The article is devoted to the analysis of historical sources used by Zacharias of Mytilene when compiling the “Church History”. Like his predecessors, Zacharias included a large number of documents in his work; French researcher Philip Blaudeau discovers twenty. Zacharias almost certainly had access to collections of documents and letters from Alexandria, which allowed him to quote at length letters to or from the Alexandrian primates that deserve special attention. He also had access to the archive of imperial correspondence in Constantinople. At least, the information from it is mentioned in several cases. We see that the author worked with documents from the highest state level, such as papal epistles and imperial decrees, to folk legends and oral traditions. There is nothing surprising in the fact that there is oral evidence in the source, because Zachariah lived during the events described by him, and his activities relate to the end of this period. Many of the sources are only partially reflected in the text of the work. Nevertheless, the study of this problem is necessary to understand the array of information available to the author, which inevitably left an imprint on the content of his text.
For citation:
Dronova Ya.A. Sources of the “Church History” of Zacharias of Mytilene, Ivanovo State University Bulletin, Series: Humanities, 2022, iss. 3, pp. 88—93.