Trinity Chronicle

The Trinity Chronicle (Russian: Троицкая летопись, romanized: Troitskaya letopis'[1], abbreviated TL,[1] Tro,[2] or T[3]) is a Rus' chronicle written in Church Slavonic, probably at the Trinity Lavra near Moscow by Epiphanius the Wise (died 1420).[4][5]

The Chronicle ended with Edigu's invasion of 1408.[5] Its tendenz has been tentatively described as pro-Muscovite and pro-Cyprian.[4] The text appears to have been an early 15th-century copy of a text that was close to the Laurentian Codex of 1377.[6] The Trinity Chronicle was often cited by 18th-century historians.[6]

The only known manuscript was lost in the fire of Moscow in 1812.[4][7][8] However, the text has been partially reconstructed by Mikhail D. Priselkov in 1950[6] from quotations in Nikolay Karamzin's History of the Russian State (1816–1826) and in the critical edition of the Laurentian Codex (1804).[4][7] The published reconstruction, however, contains much speculative borrowing from other chronicles and is not entirely reliable.[5][7] Ostrowski (1981) remarked: 'Priselkov's reconstruction must be used cautiously because we do not know whether he always checked his readings against the manuscripts.'[8]

The reconstructed text of the Trinity Chronicle is considered one of the six main copies that are of greatest importance for textual criticism of the Primary Chronicle (PVL), 'which aims to reconstruct the original [text] by comparing extant witnesses.'[3] Because the original is lost and its text can only be indirectly reconstructed, as Priselkov attempted in 1950, it is considered the least reliable of the six main witnesses, and is sometimes excluded.[9][8]