Issues

The authors of books and articles devoted to Moscow legends cite a curious document — a list of handwritten books and magical objects that were allegedly “laid” in the Sukharev Tower. This list was first published in 1862 by Ivan Snegirev with reference to a manuscript by some Grigory Knigolyubov, which was kept in the collection of Prince Mikhail Obolensky. The article summarizes information about this lost manuscript, asserts that the handwritten books included in the list are fictitious (imaginary), and establishes the sources that Grigory Knigolyubov used to compile his list. The legends about the sorcerer Yakov Bruce and the Black Book hidden in the Sukharev Tower were widely known in Moscow in the 19^th century and were not only reflected in urban folklore but also embodied in fiction. Grigory Knigolyubov could have become acquainted with these legends both through personal communication with Muscovites and from magazine publications. At the same time, the article substantiates the hypothesis that six out of nine descriptions of handwritten books go back to the information provided in Ivan Sakharov’s book Tales of the Russian People about the Family Life of Their Ancestors (1836). The research asserts that Grigory Knigolyubov gave Ivan Sakharov’s texts the form of bibliographic descriptions, adding his own data on the volume of books, type of handwriting, etc. The article concludes that the list of Grigory Knigolyubov, published by Ivan Snegirev, can be considered a kind of literary hoax.