iberal. The task was not small. The Synodal library of
Moscow alone has a treasure of 700 Old Slavic Codices; the Academy of
Sciences in St. Petersburg possesses likewise numerous Slavic
manuscripts. Among the libraries of other countries, there is hardly
one of any importance, which has not like Codices of more or less
value to exhibit. Those of Vienna and the Vatican are in this
department especially rich. These two were thoroughly searched by a
like Commission.[21] Of the great activity, and the critical spirit
which the Russian historians of our day have shown in respect to their
own past, more will be said in our sketch of the Russian literature.

The number of the monuments of the Old Slavic increases considerably
in the _second_ period; and we find ourselves the more obliged to be
satisfied with mentioning only the most important among them. At the
head of these, stands the _Laurentian Codex_, the oldest existing copy
of Nestor's Annals, A.D. 1377, now in the imperial library at St.
Petersburg. Nestor, a monk in a convent near Kief, born A.D. 1096, was
the father of Russian history. He wrote Annals in the Old Slavic
language, which form the basis of Slavic history, and are not without
importance for the whole history of the middle ages. They were first
printed in A.D. 1767, and subsequently in four editions, the last in
1796. Schloezer, the great German historian, who published them anew in
1802-9, with a translation, added considerably to their intrinsic
value by a critical and historical commentary upon them. But even his
edition could not satisfy the more critical spirit of our days. A
new one has been published in the course of the last seven years; for
which, not less than fifty-three manuscripts were carefully compared.
The merit of it belongs to the Archaeographical Commission of the
Academy.

The _third_ period begins with the sixteenth century. In the course of
time, and after passing through the hands of so many ignorant
copyists, the holy books had of course undergone a change; nay, were
in some parts grown unintelligible. The necessity of a revision was
therefore very strongly felt. In A.D. 1512, the Patriarch of
Constantinople, at the request of the Tzar Basilius Ivanovitch, sent a
learned Greek (a monk of Mount Athos) to Moscow, to revise the church
books, and to correct them according to the Greek originals. As this
person some years afterwards fell into disgrace and could not
accomplish the work