THE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN ILYA ALEKSANDROVICH SHLYAPKIN AND ANDREY ALEKSANDROVICH TITOV

The article presents a study and a publication of the correspondence between Ilya Alek-sandrovich Shlyapkin (1858–1918) and Andrey Aleksandrovich Titov (1844–1911). Shlyapkin was a professor at St. Petersburg University, a corresponding member of the Imperial Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences and of the Society of Lovers of Ancient Literature, and an antiquarian, while Titov was a merchant and a philanthropist, a collector of manuscripts and an archaeographer, a local historian, and an enthusiast of everything pertaining to the past of the city of Rostov. The correspondence between Shlyapkin and Titov includes letters and postcards from the 1880s to the 1900s (51 items in total). They are currently located in the Department of Manuscripts of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkinskij Dom) of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg (fonds 341, inventory 1, no. 2177), the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art in Moscow (fonds 1296, inventory 1, no. 153) and the State Archives of the Yaroslavl Region in Yaroslavl (fonds 1367, inventory 1, no. 2020). In his letters, Titov reveals interesting facts about his collection, the process of his acquisition of archival and manuscript materials, the work on the description of the collection, and the preparation of the manuscripts in his collection for publication. Shlyapkin wrote about his scholarly activities, particularly about his master’s thesis “Saint Dimitry and his Time (1651– 1709)”, which he successfully defended at St. Petersburg University in 1891 after ten years of work. The correspondence also shows that Titov assisted Shlyapkin with some information that the latter needed for his thesis. Moreover, the letters of the two men reveal the history of their personal relationships as well as some features of their daily life. The author provides a detailed commentary along with her publication of the letters in an appendix.