The study considers the growing importance of the Apocalypse in late 15th-century Russia, attributed to Western influences and eschatological anxiety about the end of the seventh millennium (1492). In particular, the article analyzes the different hermeneutical functions of the Woman of Apocalypse in three key texts. In the anonymous On Offenses Against the Church, the figure has a traditional eschatological purpose, exhorting fidelity to Christian doctrine. In contrast, the starec Filofej uses the image in his Letter to M.G. Misjur' Munechin to legitimize the concept of translatio imperii to Moscow. Finally, in Discourse on Instability and Chaos, Maximus the Greek transforms the woman into “Vasilija”, a personification of the charisma of power used to criticize the moral decadence of contemporary states. The study demonstrates how a single biblical motif was reused to support different theological and political views in the Muscovite context.
University of Florence, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-4630-5374
Titolo del capitolo
La donna dell’Apocalisse in Russia. Immagini e metafore nella produzione apologetica della prima metà del XVI sec.
Autori
Marcello Garzaniti
Lingua
Italiano
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0893-2.07
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Anno di pubblicazione
2025
Copyright
© 2025 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Titolo del libro
In dialogo con l'Occidente: Rinascimento e renovatio nella Russia del Cinquecento / В диалоге с Западом: возрождение и религиозное обновление в России XVI века
Curatori
Marcello Garzaniti, Ovanes Akopyan, Iris Karafillidis, Francesca Romoli
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Numero di pagine
242
Anno di pubblicazione
2025
Copyright
© 2025 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Editore
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0893-2
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0916-8
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0893-2
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-0894-9
Collana
Europe in between. Histories, cultures and languages from Central Europe to the Eurasian Steppes
ISSN della collana
2975-0318
e-ISSN della collana
2975-0326