The article examines materials from the St. Petersburg branch of the Archive of the RAS the fund of A. V. Nikitsky (1859–1921), one of the most talented students of F. F. Sokolov, who is rightfully considered the founder of the Russian epigraphic school. The author focuses on Sokolov’s letters to Nikitsky, which relate mainly to the time of Nikitsky’s internship in Greece in 1883–1885, as well as drafts of Nikitsky’s letters and his diaries. The main subject of the correspondence was the discussion and analysis of the various epigraphic material with which Nikitsky worked during his trip to Greece, which largely determined the main direction of his subsequent scientific studies — the study of the inscriptions of Central Greece, especially from Delphi. In addition, the documents from the fund of A. V. Nikitsky contain valuable information about the life of the scientific community of St. Petersburg University in the last decades of the 19th — early 20th centuries, the system and principles of education of specialists on classical philology and history, scientific connections of Russian scientists with foreign colleagues.