This article begins with a detailed summary that focuses on the origins and contents of the Vita Constantini. It then offers a brief history of critical-textual studies dedicated to the work as well as a survey of the manuscripts that have transmitted the text and that have been organized into seven groups. In the fourth textual unit, which is the central part and focal point of the article,the author points to the existence of three branches of the tradition, which allow us to reconstruct three variant-carriers, one of which (of Novgorodian provenance) proves to be profoundly contaminated. The relations of dependence for the archetypes of the seven groups that have been identified are represented in a stemma codicum. The author of the article discusses here several “indicative passages” of the text, where the three variant-carriers expose to view three divergent readings. Attention is then given to the Serbian textual witnesses, all of which derive from a single copy in which the text of the Vita Constantinihas been “corrected” in several places. In the next part of the article, which is dedicated to the chief lines of development for the tradition, the author explains the reasons by virtue of which we can conclude that the archetype from which the entire tradition comes down to us was of East-Slavic origin. In the final portion of the article the author spells out what in his view are the major future tasks that await scholars, beginning with the critical edition of the text.
