Latin Books and the Eastern Orthodox Clerical Elite in Kiev, 1632-1780 by Liudmila V. Charipova (review)

Abstract

reviews 129 This is also a somewhat frustratingbook: a dissertation which would have benefited from severe pruning, editing and checking. In the lengthy chapter on the Life, in particular, Isoaho strives too hard to make simple points complex, to seek analogies and precedents of dubious relevance, to knock down opponents (sometimes forwhat theydon't actually say), and on occasion to use trenchancy as a substitute for argument or self-criticism. For example, Isoaho insists that in order to understand the image ofAleksandr in the Life we have to understand hagiographic conventions and perceptions, but then blurs thedistinction between hagiography and eulogy (and indeed other forms ofmedieval writing) to an extentwhich compromises any genre-specific argu ment on hagiography as such. Too many statements are methodologically confused or confusing. Thus (p. 138): thewriter of theLifewas 'clearly famil iarwith the obligations that a true chivalric hero had to fulfil,because the narrative repeats the metaphors for honour in war that were well-known all over Europe': what exactly isbeing claimed here about thewriter's knowledge of European images of a 'true chivalric hero'? Is there any textual basis for such a major claim? 'Clearly' is not an argument. Or (p. 45) 'the significance of Prince Aleksandr as a second Hezekiah is of the utmost importance when viewing the contemporary events ofRussian history'.Why? Itmay be impor tant for interpreting a text, but how is that relevant to 'contemporary events^. Or (p. 129): 'the continuity of an old cult of ancestor worship [...] is obviously the key to understanding the tradition of the Russian Orthodox Church in neglecting official canonization.' There is nothing 'obvious', because the premise itself (ancestor worship) is only a speculative hypothesis. And in any case it ismisleading to label as 'neglect' the fact that in the earlyMiddle Ages local cults could emerge and flourishwithout a sense that sanctity had to be confirmed according to a centralized procedure and list. Then there are the straightforward lapses: 'the apocalyptic book of Sirak' (p. 307); a phantom scholar 'Koluchchi' forColucci (pp. 18, 81, bibliography and index!); an imaginary 'holy fatherAmphilotheus' (p. 124)who looks like a hybrid of Philotheus and Amphilochius (the latter being the saint who is actually mentioned in the source); Archbishop Evfemiy (p. 232); the allusion (p. 108) to staroslavianskii as 'the spoken Slavic language', whereas in the rele vant paragraphs in the book by Begunov (cited in the footnote) staroslavianskii means conventional written Church Slavonic, by contrast with the East Slav vernacular). My favourite is on p. 367, where stankovaia zhivopis' becomes 'paintings of the Stankov region' (check a dictionary; or a map). Such defects are unnecessary and distracting in what remains, at core, a helpful survey. Clare College,Cambridge Simon Franklin Charipova, Liudmila V. Latin Books and the Eastern OrthodoxClericalElite in Kiev, 1632-1780. Studies in Early Modern European History. Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York, 2006. x + 259 pp. Notes. Appendices. Bibliography. Index. ?50.00. The core of thisuseful book (chapters three to five) comprises a very detailed history of the library of the famous Kiev Mohyla College, laterAcademy, 130 SEER, 87, I, JANUARY 2009 from its founding in 1632 until 1780, when an accidental fire (the author emphasizes) seems to have destroyed most, but not all, of itsholdings. The book's first two chapters offer a rather disjointed history of 'Ruthenia' or Rus-Ukraine down to themid-seventeenth century, and a somewhat updated biography of PeterMohyla (1596-1646), the episcopal founder of both college and librarywho thus sought to revive the local 'crisis-stricken [Orthodox] church' (p. 45). Chapter six, the last, attempts to summarize the book's find ings and theirhistorical significance. In this chapter particularly, the author's reach, informed by a variety of big names in communication studies, discourse analysis, reader reception theory, book, print and library history (see also her Introduction), greatiy exceeds her grasp, meaning the very solid research carried out in the collections of theUkrainian National Library in Kiev. Perhaps realizing the disparity, she has added a brief, clearly stated Conclusion, one blessedly free of both endnotes and big names. Itmight well be read first. In those core chapters, theMohyla library's history is divided into three periods ? the...