The ambassadorial book for the Russian-Vatican relation from the Russian State Archive for the Ancient Acts con-tains Ivan IV’s speech addressed to Antonio Possevino, the Vatican legate to Poland and Russia. It demonstrates close textual parallels with the Great Illustrated Chronicle. The author assumes that the Chronicle appeared in diplomatic practice in 1581. At the same time, there are no traces of the Chronicle’s dependence on Prince Andrey Kurbskii’s works. The hypothesis about copying the Chronicle in 1584-1585 gives the whole range of earliest facts of textual reception of the Chronicle. Its emergence was to a large extent related to Russian diplomatic and ceremonial practice.
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