The tale of the Theotokos of Tikhvinas a source for the history of construction process in Russia in the first third of the 16th century

Introduction. At the turn of the 15th - 16th centuries, a newstage ofdevelopment began in the historyof Russian culture, marked byacquaintance with Western European traditions. This process was especiallypronounced in the monuments of ancient Russian temple architecture and was reflected in the active construction activities of Italian masters invited to Russia by Moscow rulers. For art historians, one of the important problems in the study of ancient Russian architecture is theprocessof organizing construction activities. Despite thelarge number ofsurviving architectural monumentsof the 15th - 16th centuries, evidence ofthe construction process is fragmentary. In this regard, the introduction of new sources on this issue into scientific circulation is an urgent task. Methods and materials. The work is focused on the analysis of the text of one of the copies of the Tale of the Theotokos of Tikhvin, kept by the Manuscript Department of the Libraryofthe Russian Academyof Sciences (NIORBAN, Collection of the Archeographic Commission No. 157). It contains information about the construction of the porch of the Assumption Cathedral in Tikhvin obtained by textual comparison of a number of lists of Tales. Analysis. During the study, one of the plots of the Theotokos of Tikhvin was analyzed and the peculiarities of the organization of the construction process in Tikhvin in the first third of the 17th century were revealed. Results. In the process ofstudying the plot on the construction of the cathedral porch, the stages of construction work carried out from April to June 1537 were restored. In the text of the Tale there is one of the earliest references to the “sovereign drawing”, in accordance with which the porch was built.