The Presidential Library: New acquisitions

The Presidential Library collection has been enriched with a digital copy of the part of the unique hand-written book - the Pskov Ship's Charter, the original of which is kept in the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The unit took its place in the collection Authority (the section Legislation in the IX-XV centuries, the subsection the Pskov and the Novgorod court documents).

The Pskov Judicial Charter (PJC) is a monument of the law of Ancient Rus’, the last, probably, by time known legal act of independent Pskov land. It is preserved in two lists: Vorontsovsky (Vorontsovsky collection, BAN, 34.2.31, p. 56-72 vol.), and the Synodal, the middle of the XVI century. Vorontsovsky list dates from the first half of the XVI - the beginning of the XVII century, made with a dilapidated or carelessly written original. The initials are inky, not cinnabar, which suggests that this was the original. It is first published (in part: the last 12 articles) by N. M. Karamzin on the Synodal list. The first complete edition, according to the Vorontsov list – N. N. Murzakevich, who discovered a list in the archives of Prince M. S. Vorontsov (Pskov Judicial Charter, compiled at the Veche in 1467 Odessa, 1847). The preamble of the PJC indicates the date of compilation - 1397, contrary to the information contained in the text on the 5 cathedrals in Pskov. It is assumed (Y. G. Alekseev) the existence of three successive revisions of the PSG: 1397; 1409-1424, after 1462, a number of researchers consider the date of compilation in 1467, when a governor from Moscow was appointed to Pskov and the Pskov authorities had grounds for protecting their rights. Three sources of PJC are indicated in its text: the charter of Great Prince Alexander (Alexander Yaroslavich Nevsky or Alexander Mikhailovich Tverskoy); the charter of Prince Pskovsky Konstantin Dmitrievich 1407; Pskov customary law ("Pskov duties"). The source of PJC is undoubtedly the Russian Truth. PJC itself acted as one of the sources of Judge Ivan III. 

The text of the PSG is conventionally divided into 120 articles, which are distinguished on the basis of logical considerations, rather than the paleographic features of the list. They determine the judicial system and the procedure for judicial proceedings, consider issues of civil law, including liability and inheritance, law, criminal law. PJC is one of the forms of northwestern and northern law, adapted to the Pskov conditions: the features of social relations due to the borderline situation and the backwardness of the Pskov village in comparison with the city.

The preparation of new materials will be continued.