CAPITAL LETTERS OF THE "FLOWER TRIOD" OF 1631

Abstract

It is difficult to imagine our word without a book. It accompanies a person throughout life and is a valuable source of knowledge and information. The masters of Ukrainian printed books have written a bright page in the history of national culture and book heritage. They have created editions that are true artistic masterpieces – with their unique shape, the special beauty of Cyrillic fonts, engravings, screensavers, endings, capital letters and other design elements. The printing house of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra has published many liturgical books, among which a special place is occupied by the «Flower Triod», dated June 1, 1631. This is the first edition of the «Flower Triod» in Ukraine and today it is one of the rare editions. The book was published at a time when the Archimandrite of the Lavra was St. Petro Mohyla, who contributed to the development of book printing, education and paid great attention to providing national features for the printing house. The «Flower Triod» is an extremely luxurious publication that contains many ornaments and wonderful engravings. It contains many capital letters of various sizes and artistic incarnations. There are about 150 different capital letters, mostly red, one – black. This article briefly described the investigation of the capital letters of the valuable edition of the printing house of the Holy Dormition Kiev-Pechersk Lavra «Flower Triod» of 1631, one copy of which is now stored in the collection of old prints of the Volyn Orthodox Theological Academy. Analysis showed that the two types of capital letters are observed in this valuable edition: letters covered with ornaments and letters with ornamental-plot compositions. Rich and varied themes, iconography, compositional and artistic and stylistic features of miniatures-illustrations of capital letters, their placement on the pages of the book, etc. open many new opportunities for the researcher of the art of books, which in turn will complement the glorious history of Ukrainian printing and book heritage.