Abstract

Pochaivska Lavra was one of the largest cultural centers in the XVIII - the first third of the XIX century. Pochaivs’ka Lavra Printing house, after the printing house of the Kyiv-Pechers’k Monastery, was one of most powerful publishing center in the Ukrainian lands. Until the end of the XVIII century it published about 250 editions in Cyrillic and about 200 editions in Latin and others languages. At present, relevant is unbiased and objective coverage of all aspects of the activity of the Pochayivs’ka Lavra at the period of the Basilians as the least studied and on the other hand as the most productive period, especially in the book publishing process. The purpose of this article is an attempt to determine the role of the Pochayiv monastery as the center of the unification of Ukrainians, analyzing the repertoire of the Pochayiv publishing house at the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, the language of publications, their design and contacts with other publishing houses. It is concluded that the most productive activity of the Pochayiv printing house was Uniate period - XVIII - beginning of the XIX century. The typical features of the printing industry of this time were: a diverse repertoire of books that included the spiritual and secular literature of various Christian confessions, original and translated works of religious moralistic content, multilingual editions, and their high artistic level. The activity of the Pochayiv Assumption printing house extending beyond narrow confessional boundaries. Like the Kyiv editions were used not only by the Orthodox, but also by the Catholics of the Byzantine rite, the Pochaiv books and engravings spread among the Orthodox population of Ukraine. The undoubted merit of this cultural and spiritual center was that it continued the tradition of printing Ukrainian-language publications in conditions where the Kyiv- Pechers’ka printing house was deprived of such a possibility under the pressure of decrees of Russian secular and church authorities. The Pochayiv printing house maintained close contacts with other publishing centers - both Uniate and Orthodox. This is evidenced by the active using and reprint of their publications in Pochaiv. Despite the different denominations, there were close contacts between the Pochayiv Uniate and Kyiv-Pechers’k Orthodox printing houses. This testified to the spiritual unity of Ukrainian lands besides state borders, religious and administrative barriers of secular and church authorities.

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