The sixteenth century was the period of the final formation and establishment of the Russian centralised state. During this period Russian architecture and painting continued to de­velop and book printing began. At the same time the sixteenth century witnessed the strict centralisation of culture and litera­ture—the various chronicle com­pilations were […]

The Epistle on the Monomachos Crown by Spiridon-Savva contains a legend that played a most important part in the development of the official ideology of the Russian autocratic state. It is the legend about the descent of the ruling dynasty of grand princes in Russia from the Roman emperor Augustus […]

Around 1524 Philotheus, a monk in the Pskov Crypt Monastery, wrote an Epistle Against the Astrologers addressed to the Secretary Misiur Munekhin attacking the German physician and philosopher Nikolai Bulev (Biilow), a Catholic who served at the court of Basil III and circulated a German almanach with astronomical and astrological […]

The Great Menology was compiled under the supervision of Macarius, Archbishop of Novgorod and later Metropolitan of All Russia. This impressive compilation consisted of twelve volumes, one for each calendar month. It has survived in three versions, The Sophia Menology, compiled in the 1530s and early 1540s, and the Assumption […]

The Hundred Chapters contained the basic rules for religious worship and ritual in Old Russia, and The Great Menology determined the Russian’s range of reading, the Household Management offered a similar set of rules for private, domestic life. Like other works of the sixteenth century, the Household Management was based […]

One of the main types of literature in the sixteenth century was still hagiography, the vitae. The sixteenth century saw the canonisation by the RussianChurch of many persons who had formerly been worshipped only in certain areas and principalities, and also a number of churchmen of the recent past. The […]

The hagiographical Tale of Peter and Febronia has come down to us in the work of the sixteenth-century writer and publicist Ermolai-Erasmus.10 There is scant information about this writer’s life. He came to Moscow from Pskov in the middle of the sixteenth century and became an archpriest in the court […]

In the sixteenth century Russian chronicle-writing became centralised. Chronicles could be compiled in both the metropolitan and the grand prince chancelleries, but all records of current events were standardised. Consequently, if there was a change in the policy of the grand prince, these records were revised accordingly. Two large All-Russian […]

Two accounts of the annexation of Pskov have survived, in the Pskov First (1547 compilation) and Pskov Third (1567 compilation) chronicles. The first account begins with a lament for Pskov: “O, most renowned of cities, great Pskov! Why do you mourn, why do you weep?” To which Pskov replies: “How […]

The account of the death of Basil III appeared in chronicle-writing almost immediately after the event itself, in 1534.16 The account of the grand prince’s last days was undoubtedly written by someone who witnessed his death. There is a detailed description of Basil’s illness (“a small sore on the left […]