Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2020 number

The social, cultural and historical situation in Moscow Rus’ of the XVI century created the conditions for the rapid growth of public writings. Starets Artemius’ works represented by two stages (in Moscow Rus’ and in Lithuania), require a monographic study, new editions of his works, and defining the role of his written legacy in the Mediaeval book history. Two issues are the study subject: the information veracity that Maximus the Greek was transferred from Tver to the Trinity-St. Sergius Monastery in 1551 by the request of Starets Artemius, and the effect of Maximus the Greek on the monk’s works. Based on the analysis of legend of Maximus the Greek, it was suggested that Isaiah Kamenchanin (1591) could have authored the idea on Artemius’ participation in the fate of Maximus the Greek. The Life of Maximus the Greek, which is a novel-like narrative of the XVIII century, the story of Artemius was fictionalized and thus became the object of scholarly research via V.S. Ikonnikov’s works. The study represents the comparative analysis results of epistles by Starets and the Maximus the Greek’s writings; demonstrates the conclusion’s invalidity regarding dependence of the writing experience of Artemius on the learned monk’s works; reveals convergence between the issues raised in Starets’ epistle and Metropolitan Daniil’s words. The convergent themes, motives, and locations mentioned in the social and public writings of the XVI century may testify to the relevance of Moscow Rus’ social life discussed in the writers’ works without indicating relations among the writings, and the influence of works by Maximus the Greek on the writings by Starets Artemius, or Nil Sorsky on Metropolitan Daniil. It is likely that researchers’ statements regarding group identity of Artemius and Maximus the Greek were influenced by studying the biography and works by Andrey Kurbsky, whose writings were known to both elders. Researchers discovered cases of emulating the quotations by Maximus the Greek and borrowings from his writings in works by Isaiah Kamenchanin and Andrey Kurbsky, who, together with the learned monk, constituted a group of identical personalities, with the leading role played by the monk of the Holy Mount.