Russian Translation Lists of Paisius Ligarides, Metropolitan of Gaza, Book About the Cathedral in the Collection of Manuscripts of the Moscow Theological Academy of the Russian State Library

Abstract

The article is devoted to the paleographic and codicological description of two manuscripts from the library of the Moscow Theological Academy, containing a Russian translation of the most important work in the history and polemical culture of Russia by Metropolitan of Gaza Paisius Ligarides (1610–1678) about the trial of Patriarch niсon (1605–1681). The dating and quality of the paper, the composition of the manuscripts and the marginal notes, the handwriting and many other details related to the execution of the manuscripts, as well as the word-for-word verification of the lists of Ligarides's work in two Moscow manuscripts, allowed the author of the article to draw a number of important conclusions and assumptions. The following questions are considered: 1) about the circumstances and time of the appearance of the Greek original of the Russian translation of the Book of the Cathedral — as the work of Ligarides is called in the article, 2) about the quality and quantity of its translations in Russia, 3) about the translators themselves (about Andrey nikolaevich Muravyov (1806–1874), who, as is commonly believed in Russian historiography, belongs to the transcription of the first two parts of the work, and Archpriest Christopher Konstantinovich Maksimov (1851–1938), who, we believe, was involved in the translation of the third part from the British edition prepared by William Palmer in 1870s), 4) about the interest of pre-revolutionary historians in the Book of the Cathedral as a historical source and about the nature of their work with Russian lists from the manuscript collection of the library of the Moscow Theological Academy. A detailed analysis of the manuscripts with the Russian translation of the Book of the Cathedral is being carried out for the first time, so the article is filled with factual material, narrative examples and is accompanied by a wide bibliographic series.