The Image of Maria Lekapene, Peter and the Byzantine-Bulgarian Relations Between 927 and 969 in the Light of Old Russian Sources

The notes on Maria Lekapene, the granddaughter of the Byzantine Emperor Romanos I Lekapenos and on her husband, Peter of Bulgaria are to be found in several medieval Russian historiographical texts: in the Russian Primary Chronicle, in the second edition of the Hellenic and Roman Chroni¬cle from the first half of the 15th century and in two related compilations of the sixteenth century, i.e. the Russian Chronograph of 1512 and the Nikon Chronicle. There is no doubt, that Old Russian authors derived information primarily from the Old Bulgarian translation of the B-edition of the Georgius Monachus Continuatus. In Old Russian texts we can find dependencies on the chronicles of John Zonaras and Constantine Manasses (known in their Slavic translation) as well as the elements taken from the medieval Bulgarian sources (glosses to the text of the chronicle of Constantine Manasses and the lives of St. John of Rila).