Lettere diplomatiche inedite della Russia alla Serenissima (1655-1695)

The subject of the present study is the transcription, translation and historical and linguistic commentary of selected (thirteen, to be precise) Russian diplomatic missives sent to the doge of the Republic of Venice and now preserved at the State Archives of Venice with the following cataloguing: Collection: “Collegio”, series: “Lettere Principi (1426-1797)”, string 13. The string in question, labelled “Czar of Muscovy”, contains the missives written between 1655 and 1740. 
\nThe present study focuses on the first thirteen letters, following a chronological order; that is, starting from the missives written at the time of Aleksej Michajlovic (the first Russian letter preserved in string 13 of the Archives dates back to 23rd November, 1655) and continuing with letters written in the following years (from 1686 to 1695), during the coregency of Ivan V and Petr I. Out of all the missives in question, the only letters actually published (in the Pamjatniki diplomaticeskich snošenij Drevnej Rossii s deržavami inostrannymi, t. X) are the letter dated 23rd November, 1655 (I), the one dated 25th January 1687 (VIII) and two letters that are both dated 13th February, 1688 (XI and XII). 
\nThe others remain unpublished to this day. Furthermore, the above-mentioned valuable edition dating back to 1871 sets itself historical, not philological or linguistic, aims: in fact, unlike what happens in this work, the transcription doesn't follow conservative criteria. On the contrary, it often simplifies even some of the morphological elements, by choosing “modern” (that is, in use at the time of publication) forms. 
\nThe dissertation is structured in the following way: after the introductory Part I, mainly aimed at describing the researched material from a palaeographic point of view and at defining the philological criteria used for transcription, Part II focuses directly on the transcription and translation of the texts. Part III and Part IV deal with, respectively,a series of comments and a linguistic analysis.Part II, which forms the core of the study, is further divided into two chapters: the first comprising transcriptions and translations of the missives sent to La Serenissima at the time of Aleksej Michajlovic (letters I through V) and the second dedicated to the missives that followed, sent during during the coregency of Ivan V and Petr I Alekseevic (letters VI through XIII).
\nAs is explained in detail in the introductory part of this work, the transcription uses modern characters; however, the ancient characters no longer in use, which were not simply graphic variations but had specific functions and responded to specific distribution rules have been preserved. Abbreviations are not spelled out, nor are the titles placed above them transcribed; the same goes for breathing marks and other superlinear signs. Superscribed letters are brought to the line but transcribed in cursive; words that are connected to prepositions or negative particles in the manuscript are separated, and so forth. The criteria used to perform the translation of the missives, which immediately follows the transcription and is preceded by a brief summary of the letter contents, is that of producing the most literal version possible (compatibly with the requirements of readability). Part III is dedicated to the comments, which contain specific information on the individual letters, followed by a historical and geographical commentary, structured in notes (referenced within the translations). Finally, Part IV is dedicated to a linguistic analysis of the letters. This is carried out first of all in regard to peculiarities of a graphic nature; the analysis then moves on to the morphological, syntactic and lexical levels, all of which attest to the characteristic coexistence of “archaisms” and “neologisms”, which distinguishes the Russian language of the time in general and the prikaznyj jazyk in particular. In these cases, a numeric representation of the frequency with which both variations (that of the erudite language and of the “everyday” language) appear in the missives is provided. An appendix following the conclusions shows three photos relating to the manuscripts of three letters dated 7th July 1656 (II), 5th November 1686 (VII), and 18th March 1695 (XIII), in order to show the different types of characters used within our missives. 
\nThough the main purpose of the present dissertation has always been of a philological and linguistic nature, especially aimed at a contribution to the study of the Russian language from the second half of the XVII century forward, the fact of having made accessible previously unpublished texts dealing with international affairs of the times could undeniably offer significant elements and ideas for future research of a historical nature, as well.

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