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BOOK REVIEWS319 Many of the papers presented here lament, at one point or another, that their researches were hampered by the paucity or discontinuity of their sources. Several of the contributions describe encounters with the Inquisition. In the interval since the papers were presented in 1995, an important repository of primary materials related to their interests has become available in Rome, the Archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the old Holy Office), which formaUy opened its doors to the scholarly pubUc in January, 1998. Students of ItaUanJewish history in the modern era wUl find an abundance of pertinent materials, especiaUy in the long series entitled "Varia de Hebraeis." As with other volumes in the ItaliaJudaica series, there seems to have been no strong hand at the helm. There are no editors who might have caught the many misprints that mar the volume's first two English-language papers (Jw Simonsohn and Schatzmiller), and who might have explained in an introduction what goals and parameters the conference had set for itself and what it accomplished . Nor is there an index for the orientation of the potentially interested reader. These reservations aside, and whUe acknowledging that the volume does not present us with a well rounded synthesis of the intended subject, invariably an impossible task for a symposium volume to achieve, the papers do individuaUy contribute to our knowledge of select areas ofJewish life, culture, and society in the Papal States. John Tedeschi Ferryville, Wisconsin The Legend of the Novgorodian White Cowl (The Study ofIts "Prologue"and "Epilogue"). By Miroslav Labunka. [Ukrainian Free University Series: Monographs , Vol. 56.] (Munich: Ukrainische Freie Universität. 1998. Pp. ?, 339. Paperback.) The Principality of Novgorod remained a proud, independent, and properous state when most other Russian principalities fell into economic decline,cultural stagnation, and political subjugation during the era of the MongolYoke. But as the rulers of Moscow, notably Grand Prince Ivan III, "gathered the Russian lands" and forged a new, centralized state, Novgorod lost its autonomy to the burgeoning Muscovite political power. The Church of Novgorod especiaUy resented Ivan's alienation and secularization of its vast monastic lands, which Ivan and his successors used to compensate servitors and finance the costs of nation-buUding. The so-caUed "History of the White Cowl of Novgorod" was one of several pseudo-historical works contrived by ecclesiastics and their supporters to justify Novgorod's claim to land ownership and the primacy of church interests over those of the state. In later years, the Legend of the White Cowl was also pressed into service by Moscow's tsars to help legitimize their own absolutist measures taken against the Church and other institutions. StUl later, some protonationalists in Russia used the Legend as documentary support 320BOOK REVIEWS of the "Third Rome" ideology, which sought to obtain recognition and respectabUity for their backward country as an heir and continuator of Eastern Roman political and religious authority. Based upon a doctoral dissertation presented to Columbia University in 1978, this work analyzes the first and last thirds of the Legend to substantiate their authorship, dating, and intended effect on the Muscovite Grand Prince and his court, in the process offering sound commentary on the ideological motivation of their authors. Dr. Labunka produces a well-reasoned examination that accepts some claims made by earlier researchers and establishes his own well-argued conclusions in other instances. In aU, this study undoubtedly wiU remain the standard monograph that later scholarship wiU necessary address when reconsidering this period of early Russian history and culture. Nonspecialists might find this volume a convenient (albeit difficult and challenging) introduction to Russian medieval studies of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, for its author cites most of the sources that treat this era and acquaints the reader with the various historiographical chaUenges of this period. Occasional errors in printing and the lack of a general index, along with an overly ponderous style of academic writing, will trouble even the specialist weU versed in this subject. Dr. Labunka hints of returning to study the White Cowl in an additional volume. His further thoughts on this curious phenomenon should be received warmly by his colleagues in Slavic studies...

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