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It is agreed that the chronicle may well have been a compilation of several Kievan and Novgorod chronicles.
The original of the chronicle was lost, and the earliest known copies are the Laurentian codex (which dates from 267 years after 1110) and the Hypatian codex , so it is difficult to establish the exact content of the chronicle, how it was written and who wrote it.
Many studies and published versions of the chronicle have been made, the earliest known being in 1767. These versions attempted to reconstruct the chronicle based on copies of the original and quotations of the chronicle in other, later, chronicles. For more detail on this, see the references below.
For a long time the first compilation was attributed to a monk named Nestor, and hence in Russian, Ukrainian and GermanThe Federal Republic of Germany ( German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland is one of the world's leading industrialized countries, located in the middle of the European Union. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark and the Baltic Sea, to the east historiography it is also known under the name of Nestor's Chronicle, or Nestor's manuscript, and Nestor is known as Nestor the ChroniclerNestor (c. 1114), the reputed author of the earliest Ruthenian chronicle, was a monk of the Pecherski Lavra (Monastery) of Kyiv from 1073. The only other fact of his life is that he was commissioned with two other monks to find the relics of St Theodosius.
Other sources name SylvestrSylvestr in Russian) ( c. 1055 1123) was a Russian clergyman and a writer. Some sources name Sylvestr as a compiler of either the Primary Chronicle itself or its second edition. He was a hegumen of the St. Michael's Vydubetsky Monastery in Kiev, which had, who was the hegumen of St. Michael's Monastery in the village of Vydubychi near Kiev, upon the order of Vladimir MonomakhVladimir Monomakh 1053 May 19, 1125) was the Grand Duke ( Velikii Kniaz) of Kievan Rus' from 1113 to 1125. He was the son of Vsevolod Yaroslavich and (allegedly) a daughter of Constantine Monomachos. He was married to Gyda of Wessex, daughter of Harold II.
The chronicle begins with the deluge, as those of most chroniclers of the time did. The compiler appears to have been acquainted with the Byzantine historians; he makes use especially of John MalalasJohn Malalas (or Malelas (Syriac for " orator ") (c. 491 578), Byzantine chronicler, was born at Antioch. He wrote a Chi;ρονογραφι&alpha in 18 books, the beginning and the end of which are lost. In its prese and George Hamartolus . He also had in all probability other Slavonic language chronicles to compile from, which are now lost. Many legends are mixed up with Nestor's Chronicle; the style is occasionally so poetical that perhaps he incorporated bylinas which are now lost.
The early part is rich in these stories, among which are the arrival of the three Varangian brothers, the founding of Kiev, the murder of Askold and Dir, the death of Oleg, who was killed by a serpent concealed in the skeleton of his horse, and the vengeance taken by Olga, the wife of Igor, on the Drevlians, who had murdered her husband. The account of the labors of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius among the Slavic peoples is also very interesting, and to Nestor we owe the tale of the summary way in which Vladimir suppressed the worship of Perun and other idols at Kiev.
As an eyewitness the chronicler could only describe the reigns of Vsevolod and Sviatopolk ( 1078- 1112), but he gathered many interesting details from the lips of old men, two of whom were Giurata Rogovich of Novgorod, who gave him information concerning the north of Ruthenia, Petchora , and other places, and Jan, a man ninety years of age, who died in 1106, and was son of Vishata the voivode of Yaroslavl and grandson of Ostromir the Posadnik, for whom the Codex was written. Many of the ethnological details given by Nestor of the various races of the Slavs are of the highest value.
There is a theory is that the Chronicle is a patchwork of many fragments of chronicles, and that the name of Nestor was attached to it because he wrote the greater part or perhaps because he put the fragments together. The name of Sylvester is also affixed to several of the manuscripts as the author.
The Chronicle has come down to us in several manuscripts, but unfortunately no contemporary ones, the oldest being the so-called Lavrentievski of the 14th century ( 1377). It was named after the monk Lavrentii, who copied it out for Dmitri Constantinovich, the prince of Suzdal. The work, as contained in this manuscript, has had many additions made to it from previous and contemporary chronicles, such as those of Volhynia and Novgorod.
The language of this work, as shown in the earliest manuscripts just mentioned, is Palaeo-Slavonic with many East Slavisms. It has formed the subject of a valuable monograph by Professor Miklosich.
The Chronicle has been translated into Polish, Bohemian, German and French. The compiler can not very well be the author of the lives of Boris and Gleb, the martyrs, and of the life of St Theodosius , because they contradict many passages in the Chronicle. The work is of primary importance for early Ruthenian history, and, although devoid of literary merit, is not without its amusing episodes of an Herodotean character.
Many such chronicles were written by monks, and they provide an important source of historical information. The importance of the Primary Chronicle comes from: