title: Merilo Pravednoye
text: # Merilo Pravednoye
  
  Merílo Právednoye or Just Measure ('measure of righteousness') (Russian: Мерило Праведное, Church Slavonic: мѣрило праведноѥ) is an Kievan Rus' legal collection from the late 13th or early 14th century, preserved in the copies of the 14th to the 16th centuries. The name was given in modern literature, taken from the first words of this text: "this books is just measure, true weighing..." ("siya knigi merilo pravednoye, izves istin`nyi..." or "сиѩ книги мѣрило праведноѥ. извѣсъ истиньныи..."). Just Measure was written in Old Church Slavonic and Old Russian.
  
  ## Content
  
  The Trinity (Troitsky) copy is the oldest surviving copy from the 14th century. Materials from the old legal collection from the early 12th century may have been used during the compilation of Merílo Právednoye. It was to serve both as a book of moral precepts and a legal guide book for judges as well as the transmission of several older texts. The text consists of two parts: the first contains the words and the lessons (poucheniya) both translated and original, on the just and the unjust courts; the second part (the so-called collection of 30 chapters) consists of translations of Byzantine church and secular laws, borrowed from the Kormchaia Book, and the oldest Slavic and Russian legal texts, the Zakon Sudnyi Liudem, Vladimir's Church Statute, Russkaya Pravda, and "Legal rule on the church people" – Pravilo zakonno o tserkovnykh liudiakh.
  
  