Attribution of Fragments of the 16th–18th Centuries’ Early Printed Books from the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine: Informational Potential and Practical Experience

Abstract

The publication describes various cases of attributing fragments of editions from the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine. The attribution included the identification of extracts from the text, authentication of sheets used as flyleaves, and waste paper sheets. It is shown in the examples that the binding shops at the printing houses of Ostroh, Lviv, Kyiv, and Chernihiv actively used waste paper. The article describes cases when the attribution of editions assembled from fragments, the Vilnius Gospel in particular, became the reason for a scientific study and catalogue of the Gospels of 1575–1644 in the library collection. The attribution of fragments of several different editions allowed us to identify unknown printing variants, and to form the complete Gospel text. Printed engravings inserted into books also provide interesting material for further research. The practice of studying them has shown that sometimes they are previously unknown artistic monuments by famous engravers, for example, Hryhorii Levytskyi and Ivan Myhura. The usage of various methods of work, such as the study of the history of engravings, a comprehensive analysis of their state of preservation, the establishment of the history of the copies’ use, and the study of paper filigrees, prove that book engravings were also printed for independent distribution. In particular, we are referring to images of evangelists associated with the names of Petro Mstyslavets and Pamva Berinda. The study of printed inserts of engravings, illustrations, and texts into manuscript codices is an interesting and promising area of research