Ranchin Andrey Mikhailovich – DS in Philology, Leading Researcher of the Department of Literary Studies, Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences
The book under review by the famous medievalist, built as a kind of scientific quest or detective story, offers an innovative reconstruction of the biography of the famous ancient Russian scribe, the Kirillov-Belozersk monk Efrosin. The author convincingly identifies him with Prince Ivan Shemyachich and proves that at the end of his life Euphrosynus moved to Moscow and was buried in the cemetery at the Church of the Myrrh-Bearing Women in Zaryadye. A.G. Bobrov traces in detail Efrosin’s interest in the preparation of consecrated myrrh – oil used in church rituals. The scribe’s attention to the themes of the blessed eastern lands, in particular India, and the earthly Paradise, reflected in such works copied by his hand as the Tale of India, the Epistle about Paradise of Vasilii Kalika to Feodor Tversky, the Lamentation of Adam, Serbian Alexandria, the Word about the Rakhmaneh – an extract from the Chronicle of George Hamartolos, the scholar explains both by the theological and social views of the scribe, who was interested in the bliss attainable in earthly existence and the structure of a just and perfect society, and by curiosity about the countries where the spices necessary for the preparation of the chrism grow. A.G. Bobrov, assuming that Efrosin was acquainted with Afanasii Nikitin, the author of the famous Journey, puts forward a hypothesis according to which the goal of the traveler, who was an emissary of the Moscow and Tver princes, could initially have been India, where he was going to look for the spices necessary for the preparation of the chrism. The researcher makes significant adjustments to the traditional ideas about the route of the Tver resident in India. Not all of the author’s hypotheses and assumptions about Efrosin of Belozersk seem convincing. But some of them are supported by very strong evidence or at least deserve attention. The book, containing ideas that have good reason to claim the role of scientific discoveries, is undoubtedly a valuable study, familiarity with which is necessary for medieval scholars and teachers of Old Russian literature and will be useful to anyone who is deeply interested in medieval Russian literature and history.
Old Russian literature; attribution: textual criticism; Efrosin Belozerskii; Vassian Patrikeev; Afanasii Nikitin.