Reims and Peresopnytsia Gospels. First printed books


1. What are the famous Reims and Peresopnytsia gospels?

The Gospel is one of the most important parts of the Holy Letter, in which we are talking about the earthly life of Jesus Christ.

The glory of the oldest Ukrainian book belongs to the Reims gospel. The title of this book, made almost 1000 years ago in Kiev, owes to the French city of Reims, where it is kept at the present time. Becoming a French queen, Henry’s wife I, the daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, Anna presented the book to the Reims cathedral, and it was on this gospel that the French kings swore allegiance to the throne.

The famous Reims gospel is a small book intended for personal use. She came to France in the first half of the 11th century. together with the things that Anna brought from her parents’ home. For a long time the book was kept in the Reims cathedral, then it got to Constantinople, and later – to the Czech Republic, where it was added a large section, made a solid frame

decorated with jewels. When and how she returned to Reims – it is not exactly known.

Handwritten books were created on our lands for many centuries, even when the book publishing spread.

One of the most famous manuscripts is the Peresopnytsia Gospel. This is the first translation of the Holy Letter in the then Ukrainian book language. The initial part is written in p. The palace, and it is completed in a small Volynsky town Peresopnitsy, which owes its name. On one of the first pages of the Gospel there is an inscription according to which the book in 1701 was presented by Hetman Ivan Mazepa to the Ascension Cathedral in Pereyaslav. There it was stored for more than a century and a half. It is on this book, which lies during the inauguration ceremony next to the constitution, that the presidents swear allegiance to the people of Ukraine.

2. What made the first printed books in Ukraine?

In the seventies 16 century. there was a printing house in Lviv. It was founded by Ivan Fedorov, who earlier founded printing in Moscow. On February 14, 1574, the church book “The Apostle” was

published in the printing house. Work on the Lviv “Apostle” lasted almost a year – from February 25, 1573 to February 15, 1574. The font that this book is printed on is clear, expressive, easy to read. The book is decorated with exquisite screensavers, initials, etc.

In the “Apostle” there are page engravings: an image of the Evangelist Luke, the coat of arms of Lvov and the printed sign of Fedorov. The book came out with a circulation of about 1,000 copies, of which up to now 90 are preserved.

In the same year came out “The Primer” – the first printed textbook in our land. He also ordered and published in Lviv Ivan Fedorov. In content, this was a textbook for elementary literacy, so the alphabet contains syllables, then the section where the Slavic names of letters and conjugation patterns are presented. Two copies of the Lviv “Bukvarya” are preserved.

Soon Ivan Fedorov moved at the invitation of Prince Vasily-Konstantin Ostrozhsky to Ostroh, where he published five more books.


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Reims and Peresopnytsia Gospels. First printed books