The Greek “Epigram” by the Leichoudes Brothers to Peter I

Abstract

The article provides a transcription, translation, context, and commentary on two versions of a Greek “Epigram” to Peter the Great by the Leichoudes brothers, Ioannikios (1633–1717) and Sophronios (1653–1730), Greeks from Kephallenia who were outstanding religious writers and enlighteners. The poem called “An Epigram to our quietest and crowned by God Tsar Peter Alexeevich, autocrat of Moscow and all of Great, Small and White Rus” was preserved as an example of elegiac couplets in the manuscripts of their textbook “Poetics” (“Περὶ τῆς ποιητικῆς εἴτε μετρικῆς τέχνης”), which they composed for the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy — the first higher education establishment in Russia set up by the Leichoudes brothers in 1865 in Moscow. The textbook “Poetics” was written in ancient Greek without any Slavic translation. It was taught in the upper classes (suprema). In fact, it appears that this was a textbook on Greek versification. In 1855, the version of the “Epigram” kept in the manuscript of the Russian State Library in Moscow (F. 173 (MTA), № 331), dated to 1687, was published by Sergey Smirnov, but unfortunately this publication was not free from errors. The Greek version of the “Epigram” and its translation into Old Church Slavonic which had been kept in the manuscripts of the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine in Kiev (F. 306 (Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra) № 337), seems to have never been transcribed and published before. After having compared both versions, the author concludes that the Moscow version has a more elaborate rhetorical style. The “Epigram” was written on the occasion of Peter I’s first visit to the Greek-Slavic school of the Leichoudes brothers at the Epiphany monastery (1685–1687), the predecessor of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy.