The Ukrainian Catholic University as a New Manuscriptorium Partner
Manuscriptorium now offers access to 37 unique Cyrillic prints from the 17th and 18th centuries held in the collections of the Ukrainian Catholic University Library. They were digitized by the library’s team in 2023–2024 with support from the Atla Digitization Grant Program.
These Cyrillic prints—issued in small print runs and surviving today in only a limited number of copies—are bibliographical rarities that attract considerable interest, especially among church historians. Most of them are liturgical books published by the Lviv Dormition Brotherhood; in addition, thirteen were produced by other printing houses in Kyiv, Pochaiv, Univ, and Lviv. They were used both in the Orthodox Church and in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and thus reflect not only the history of printing in Ukraine but also the distinctive local cultural and ecclesiastical traditions. The individual volumes feature unique marginalia, illustrations, historical decorative bindings, and manuscript fragments.
Among the digitized items is also the oldest Ukrainian Cyrillic book in the UCU Library’s collections: the Анфологіон from 1632 (shelfmark 3008038). This particular volume once belonged to the Church of St Cosmas and Damian in Khodoriv (Stryi District, Lviv Region). Its distinctive feature is the presence of handwritten sections replacing the lost parts of some pages (e.g. here). The book also contains marginalia written in black ink, providing, among other things, information about its owner and the individuals who used it.
