Series Pro Oriente
Saints and Sinners
Anthology of Old Russian Literature of 11th and early 12th centuries
Translated by Michal Téra
This publication presents the Czech translation of the several fundamental and original works of old Russian literature of 11th and early 12th centuries. They are the beginnings of the old Russian literature, in which formative works of Eastern Slavic literature began to emerge in the favourite genres of that time: legendistic, panegyric, homiletic or educational literature.
We put into it the following works: the legend of the saint martyrs Boris and Gleb, the legend of Kiev Pechersk Monastery’s abbot Feodosiy (the author of both is a monk from Kiev Pechersk monastery ‒ famous Nestor) Feodosiy’s preachings and prayer, a monk Jakov’s celebratory sermon in commemoration of Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, Prince Vladimir Monomach Instruction, and a collection of law texts called Russian Justice. Most of these texts have not been translated into Czech. The exception is the monk Jacob’s panegyrics to Prince Vladimir and Instruction of Prince Vladimir Monomach, but it was translated only once in the 19th century by writer K. J. Erben, whose translation is now obsolete and unusable.
