The Tale of Stephen of Perm: Sources and Manuscript Tradition

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Category: Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature: Issue 25
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Abstract:

The Tale of Stephen of Perm unites the central hagiographic tradition, dating back to the Life of Stephen of Perm, written by Epiphanius the Wise, apparently at the beginning of the 15th century, and the Ust-Vym tradition, which preserved the local miracles of the saint (about the blinding of the pagan Permians, about the sorcery birch) and unique information about his activities, partly reflected also in the Vychegodsko-Vymsky Chronicle. The Tale is known in nine copies of the 18th–19th centuries, which fall into two redactions: a primary Short and a secondary Extensive one — with additions based on the printed Prologue of 1660, the Epiphanius’ Redaction of the Life and some, probably, chronicle local source. Taking into account the convoy of the Tale, including the dated miracles of Saints Gerasim, Pitirim and Jonah, it can be assumed that the Short Redaction of the Story could have appeared around 1607–1609 in connection with their canonization or due to the activation of the local book tradition in the second half of the 1710s. The Extensive Redaction appeared, most likely, in the interval of the 1750–1770s. It was the Extensive Redaction of the Tale that became the source of the article about Stephen of Perm under 1380 in the Vychegodsko-Vymsky Chronicle, which confirms A.N. Vlasov’s assumption about the compilation of the chronicle text that came down to us at the end of the 18th — the beginning of the 19th century based on earlier sources. The Appendix to the article provides an archaeographic overview of the copies of the Tale.
Keywords: hagiography, textual criticism, The Life of Stephen of Perm, The Tale of Stephen of Perm, Vychegodsko-Vymsky Chronicle
Author: Alexandra V. Dukhanina
Information about the author:

Alexandra V. Dukhanina, DSc in Philology, Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dmitriya Ul’yanova St., 19, 117292 Moscow, Russia.

https://orcid.org/0009-0002-1887-2328

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
For citation:

Dukhanina, A.V. “The Tale of Stephen of Perm: Sources and Manuscript Tradition.” Germenevtika drevnerusskoi literatury [Hermeneutics of Old Russian Literature]. Issue 25. Ed.-in-chief O.A. Tufanova, sci. ed. M.V. Kaplun. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2026, pp. 132–198. https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2026-25-132-198 (In Russian)
EDN:

https://elibrary.ru/PERNKQ
UDC: 821.161.1.0
Publication Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/HORL.1607-6192-2026-25-132-198

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