Harvard Library of Early Ukrainian Literature – serie

Lev Krevza’s A Defense of Church Unity (1617), on the Uniate side, and Zaxarija Kopystens’kyj’s Palinodia (1621), a monumental defense of the Eastern Church, are arguably the most erudite, comprehensive, and persuasive works on the ecclesiastical debate between these two groups. This two-volume work illuminates the intense struggle ignited when, at the time of the Union of Brest (1596), a large part of the Ruthenian ecclesiastical hierarchy declared itself in communion with the Roman Catholic Church. Bohdan Struminski provides English translations from the original Ruthenian and Middle Polish texts.

Born in Poltava in 1722, Paisij Velyčkovs’kyj attended the Kievan Mohyla Academy. After four years, he renounced secular studies to become a monk. He lived in various monasteries in the Ukraine (including the Kievan Caves Monastery), on Mt. Athos, and in Moldavia and Wallachia, where he died in 1794. In or about 1748 a Moldavo-Slavic brotherhood began to gather about Velyčkovs’kyj and to revive the Hesychast traditions of the “cult of the elder” (starecestvo) and the Jesus prayer.Throughout his life Velyčkovs’kyj avidly collected and translated Byzantine texts into Church Slavonic, especially works pertaining to Hesychasm. This volume contains the first English translation of Velyčkovs’kyj’s unfinished autobiography, as well as a biography of the elder by his disciple Mytrofan. Anthony-Emil Tachiaos’s introduction discusses both works against their historical and generic background. Included are a map, an annotated index, and an index of Biblical citations.

The authors included in this volume—Ilarion, Klim Smoljatic, and Kirill of Turov—are remarkable for both their personal and literary achievements. Appointed in 1051 by Prince Jaroslav the Wise, Ilarion was the first of only two recorded “native” metropolitans of Kiev. His “Sermon on Law and Grace” constitutes the finest piece of eleventh-century Rus’ rhetorical literature. Klim Smoljatic, the second “native” metropolitan of Rus’ (from 1147), is the author of the controversial “Epistle to Foma,” which addresses the debate over the proper nature and limits of Christian learning. Finally, the twelfth-century monk Kirill of Turov is best known for his collection of allegorical lessons and some of the most accomplished sermons of Kievan Rus’. The volume contains the first complete translations of the “Epistle to Foma” and the lessons and sermons of Kirill, as well as an entirely new rendering of the “Sermon on Law and Grace.”Simon Franklin prefaces the texts with a substantial introduction that places each of the three authors in their historical context and examines the literary qualities as well as textual complexities of these outstanding works of Rus’ literature.

Written in the early seventeenth century, the Hustynja Chronicle represents the first attempt of early modern chroniclers to write a systematic history of Ukraine. The chronological sweep of the text is ambitious, describing the history of Kyivan Rus´ and Ukraine from biblical times until the Union of Brest in 1596. The text covers many critical periods in Ukrainian history, including pre-Mongol Rus´, the expansion of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the emergence of the Cossacks. Its unique style blends the older tradition of presenting information under yearly entries with a newer, more narrative style of chronicle modeled on the works of Polish chroniclers such as Stryjkowski and Bielski.This publication marks the first time that the Hustynja Chronicle has appeared in a scholarly edition. One copy originally found in the Mharsk Monastery serves as the exemplar for the main text and is accompanied by notes representing variants from six other copies of the text. An introduction by Ukrainian historian Dr. Oleksiy Tolochko, in both the original Ukrainian and English translation, provides a detailed description and history of the chronicle. The Hustynja Chronicle is an essential source for scholars interested in medieval and early-modern Ukrainian history, philology, and chronicle writing.