated treatise, Pravda voli monarshei vo opredelenii naslednika derzhavy svoei (The Right of the Monarch’s Will in Designating the Heir to His Realm), rests on sand. In fact, it gradually transpired that nearly every other major work traditionally and for the most part unquestioningly ascribed to Prokopovich is similarly open to doubt. The ramifications of these findings branch throughout the field of early modern Slavic studies, since the Prokopovich of scholarly tradition is one of the most important literary and historical figures of his time (16817-1736) in both Russia and the Ukraine.