Content :

More than eight centuries ago, when the unknown author created “The Tale of the Host of Igor. Igor the Son of Svyatoslav, Grandson of Oleg” in the southern lands of the ancient Russian State, the Rostov Prince Konstantin Vsevolodovich founded the Saviour-Transfiguration monastery on the bank of the river Kotorosl… The end of the 12th century astonished by fanciful interlacement of facts. It was the time of heroic campaigns and “meaningless Princes’ fights” (N. M. Karamzin) and the time of creation of “The Tale of the Host of Igor” – a work of genius which influenced the whole ancient Russian culture.
Created more than 800 years ago, “The Tale of the Host of Igor” still surprises the reader by its rich and colourful language and profound description of the historical situation in Russia in the 11-12th centuries.
The talent of the author of “The Tale…” as a poet was so high that it still plays an important role in literature and Art. “The Tale of the Host of Igor” belongs not only to the author now but also to the whole humanity, it became the eternal monument of culture. It always attracts people’s attention.
The fate of “The Tale…” was connected with the history of the Yaroslavl Saviour-Transfiguration monastery that preserved the manuscript. There is the Yaroslavl Museum-Preserve in the Saviour-Transfiguration monastery now. In 1985 in the refectory (16th century) and in the superiour’s house (17th century) there was opened an exhibition “The Tale of the Host of Igor” – an outstanding monument of ancient Russian culture”. Here the pieces of fine arts and applied art, monuments of material culture create a unique image of the epoch, discover the historical and artistic roots of “The Tale…”, mysterious discovery and the tragic fate of the manuscript, its second birth and immortality.
To spread the knowledge about “The Tale…” the Yaroslavl Museum-Preserve of History and Architecture together with the Yaroslavl Centre of New Information Technologies of the Yaroslavl Demidov State University developed a multimedia compact-disc (CD-ROM) “The Tale of the Host of Igor”. It contains information about printed editions of “The Tale…” by different authors, review of collections of books and graphics on “The Tale…” in the Yaroslavl Museum-Preserve, there is presented a wide bibliography on this topic. Multimedia panoramas presented in the disc give the opportunity to feel the atmosphere of the exhibition. Original musical background also affects emotionally.
The texts of the disc were prepared by the researchers of the Yaroslavl Museum-Preserve of History and Architecture. In contradistinction to the previous two compact-discs of this team of authors (“The Yaroslavl Saviour-Transfiguration Cathedral” and “The Yaroslavl Churches Wallpainting”), where the texts were presented in Russian and in English, this disk is only in Russian. The reason is the specific character of the topic and a bad knowledge of “The Tale…” among western readers.
Multimedia compact-disc “The Tale of the Host of Igor” contains unique material. It can be interesting first of all for pupils, students, teachers and different specialists, and also for everybody who loves ancient Russian Art in our country and abroad.

System requirements to the computer
 Operating system Microsoft Windows 98se, NT4 (SP5), 2000, XP;
 Processor Intel Pentium 133 MHz and faster;
 RAM 32 Mb;
 CD-ROM 8x-speed;
 16-bit sound card;
 mouse;
 PCI/AGP video card with 1 Mb of memory;
 Graphical resolution – 800x600 or higher, 65 536 colours or higher;
 Microsoft Internet Explorer ver.5.0 or newer.

You can get more detailed information about this CD and other projects of this team of authors on the site http://www.cnit.uniyar.ac.ru