Metadata: K. A. Uspenskii (Porfirii, Bishop of Chigirin)
Collection
- Country:
- Russia
- Holding institution:
- St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences
- Holding institution (official language):
- Санкт-Петербургский филиал архива Российской академии наук
- Postal address:
- 199034, St. Petersburg, Universitetskaia naberezhnaia, d. 1
- Phone number:
- (812) 323-08-21
- Web address:
- www.ranar.spb.ru
- Email:
- archive@spbrc.nw.ru
- Reference number:
- F. 118
- Title:
- K. A. Uspenskii (Porfirii, Bishop of Chigirin)
- Title (official language):
- Успенский К. А. (Порфирий, епископ чигиринский)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Uspenskii, Konstantin
- Date(s):
- 396/1891
- Language:
- Russian
- Greek, Modern (1453-)
- Latin
- English
- French
- Arabic
- Hebrew
- Extent:
- 282 archival storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Photographic images
- Cartographic material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The fonds contains a significant collection of material pertaining to Jewish history and culture, including, in the first part, a personal diary kept by Father Porfirii in Palestine, including descriptions of sites and ethnographic notes (1843); archaeological-topographical information on Palestine, with appended pencil drawings and depictions of the cities of Capernaum and Nazareth from an illustrated magazine (1843); descriptions of the cities of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Jaffa, Capernaum and Nazareth, with information on the ethnographic composition of the population and relations between representatives of various ethnic and religious groups (1843); as well as notes on Father Porfirii’s travels around Palestine (1848, 1851).
The second part contains an historical-geographical description by Father Porfirii of the regions of Palestine: Judea, Samaria, Galilee and Gilead (or the “Transjordan side”), as well as the area surrounding the river Jabbok and of cities of Palestine; the description is correlated with episodes from biblical history associated with the deeds of such Old Testament figures as Moses, Joshua, David and Solomon; there are descriptions of religious structures of different denominations, including Christian monasteries and churches as well as mosques and synagogues (1843). This work also features chapters on agriculture among the ancient Israelites, their political relations and alliances with neighbouring nations, the military techniques of the ancient Hebrews and their public and private life, including the status of women, and the “religious situation” of Jews at the time of the rise of Christianity, with descriptions of the various “Judaic sects”, such as the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes (1841). This work is supplemented with a chapter titled “Rivers, Streams, Lakes and Mineral Springs in the Promised Land” as well as with the beginning of an article titled “The Original Inhabitants of the Promised Land” (1843).
The third part includes collections of historical materials and works on Church and civil history, in particular, studies titled “On Paradise and Eden”, “On the Edenic Progenitors”, “On the Worldwide Cataclysm in the Days of Noah”, “On the Historical Edenic Peoples” and a historical study titled “Abyssinia”, which includes a chapter on “The Political History of the Jewish People”, a map compiled by Father Porfirii showing the location of Eden, etc. (1866).
The fourth part includes the book Menologium, which gives the months of the Jewish (Hebrew) calendar, including translations of the names of months, explanations as to their meaning and a list of Jewish holidays (undated). The fifth part includes a photo album titled “Palestine”, which features photographs showing views of Jerusalem, including the Wailing Wall, the cities of Tiberias and Nazareth, the river Jordan, etc.; there is also an album of photographs and maps of the cities of Palestine, including a map of Jerusalem, a photograph captioned “A crypt of Jews in Aboud” [see also the description of the Palestine collection in the “Photo collection” fonds of the State Museum of the History of Religion (GMIR)], maps of the Sea of Galilee, the river Jordan and the Dead Sea.
- Archival history:
- In 1885 and 1888, the director of the Foreign Ministry’s Main Archive in Moscow, Baron F. A. Biuler, received, as stipulated in the will of the deceased Bishop Porfirii, the scholar’s papers (in six boxes and several bundles), which were subsequently transferred to the Imperial Academy of Sciences for further storage.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Bishop Porfirii (Konstantin Uspensky, 1804-85) was the bishop of Chigirin and vicar of the Kiev Metropolitanate (from 1865 on) and an Orientalist, Byzantologist and archaeologist. He graduated from the St. Petersburg Theological Academy in 1829 and in the same year took the tonsure. In 1842, he was sent to Jerusalem, where from 1847 he headed the Russian Religious Mission. In 1845, he made research trips to Athos and Sinai. In 1854, he removed a voluminous collection of ancient books and manuscripts to Russia, including the so-called Uspenskii Gospel and the Codex Porphyrianus. He was an honorary member of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society since its founding in 1882. He was the author of several works pertaining to the Orthodox East, including Faith, Worship, Hierarchy and Rules of the Church Diocese of Egyptian Christians (Copts) (St. Petersburg, 1856) and The Christian East. Egypt and Sinai. Views, Essays, Charts, and Notes on Father Porfirii’s Travels (St. Petersburg, 1857).
The archive of the Academy of Sciences was established by decree of Emperor Peter I in 1728 to house documents of the Conference (supreme assembly) of the Academy. At the same time, Academy of Sciences President L L Bliumentrost appointed Gerhard Friedrich Müller, a student of the Academy gymnasium (subsequently an academician, and the first historiographer to the Russian Empire), to organise the files of the Conference of the Academy of Sciences. During the 18th to 20th centuries, separate archives of other subdivisions of the Academy of Sciences existed as well: the archives of the Chancellery of the Academy of Sciences (18th century) and the Committee of the Board of the Academy of Sciences (the chancellery’s institutional successor; documents date from 1803) as well as archives of departments. In 1922, all Academy archives were merged into a single Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, renamed in 1930 the Archive of the USSR Academy of Sciences (and in 1991, once again the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences). In 1936, a Moscow branch of the archive was created in connection with the Academy’s relocation to that city. In 1963, the Archive of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Leningrad was reorganised as the Leningrad Branch of the Archive of the USSR Academy of Sciences, while the Archival Directorate was transferred to Moscow. In 1991, the Leningrad branch was renamed the St. Petersburg Branch of the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SPF ARAN). The archive houses over 1,600 fonds containing approximately one million items.
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds comprises a single series (in five parts) arranged by structure.
- Finding aids:
- An inventory is available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary
