Kornienko V. Graffiti of the St. Sophia in Kyiv of the 11th - the Beginning of the 18th Century: an Information Potential of the Source.

For the first time in the dissertation a comprehensive analysis of potential source studies opportunities of graffiti of the Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv has been made. Epigraphic studies that had made by the author during 2006-2012, it was possible to revealed and to register more than 7,000 graffiti of the 11th -the begin-ning of the 18th century, and they were the object of scientific research. It was proposed an author's own method of comprehensive study of epigraphic monu-ments, which provides a careful analysis of the graffiti notch's forms. Considering this aspect, together with an analysis of the material, on which graffiti was made, and form of the instrument blade which it made possible to reconstruct a large number of texts or elements that were considered by researchers completely de-stroyed. It made possible to get a large number of the authentic monuments of the medieval and early modern times, the value of which is the ability to be an impor-tant source for historical studies. The potential possibility and direction of such work, based on a multidisciplinary approach are analyzed and presented in the dissertation research. It is proved that graffiti is very important source for the research a history of an architectural monument where they have been made. On the basis of the So-phia graffiti have been shown the effectiveness of this practice, offered the most effective methods of attracting graffiti to determine the time of the construction of the St. Sophia Cathedral, the history of its restructuring and changes of the func-tional purpose of separate premises, for founding the characteristics of the wall paintings program due to the definition of images of the saints. There been ana-lyzed and shown a high potential of graffiti for research a wide range of topics re-lated to the political, church, social and economic history of Ukraine of the me-dieval and early modern times. It has been proved the role of graffiti as an impor-tant source for the study of the history of the written language of the medieval and early modern history of Ukraine, for the study of the mentality of its population during this period. It has been proved the using of graffiti as a source for the ge-nealogical, biographical, sphragistic, heraldic, historical and geographical re-searches.