Our Notes & References

The first book devoted to the history of the famous Lavra cave monastery in Kyiv, finely illustrated and with supplementary details on Ukrainian customs, especially religious but not only.

An attractive example of the first edition, scarce. Although copies can be found in European libraries, we could trace only two in the US (Columbia and Harvard). Only one copy traced at auction in recent decades (more than 10 years ago; and only another complete one in Russia).

A major figure of the Protestant community in 17th-c. Vilnius, Johannes Herbinus (1626–76) travelled across Europe and drew attention to the natural history and traditions of different countries, which resulted in several books. His Religiosae Kijovienses cryptae is one of his most interesting, and his last one. It is particularly noteworthy for its author’s tolerant curiosity and interest towards Orthodoxy, at a time when both religions were exchanging virulent libels – such as Iavorskii’s anti-Protestant Kamen Very a few decades later.

Initially, Herbinius was interested only in the origins of the caves — natural or man-made – before expanding his scope. He dedicated a chapter to the characteristics of their specific climate in which the relics are preserved. He went on to write about relic veneration (which in Protestant tradition was considered idolatry), the character of “Ruthenians”, ie. Ukrainians, Orthodox religious practices seen through Protestant lenses, and even linguistic connections between the Polish and Ruthenian languages and biblical Hebrew. It is worth noting the variety of fonts and characters used in the book: German Fraktur, Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, and Hebrew, with various sizes and italics. The text also includes some musical notations for Orthodox prayers.

The more religious aspects of Herbinius’ work draws from the Paterik, a religious book focused on the Lavra fathers and published in the 17th century in Kyiv. Our illustrations in particular are inspired by the 1661 first illustrated edition of the Paterik, due to Innocent Gizel (c. 1600–83), the archimandrite of the Lavra and an important author and historian in his own right, whom Herbinius mentions several times in his book.

The three plates depict a monk digging a cave, the allegory of Kyivan heaven, and the legend of the dead Kyiv Pechersk Fathers’ response to Easter greetings, which Herbinius recounts: the 16th-c. priest Dionisii went down to the caves and proclaimed: “Saint Fathers and Brothers, today Christ, breaking the sting of Death, resurrected from the Dead!” to which the Cave Fathers’ relics answered: “Christ the Lord truly resurrected.”

The publication is especially remarkable for its plans of the Lavra caves, here in large folding engravings while they were woodcuts in Gizel’s Paterik. One details St. Anthony’s cave and the other St. Theodosius’s, giving the reader a striking visual image of Kyiv sacred space.

Another publication appeared in 1638, in Kyiv and in Polish, written by the local monk Afanasii Kalnofoiskii, with minimal information on the monastery; however, being a religious work, this Teratugima focused almost exclusively on the Father’s miracles, very far from Herbinius’ wider scope.

A whole book by Dr. Nataliia Sinkevych was published in 2022, entirely devoted to Herbinius’ Kijovia subterranea (with the implication of the Ukrainian Catholic University).

Bibliography

Cat. Russica H-572; Sinkevich Natalia. The Religiosæ Kijovienses Cryptæ by Johannes Herbinius (1675): a Description of Kyiv and Its “Sacral Space” in Early Modern Multiconfessional Discourse, Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv, 2022 (available online as PDF).