The Physics course of Ioannikios Likhud at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy in Moscow: A new manuscript copy

Abstract

The article introduces into scholarly circulation a previously unknown student’s notes containing a fragment of the Physics course taught by Ioannikios Likhud at the Moscow Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy – manuscript no. 773 from the collection of the Yaroslavl Museum-Reserve. This copy is examined in comparison with other known witnesses to this portion of the philosophical curriculum: a fragment of another set of student notes (Russian National Library, Department of Manuscripts, Greek 152) and autograph manuscripts by Ioannikios himself (Russian State Library, Department of Manuscripts, F. 173.1, no. 303, 310, 311, 316, 319). Such a comparison suggests that the Yaroslavl fragment is independent of the fragment in manuscript no. 152. The Yaroslavl manuscript also provides new data indicating that the Physics course may have begun in the spring of 1693. In addition, the material discovered offers an opportunity to examine existing evidence that Physics, like the preceding Logic course, was taught by the Likhud brothers in both Latin and Greek. At present, however, no student notes of Physics in Latin are known. The question of how the Likhuds organized their bilingual teaching has not been specifically addressed in the scholarly literature. Finally, the Yaroslavl manuscript raises the issue of who Ioannikios’s students were when he taught Physics. Discussion of this question allows for hypotheses about the total number of possible Physics transcripts and the proportion represented by the fragments currently known.