The Chronicle of Halych-Volhynia and Historical Collections in Medieval Rus’

This book investigates the chronological and narrative structure at work in the Chronicle of Halych-Volhynia, in order to answer a broader question: was the Chronicle part of a curated historical collection to create a new historiographical entity in medieval Rus’?

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The objective of this book is to identify the narrative strategy and chronology applied in The Chronicle of Halych-Volhynia, and to consider whether this source was intended to form part of a historical collection from the beginning. From the early 13th century in Rus’, chronicling began to be cultivated in various centres, focusing on the history of the local area, and therefore in this period historiographical material was collected for specific ideological purposes, providing a genesis of the history of the Rus’. By re-working this history, subsequent authors gave their writings a novel quality, albeit one that remained firmly rooted in older historiographic collections. This study offers a fresh new look at the complexities of Rus’ian historiography in the Middle Ages.