Perrow—The Last Will and Testament in Literature. 695 
Following the Byzantine Greeks, the Russians at an early 
period took up the Moral Testament as a form of literature. 
One of the earliest examples is The Testament of Yaroslav 
which was written about 105 6. 1 The Testament of Vladimir 
Monomahh (1112) 2 is a book of instruction which Vladimir 
wrote for his children. It is primarily a Moral Testament giv¬ 
ing such advice as is calculated to lead to a safe and virtuous 
life. It also contains an account of some of the wonderful 
deeds of the testator in which particular it is related to the 
Autobiographical Testament. 3 
The Moral Testament flourished for a long time in Russian 
Literature. The Domostroy . ascribed to Sylvester, the ad¬ 
viser of Ivan the Terrible, is a sixteenth century member of this 
group. 4 It is a compilation of a code of conduct in which great 
emphasis is laid on keeping up appearances. Ivan Tikhonovich 
Pososhkov, who died in 1726, wrote A Father s Testament to 
his son with a moral in confirmation of Holy Writ. 5 Vasili 
Nikitich Tatishev’s Spiritual Testament and Instruction to my 
Son Eugraf is the last of the long line of Russian Moral Testa¬ 
ments. 6 
In the literature of Western Europe one of the earliest ex¬ 
amples of this type is the Testament of Jean de Meung written 
about the year ,1296. 7 In this the author reviews the various 
classes of society in the world, criticises their short-comings, and 
offers moral advice. His purpose in calling this his Testament 
seems to be that he considered this the only legacy he could 
1 See Peter Vladimirovitch Vladimirof, Drevnaia russkaia literatura 
kievskago perioda, Kiev, 1900, p. 247. 
2 Translated by Frof. Wiener in his Anthology, p. 51; in A. P. Stan¬ 
ley’s Lectures, London, 1861; and in N. H. Dole’s Young Folk's History 
of Russia, Chicago, 1895. 
s The model for Vladimir’s Testament, says Prof. Wiener (page 11 of 
the Anthology), was Svyatoslav’s Collection made for Svyatoslav in 
1073, ultimately translated from the Greek of Simeon of Bulgaria. 
“It is an enclyclopedia of ecclesiastical and moral themes culled from 
the church fathers.” 
4 Wiener, I, 126. 
5 Ibid., I, 205. 
e Ibid., I, 219. 
7 M. Meon, Le Roman de la Rose, Paris, 1814, IV, 1. 
