The Story about Podolia: Relationships Between the Copiesof the First Redaction and Authenticity of an Accountof the Prince Konstantin Koriatovich

Aleg Litskevich
independent researcher (Belarus, Minsk),
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.15407/ul2015.03.290

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Abstract

The article begins from a textological analysis of the two earliest extant copies of The Story about Podolia which form a part of so called Suprasl and Slutsk manuscripts. In order to achieve more reliable results, the analysis embraced also some earliest copies of The Chronicle of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania (Suprasl, Slutsk, Vilna, Academical manuscripts) that were included in the same 15th century chronicle compilation as the first redaction of The Story about Podolia.

Initially the first part of The Chronicle of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania covering the period from 1341 until 1382 was compiled in Ruthenian. This text was partially based on oral or written information reflected in so called Dis ist Witoldes sache wedir Jagaln und Skargaln (1390). The last editing of the first part of The Chronicle of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania had been done not earlier than in 1407 and afterwards the text was translated in Latin as Origo regis Jagyelo et Wytholdi ducum Lithuanie. Then an anonymous author created the second part of The Chronicle of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania by adding to the first part the account of events from 1383 until 1396; it is worthy of note that he erroneously believed the Polish Queen Jadwiga to be the daughter of the King Casimir of Poland though she was the daughter of the King Louis of Hungary. The textological analysis shows that the Suprasl and Slutsk copies of The Chronicle of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania (and therefore of The Story about Podolia) contain a set of identical readings and thus obviously descend from a common protograph. We cannot say that the Slutsk copy depends on the Suprasl one, or vice versa. Both the Suprasl and Slutsk copies of The Story about Podolia have some lacunas in the text as well as incorrect and contradictory readings so they complement each other. In some important cases, the Slutsk copy provides more correct readings than the Suprasl copy: e. g. in the Slutsk copy, the name of the prince Fedor Koriatovich’s military governor Niestiak is spelled ‘Nestak’ (versus ‘Nestis’ in the Suprasl copy).

Further, the article discusses the account of The Story about Podolia stating that the King Casimir of Poland proposed the Podolian prince Konstantin Koriatovich to marry his only daughter. It is argued that during the lifetime of the King Casimir (1310–1370) none of his five daughters could be married or engaged to the prince Konstantin Koriatovich. We know that the prince Konstantin Koriatovich was the Podolian ruler in 1380-ies and according to a documentary source visited Cracow in April 1385. So it can be assumed that author of The Story about Podolia in this case wrote about negotiations related to a planned matrimonial alliance between the prince Konstantin Koriatovich and the Polish Queen Jadwiga, the daughter of the King Louis of Hungary. As the sources for his narration the author of The Story about Podolia, probably, used (along with oral tradition) The Chronicle of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania where the Polish Queen Jadwiga was called the daughter of the King Casimir as well as the protection documents (‘kgleitovnyi listy’) issued by the Polish nobles so that the prince Konstantin Koriatovich could safely visit Cracow in 1385.

 

Keywords

The Story about Podolia, The Chronicle of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Konstantin Koriatovich.

 

Archives

Archiwum Główny Akt Dawnych w Warszawie [The Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw].

 

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