Email this article 
Post a Comment “Assassins of the Great Prince Andrey”: An Inscription about the Murder of Andrey Bogolyubsky from Pereslavl-Zalessky
Abstract
The present paper deals with a long inscription which was uncovered in the autumn of 2015 on the external wall of the southern apse of the 12th century Transfiguration Cathedral in Pereslavl-Zalessky. It contains an almost fully legible list of assassins of the Vladimir-Suzdal prince Andrey Yuryevich, who was murdered in Bogolyubovo on June 29th, 1174. The writer places a curse on the murderers and wishes eternal memory to the prince. The graffito probably dates from 1175–1176 when Andrey’s younger brother Vsevolod Yuryevich ruled in Pereyaslavl. It is the oldest inscription from the North-Eastern Rus’ to have a fairly precise dating. The discovery corroborates the general accuracy of the chronicles in respect to the murder and serves as a source for the study of Old Russian princely titles and other terms of social hierarchy. Andrey Yuryevich is called the grand prince and his murderers are collectively given the pejorative name of parobki (servants) despite the high social status of at least some of them. As the first example of anathematising state criminals in Rus’, the inscription has relevance for church history as well.
Valuable new information is provided by the list of assassins. It includes the names of 11–13 individuals. The list indicates that the main conspirator, the boyar Kuchcko's son-in-law named Peter was the son of someone named Frol. That Frol may have been the founder of the Church of Saints Florus and Laurus in the Moscow Kremlin. The patronymic of the third of the murderers Yakim Kuckovičь is spelled with a c., which may be an indication of Kuchko's Novgorodian origin. The fourth on the list is Ofrem Moizich. The authors accept the Arabic origins of Ofrem’s patronymic suggested by V. S. Kuleshov. The latter traces it back to the name Muʕizz which could have belonged to a Muslim from Volga Bulgaria. The fifth conspirator Dobryna Mikitich is tentatively identified as the Rostov boyar Dobryna the Tall. He played a prominent role in the feud triggered by the assassination of Andrey Yuryevich and perished in the Battle of Yuryev Field on June 27th, 1176. The last person on the list bears the rare Slavic name Styrjata which elsewhere is attested only in the 12th century graffiti inscriptions from the Annunciation Church at Gorodische near Novgorod.
From the standpoint of linguistics the inscription demonstrates an advanced stage of the yer-shift. In this respect it is similar to the Novgorod birchbark letter No. 724 which dates from the same period.
The inscription was read with the help of a three-dimensional model created by the RSSDA Lab. (https://rssda.su/ep-rus).
DOI: 10.31168/2305-6754.2020.9.2.3
Keywords
Full Text:
PDF (Русский)References
Alexander J. T., Bubonic Plague in Early Modern Russia: Public Health and Urban Disaster, Oxford, New York, 2003.
Brogliato B., Il Cantico delle Pietre. Museo lapidario assisano dal sec. XII al sec. XX, Assisi, 1992.
Bulkin V. A., Rozhdestvenskaya T. V., Nadpisi na kamne iz khrama Sofii v Polotske, Pamiatniki kul'tury: Novye otkrytiia: Pis'mennost'. Iskusstvo. Arkheologiia. Ezhegodnik 1982, Leningrad, 1984, 7–12.
Chernov S. Z., O khronologicheskikh ramkakh zakliucheniia braka Andreia Bogoliubskogo, Old Rus. The Questions of Middle Ages, 3 (69), 2017, 160–162.
Dergachev V. V., Vselenskii sinodik v drevnei i srednevekovoi Rossii, Old Rus. The Questions of Middle Ages, 1 (3), 2001, 18–29.
Dobrodomov I. G., Ob odnom alano-burtasskom imeni v epitafiiakh volzhskikh bulgar XIV veka, Onomastika i epigrafika srednevekovoi Vostochnoi Evropy i Vizantii, Moscow, 1993, 130–150.
Flier M. S., The murder of Andrej Bogoljubskij in word and image, Philology Broad and Deep: In Memoriam Horace G. Lunt, Bloomington, 2014, 103–118.
Fögen M. Th., Rebellion und Exkommunikation in Byzanz, Ordnung und Aufruhr im Mittelalter. Historische und juristische Studien zur Rebellion (= Ius Commune. Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für europäische Rechtsgeschichte, Sonderhefte. Studien zur Europäischen Rechtsgeschichte, 70), Frankfurt am Mein, 1995, 43–80.
Frigieri E., Il Duomo di Modena tra filosofia e storia, Verona, 2004.
Froyanov I. Ya., Kievskaia Rus′. Ocherki sotsial′no-politicheskoi istorii, Leningrad, 1980.
Gippius A. A., K prochteniiu nadpisi № 3541 Sofii Kievskoi, Vostochnaia Evropa v drevnosti i srednevekov'e. Pis'mennost' kak element gosudarstvennoi infrastruktury. XXVIII Chteniia pamiati chlena-korrespondenta AN SSSR Vladimira Terent'evicha Pashuto, Moskva, 20–22 aprelia 2016 g., Moscow, 2016, 79–81.
Gippius A. A., Sochineniia Vladimira Monomakha: opyt tekstologicheskoi rekonstruktsii. III, Russkii iazyk v nauchnom osveshchenii, 2 (12), 2006, 186–203.
Gippius A. A., Mikheev S. M., Nadpisi-graffiti tserkvi Blagoveshcheniia na Gorodishche: predvaritel′nyi obzor, Arkhitekturnaia arkheologiia, 1, Moscow, 2019, 35–54.
Gippius A. A., Mikheev S. M., Nadpis′ ob ubiistve Andreia Bogoliubskogo iz Spaso-Preobrazhenskogo sobora v Pereslavle-Zalesskom, Old Rus. The Questions of Middle Ages, 3 (69), 2017, 31–32.
Gvozdenko K. S., The Ceremony of Prince’s Enthronement in Pre-Mongol Rus’, Old Rus. The Questions of Middle Ages, 1 (35), 2009, 17–35.
Kalechits I. L. Ėpigrafika Belarusi X–XIV stst., Minsk, 2011.
Kalechits I. L., Odnoimennýe pominal′nye graffiti Spaso-Preobrazhenskoi tserkvi v Polotske, Voprosy epigrafiki, 8, Moscow, 2015, 179–192.
Karpov A. Yu., Andrei Bogoliubskii, 2nd ed., Moscow, 2020.
Kornienko V. V., Korpus grafiti Sofiï Kiïvs′koï (XI – počatok XVIII st.), 1: Pridil sv. Georgiâ Velikomučenika, Kyiv, 2010.
Kornienko V. V., Korpus grafìtì Sofìï Kiïvs′koï (XI – počatok XVIII st.), 5: Pridìl svv. Ìokìma ta Anni (pìvdenna storona), Kyiv, 2015.
Kuchkin V. A., Letopisnye povestvovaniia ob ubienii kn. Andreia Bogoliubskogo, Pis'mennye pamiatniki istorii Drevnei Rusi. Letopisi. Povesti. Khozhdeniia. Poucheniia. Zhitiia. Poslaniia. Annotirovannyi katalog-spravochnik, St. Petersburg, 2003, 61–65.
Kulakov V. I., Prusskaia druzhina i Rus′, Vostochnaia Evropa v drevnosti i srednevekov'e. Spornye problemy istorii. Chteniia pamiati chlena-korrespondenta AN SSSR Vladimira Terent'evicha Pashuto. Moscow, 12—14 aprelia 1993 g. Tezisy dokladov, Moscow, 1993, 43–46.
Kuzmin A. V., Na puti v Moskvu: Ocherki genealogii voenno-sluzhiloi znati Severo-Vostochnoi Rusi v XIII – seredine XV v., 1, Moscow, 2014.
Kuznetsov A. A., Svedeniia istochnikov XV–XVII vv. ob uchastii v ubiistve Andreia Bogoliubskogo ego zheny, Issledovaniia po istochnikovedeniiu istorii Rossii (do 1917 g.). Sbornik statei. K 80-letiiu chlena-korrespondenta RAN V. I. Buganova, Moscow, 2012, 23–32.
Likhachev D. S., Russkie letopisi i ikh kul'turno-istoricheskoe znachenie, Moscow, Leningrad, 1947.
Limonov Yu. A., Letopisanie Vladimiro-Suzdal'skoi Rusi, Leningrad, 1967.
Limonov Yu. A., Vladimiro-Suzdal'skaia Rus'. Ocherki sotsial'no-politicheskoi istorii, Leningrad, 1987.
Litvina A. F., Uspenskii F. B., Dinasticheskii mir domongol′skoi Rusi, St. Petersburg, 2020.
Nasonov A. N., Istoriia russkogo letopisaniia XI – nachala XVIII veka: Ocherki i issledovaniia, Moscow, 1969.
Petrukhin P. V., Where and When did the Novgorodian Savva Gather the Tribute?, Slověne, 8/1, 2019, 55–108.
Petrukhin P. V., K izucheniiu novgorodskoi berestianoi gramoty № 724, Russkii iazyk v nauchnom osveshchenii, 1 (17), 2009, 109–126.
Poppe A., Words that serve the authority: On the title of “Grand Prince” in Kievan Rus’, Acta Poloniae Historica, 60, 1989, 159–184.
Rásonyi L., Baski I., Onomasticon Turcium: Turkic Personal Names as collected by László Rásonyi, Bloomington, 2007.
Rybakov B. A., Russkie datirovannye nadpisi XI–XIV vekov (= Arkheologiia SSSR. Svod arkheologicheskikh istochnikov, E 1–44.), Moscow, 1964.
Shambinago S. K., Povesti o nachale Moskvy, Trudy Otdela drevnerusskoi literatury, 3, Moscow, Leningrad, 1936, 59–98.
Smirnov Yu. I., Smolitsky V. G., prep. ed., Dobrynia Nikitich i Alesha Popovich, Moscow, 1974.
Stefanovich P. S., Ob ubiitsakh Andreia Bogoliubskogo v svete novykh dannykh, Kompleksnyi podkhod v izuchenii Drevnei Rusi: Materialy X Mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii. 9–13 sentiabria 2019 goda, Moscow, Russia, Moscow, 2019, 190–191.
Sukina L. B., Commemorative Graffito of Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky on the Abse of the Transfiguration Cathedral in Pereslavl-Zalessky: Problems of Interpretation of Origin, Meaning and Purpose of the Text, Vestnik of Lobachevsky University of Nizhni Novgorod, 3, 2018, 49–56.
Tikhomirov M. N., Skazaniia o nachale Moskvy, Istoricheskie zapiski, 32, Moscow, 1950, 233–241.
Tikhomirov M. N., Uslovnoe feodal′noe derzhanie na Rusi XII v., Akademiku Borisu Dmitrievichu Grekovu ko dniu semidesiatiletiia: Sbornik statei, Moscow, 1952, 100–111.
Toporov V. N., “Baltica” Podmoskov′ia, Balto-slavianskii sbornik, Moscow, 1972, 217–280.
Vilkul T., O proiskhozhdenii obshchego teksta Ipat′evskoi i Lavrent′evskoi letopisi za XII v. (predvaritel′nye zametki), Palaeoslavica, 13, 1, 2005, 21–80.
Vinogradov A. Iu., Zheltov M., Pravovye akty Russkoi mitropolii pri Konstantine I (1156–1159 gg.), U istokov i istochnikov: na mezhdunarodnykh i mezhdistsiplinarnykh putiakh. Iubileinyi sbornik v chest' Aleksandra Vasil'evicha Nazarenko, Moscow, 2019, 35–56.
Voronin N. N., Povest' ob ubiistve Andreia Bogoliubskogo i ee avtor, Istoriia SSSR, 3, 1963, 80–97.
Voronin N. N., Raskopki v Pereslavle-Zalesskom, Materialy i issledovaniia po arkheologii SSSR, 11: Materialy i issledovaniia po arkheologii drevnerusskikh gorodov, I, Moscow, Leningrad, 1949, 193–202.
Zaliznyak A. A., Drevnenovgorodskii dialekt, 2nd ed., Moscоw, 2004.
Zaliznyak A. A., Korrektivy k tablitsam vnestratigraficheskogo datirovaniia, Ianin V. L., Zalizniak A. A., Gippius A. A., Novgorodskie gramoty na bereste, 12: (Iz raskopok 2001–2014 gg.), Moscоw, 2015, 276–278.
Zaliznyak A. A., Paleografiia berestianykh gramot i ikh vnestratigraficheskoe datirovanie, Yanin V. L., Zaliznyak A. A., Novgorodskie gramoty na bereste, 10: (Iz raskopok 1990–1996 gg.). Paleografiia berestianykh gramot i ikh vnestratigraficheskoe datirovanie, Moscоw, 2000, 134–429.
Yanin V. L., Zaliznyak A. A., Gippius A. A., Novgorodskie gramoty na bereste, 12: (Iz raskopok 2001–2014 gg.), Moscow, 2015.
Yanin V. L., Zaliznyak A. A., Novgorodskie gramoty na bereste, 10: (Iz raskopok 1990–1996 gg.) Paleografiia berestianykh gramot i ikh vnestratigraficheskoe datirovanie, Moscow, 2010.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2020 Alexey A. Gippius, Savva M. Mikheev
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.