Slutsk Chronicle   The Slutsk Chronicle,[b] also known as the Uvarov Manuscript,[c] is an early modern Belarusian-Lithuanian chronicle from the 16th century. ProvenanceThe manuscript was purchased by ethnographer I. P. Sakharov from his teacher Uspensky, who had acquired the manuscript from a village priest.[3] Sakharov wrote that Uspensky was "from Lithuania", which in early-19th-century terminology referred to all of western and central Belarus, except for Lithuania itself; therefore, it's possible he came from the Slutsky Uyezd.[3] Some of Sakharov's notes on the manuscript are erroneous, such as that he mistakenly thought it was the Supraśl Manuscript (which was considered lost at the time).[3] In 1847, the manuscript passed into the collection of archaeologist Aleksey Uvarov (hence the alternative name "Uvarov Manuscript").[4] The manuscript is currently preserved as No. 1381 (153) as part of the A. S. Uvarov Collection in the Manuscripts Department of the State Historical Museum, located in Moscow.[3][4] Description of the manuscriptThe manuscript currently has 106 sheets (folios), except for the first pages of the manuscript,[3] which are missing.[4][clarification needed] The first 5 sheets are defective, and were later restored on strips of paper glued to the remains of the sheets, on one side, and then numbered.[3] The recto side of the sheets have been numbered in Arabic numbers in 19th-century handwriting in the lower right corner.[3] Moreover, both sides of the sheets have also been numbered with Arabic numerals in on the upper margins.[3] In the lower margin of the 6th sheet, someone added a note in 19th-century handwriting: "The pages of the entire sheets of the chronicle are designated with Arabic numerals by me on 14 January 1839." The signature that follows has been erased.[3] The text was written in semi-uncial script the mid-16th century in Early Ruthenian, in its Old Belarusian variety.[3] The margins of the manuscript contain some information about the history of the Princes of Slutsk. On this basis, it has commonly been assumed that the manuscript was created in the city of Slutsk (or Sluck, originally Sluchesk), in modern-day Belarus. This is where it got its name Slutsk Chronicle from.[3] ContentsThe chronicle consists of two parts.[3] The first part (fol. 1r–76r[3]) focuses on the activities of Vytautas the Great.[4] It also tells about the Grand Dukes of Lithuania Algirdas (Olgerd), Kęstutis (Keystut), Jogaila (later Władysław II Jagiełło), the Prince of Kiev Skirgaila (son of Algirdas), the Battle of Blue Waters in 1362/3, and the Battle of the Vorskla River (1399).[4] The Tale about Podolia is found on folio 28v–49r (л.28об.–л.49.).[5] There is information about Gregory Tsamblak (the elected but anathematised Metropolitan of Kiev from 1414 to 1419/20), and about how Prince Dashko Ostrovsky captured Kremenets and freed Švitrigaila (another son of Algirdas) from prison in 1418.[4] The text of the Praise to Vytautas is situated on folio 51r–58v (л.51–л.58об.).[6] The second, smaller part[4] (fol.76v–106r[3]) is a concise history of Kievan Rus' from 970 (the reign of Volodimer' I in Veliky Novgorod) to 1237 (the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus').[4] The title of the second part reads "Летописецъ o великом князи московскомъ, како далеки от роду Володимирова" ("Chronicler of the Grand Prince of Moscow, how far removed from the family of Volodimir'.").[3] Fol.79r adds a subtitle: "Летописец от великого князя Володимеря киевьского" ("Chronicler from the Grand Prince Volodimer' of Kiev'.").[3] Gallery
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