The monograph is a commentary text of the translation of the most important monument of Russian aesthetic thought of the first quarter of the 18th century - “Rhetoric” by Feofan Prokopovich. The translation was carried out by the classical philologist G. A. Stratanovsky (1901-1986) in the mid-1960s. The introduction into scientific circulation of a previously unknown Russian translation of a rhetorical treatise will give a new impetus to the study of Russian literature of the 15th century, and will also enrich the ideas of philologists about the study of Russian rhetoric in the Soviet period. The publication is addressed to philologists and historians of all specializations, teachers of Russian language and literature, specialists in the history of rhetoric, the history of linguistic doctrines, the history of literary connections in the 18th century.