The Illustrated Chronicle of the 16th century is a monument of Old Russian book art. It is the largest manuscript chronicle and chronographic work of medieval Russia. It has no equals in the world for its scale and scope of historical events and the way the material is presented. The Illustrated Chronicle was compiled upon the commission of Ivan IV the Terrible between 1568 and 1576 in the Alexandrovskaya settlement, which at that time became the political center of the Russian state and the permanent residence of the Tsar. A whole group of the Tsar’s scribes and artists worked on the Chronicle.
The Illustrated Chronicle has survived in 10 volumes in various repositories: the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian National Library in St Petersburg and the State Historical Museum in Moscow.
This monumental book is remarkable by the described scope of the events of world and especially Russian history from times of Vladimir Monomakh up to Ivan Terrible. It is a unique art, literary and historical work where texts are combined with book miniatures. The reader can look through the eyes of Russian scribes of the 16th century at the events they describe. This is what makes the book especially valuable. The miniatures in the Chronicle often contained information broader than the text, so it was necessary to find the forms of placement of illustrations and the necessary ratio of them to the text within a page or a double-page spread.
At all times the Russian Orthodox Church has called upon the faithful and all citizens to love their earthly Fatherland and to spare no life to defend it. The Russian Orthodox Church fostered in Russian soldiers a sense of duty and personal responsibility to defend the Fatherland as a sense of duty and responsibility before God. All exploits of Russian soldiers were based on faith in the supreme truth, in God’s Providence. During difficult periods in history Church services took on a different scale. Thus, in August 1380 the Bishop of Kolomna Gerasim blessed the Grand Duke of Moscow Dimitry Ivanovich and his numerous troops for the battle against the Horde, which was later known as the Kulikovo battle. This event is depicted on the miniature from the Illustrated Chronicle, a digital copy of which is presented in the exhibition of the Kolomna Museum of Regional Studies.
The Illustrated Chronicle has survived in 10 volumes in various repositories: the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian National Library in St Petersburg and the State Historical Museum in Moscow.
This monumental book is remarkable by the described scope of the events of world and especially Russian history from times of Vladimir Monomakh up to Ivan Terrible. It is a unique art, literary and historical work where texts are combined with book miniatures. The reader can look through the eyes of Russian scribes of the 16th century at the events they describe. This is what makes the book especially valuable. The miniatures in the Chronicle often contained information broader than the text, so it was necessary to find the forms of placement of illustrations and the necessary ratio of them to the text within a page or a double-page spread.
At all times the Russian Orthodox Church has called upon the faithful and all citizens to love their earthly Fatherland and to spare no life to defend it. The Russian Orthodox Church fostered in Russian soldiers a sense of duty and personal responsibility to defend the Fatherland as a sense of duty and responsibility before God. All exploits of Russian soldiers were based on faith in the supreme truth, in God’s Providence. During difficult periods in history Church services took on a different scale. Thus, in August 1380 the Bishop of Kolomna Gerasim blessed the Grand Duke of Moscow Dimitry Ivanovich and his numerous troops for the battle against the Horde, which was later known as the Kulikovo battle. This event is depicted on the miniature from the Illustrated Chronicle, a digital copy of which is presented in the exhibition of the Kolomna Museum of Regional Studies.
