The invention of movable type and printing presses in Germany around 1450 had a tremendous and lasting influence on the cultural, social, religious, and scientific development of Europe. As the printing technologies spread throughout the continent and allowed for a quicker and wider dissemination of knowledge, they became a major catalyst for both the Reformation and the later scientific revolution. Printed books represented the key factor in
the spread of education and literacy. In Ukraine, the first printing press was founded by Ivan Fedorovych (Fedorov) in Lviv in 1573. Its equipment and assets were used to found the Lviv Dormition Brotherhood Press (1591-1788), which played a key role in the history of early Ukrainian printing. Printing in Volhynia began after Fedorovych entered the service of Prince
Kostiantyn Ostrozky and founded what became the important Ostrih Press (1577-1612). Founded in the early 17th century, the Kyivan Cave Monastery Press became the most important center of printing and engraving in Ukraine until the mid-19th century; it played a crucial role in raising the level of education and culture and in aiding the Orthodox Ukrainians to defend themselves against the inroads of Polonization and Catholicism...
Learn more about the origins and traditions of book printing in Ukraine by visiting:
http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/featuredentry.asp
or by visiting: http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com
PRINTING. The earliest books printed in the Ukrainian redaction of Church Slavonic and in the Cyrillic alphabet in general--the Orthodox Octoechos and Horologion--were produced in 1491 by Szwajpolt Fiol, a Franconian expatriate in Cracow. These were followed by liturgical books produced in the Lithuanian-Ruthenian state by short-lived presses on Belarusian territory, such as Frantsisk Skoryna`s in Vilnius (1525), Ivan Fedorovych (Fedorov) and Piotr Mstislavets`s in Zabludiv (now Zabludow, 1568-70), and Vasyl Tsiapinsky`s itinerant press (ca 1565-70). The first printing press on Ukrainian territory was founded by Fedorovych in Lviv (1573-4). Thereafter Lviv remained a major printing center. In Kyiv, printing began with the founding of the Kyivan Cave Monastery Press (1615-1918). In
Left-Bank Ukraine the first printing presses were those of Kyrylo Stavrovetsky-Tranquillon in Chernihiv (1646) and Archbishop Lazar Baranovych in Novhorod-Siverskyi (1674-9)...
FEDOROVYCH (FEDOROV), IVAN, b ca 1525, d 16 December 1583 in Lviv.
Fedorovych was the founder of book printing and book publishing in Russia and Ukraine. He was deacon of Saint Nicholas Gostunsky Church in Moscow, where, from 1553, he oversaw the construction of a printing house commissioned by Tsar Ivan IV. This technical innovation created competition for the Muscovite scribes, who persecuted Fedorovych and finally caused him to flee to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Settling in Zabludow (Zabludiv)
on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, he changed his surname from Fedorov to Fedorovych. He moved to Lviv in 1572. In 1575 Fedorovych, in the service of Prince Kostiantyn Ostrozky, was placed in charge of the Derman Monastery; in 1577-9 he established the Ostrih Press, where, in 1581, he published the Ostrih Bible. He returned to Lviv after a quarrel with Prince Ostrozky, but his attempt to reopen his printing shop was unsuccessful. His printery became the property of the Lviv Dormition Brotherhood...
OSTRIH PRESS. The second oldest printing press in Ukraine, founded in 1578 by Ivan Fedorovych (Fedorov) with the financial backing of Prince Kostiantyn Ostrozky at the prince`s castle in Ostrih, Volhynia. Its first publications were Azbuka (Alphabet, 1578), a collection of prayers in Greek and Church Slavonic; the second impression of Fedorovych`s Bukvar (1578), the first Ukrainian primer; the first Ukrainian edition of the New Testament and an alphabetical index to it (1580); the Ostrih Bible (1581); and the first poetic work printed in Cyrillic, Andrii Rymsha`s Khronolohiia (Chronology, 1581). It also printed pro-Orthodox, anti-Uniate polemical literature, including works by Herasym Smotrytsky, Vasyl Surazky, Kostiantyn Ostrozky, Khrystofor Filalet, and the pseudonymous Ostrozkyi Kliryk. The press functioned, with some interruptions, until 1612; from 1602 to 1605 it operated at the Derman Monastery...
LVIV DORMITION BROTHERHOOD PRESS. A press founded by the Lviv Dormition
Brotherhood in 1586. With a printing press and other equipment used by Ivan Fedorovych (Fedorov), it printed liturgical books, primers, poetry, dramas, and theological, educational, and polemical literature. Its oldest extant publications date from 1591: the 1589 charter of Patriarch Jeremiah II granting the brotherhood the right of stauropegion, a booklet of verses in honor of Metropolitan Mykhailo Rahoza, and the grammar Adelphotes. From 1591 to 1722 the press issued 140 books with a total run of some 160,000 copies. They were distributed throughout Polish-ruled Ukraine and Belarus, and even in Wallachia, Moldavia, Serbia, and Bulgaria. They were not, however, permitted to be sold in Russian-ruled Ukraine until 1707. The press played an important role in the intellectual life of Ukraine and the defense of the Orthodox church. In 1788 the Lviv brotherhood and its press were succeeded by the Stauropegion Institute...
KYIVAN CAVE MONASTERY PRESS. The first imprimery in Kyiv and the most important center of printing and engraving in Ukraine in the 17th and 18th centuries. It was founded ca 1606-15 at the Kyivan Cave Monastery by the archimandrite Yelysei Pletenetsky, who purchased the equipment of the former Striatyn Press of Hedeon Balaban in Galicia. Later it was headed by, among others, Zakhariia Kopystensky, Petro Mohyla, Innokentii Gizel (for over 30 years), Varlaam Yasynsky, and Yoasaf Krokovsky. The imprimery issued several hundred titles on various subjects, both original works and
translations, in Ukrainian, Church Slavonic, Polish, Russian, Latin, and Greek. Beautifully engraved and ornamented, they were distributed throughout the Slavic countries, as well as Austria, Greece, and Moldavia. In the 16th and 17th centuries the imprimery played an important role in raising the level of education and culture in Ukraine. The tsarist ukase of
1720 limited it to printing only religious works, which it continued to do until 1918...
*******
The preparation, editing, and display of the IEU entries featuring the origins and traditions of book printing in Ukraine were made possible by the financial support from the CANADIAN FOUNDATION FOR UKRAINIAN STUDIES.
*******
ABOUT IEU: Once completed, the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine will be the most comprehensive source of information in English on Ukraine, its history, people, geography, society, economy, and cultural heritage. With over 20,000 detailed encyclopedic entries supplemented with thousands of maps, photographs, illustrations, tables, and other graphic and/or audio materials, this immense repository of knowledge is designed to present
Ukraine and Ukrainians to the world.
At present, only 18% of the entire planned IEU database is available on the IEU site. New entries are being edited, updated, and added daily. However, the successful completion of this ambitious and costly project will be possible only with the financial aid of the IEU supporters. Become the IEU supporter (http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/donor.asp) and help the CIUS in creating the world`s most authoritative electronic information
resource about Ukraine and Ukrainians!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dr. Marko R. Stech
Managing Director, CIUS Press
Project Manager, Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine
By Marko R. Stech
