The Alexander Romance as Educational Book during the Russian Middle Ages

Abstract

Medieval Russia, connected to Byzantine culture through numerous works that came via the southern Slavs, derived part of its general knowledge from the Novel of Alexander, known in the Russian cultural milieu in its Bulgarian and Serbian versions. Valuable historical, geographical or mythological information allowed medieval Russians to regard the world in new ways, a fact that turned Alexander Romance into the second most read book of that time (after the Bible). The diversity of knowledge provided by this novel made it a veritable Encyclopaedia of Russian Middle Ages.