NEW SOURCES FOR THE HISTORY OF THE OSTROH CULTURAL CENTRE IN THE LATE SIXTEENTH CENTURY: RUTHENIAN-LANGUAGE LETTERS TO KYRILLOS LOUKARIS

The article reconsiders selected aspects of the functioning of the Ostroh cultural centre in the late sixteenth century on the basis of newly identified sources. The key source base consists of materials from a manuscript convolute of the correspondence of Kyrillos Loukaris preserved in the Leiden University Library. Their incorporation makes it possible to specify the internal dynamics of the Ostroh circle, the mechanisms of school governance, and the nature of relations between its members and the founder, Prince Vasyl Kostiantyn Ostrozky. Particular attention is devoted to the correspondence of representatives of the Prince’s closest circle, which reflects the process of selecting teachers, manifestations of tension within the school environment, and the practical limits of the autonomy of its head. On this basis, the chronology of Kyrillos Loukaris’s stay in Volhynia is refined, the communication networks of the Ostroh circle are outlined, and biographical information on a number of its members, as well as on the activity of the local printing house, is supplemented. The observations obtained add further detail to the reconstruction of the internal organization and everyday functioning of the Ostroh intellectual centre.