Book of Royal Degrees

The Book of Royal Degrees (Russian: Степенная книга, romanized: Stepennaya kniga) was the first official work of historiography produced in the nascent Tsardom of Russia.

It was commissioned by Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow from Ivan the Terrible's personal confessor, Andrew, in 1560.

[3] The book gave shape to the idea of Moscow being the "third Rome" by tracing Ivan's patrilineal descent not only from Rurik, but from the first Roman emperor, Augustus.

[5] The biographies of Kievan, Vladimirian and Muscovite rulers tend to pass over into hagiography.

The political philosophy of the time tends to be obscured by thick layers of hyperbole and rhetoric.