On the way to Fedor Karpov’s archive: Traces in the Chudov monastery?

Abstract

Only a small portion of the work written by Fedor Karpov, a diplomat and publicist who worked under the Grand Prince Vasili III, has been preserved. A detailed assessment of his literary activity is additionally complicated by the fact that Karpov’s writings were mainly extracted from the so-called formulaire collection. There, the researcher has to rely primarily on the literary context in order to get an idea of the aesthetic, ideological and political position of the writer, whose works were included into the formulaire collection. As far as Karpov is concerned, he was related primarily with the scribes from the Joseph-Volokolamsk monastery. The author of the article tries to demonstrate the significance of the Chudov monastery in the activity of the writer and diplomat, especially in the fate of Karpov’s works. It is shown in the article that the replicas of the works by Fedor Karpov in the book writing activity of the Kremlin monastery can be traced throughout the 16th century: up until 1525 Karpov was in regular correspondence with Maxim the Greek who lived in Chudov, his Panegyric to Vasili III was reflected in The Book of Degrees, which has been compiled many times and edited in the same monastery.