Our Notes & References

A richly and finely decorated liturgical work, in a lovely binding: a typical quality production by “one of the oldest and historically most influential printing houses in [Ukraine]” (Gorky library, our translation here and elsewhere).

Very rare: we couldn’t trace any example in Western institutions nor in auctions worldwide in recent years.

Printed by order of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, the “Service with Akathist [Hymn] to the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos and the story of her all-honorable and immortal Dormition” is a great example of the exquisite craftsmanship of works produced at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, a celebrated cave monastery, pilgrimage centre and “the most prominent printing centre in Ukraine” (Zapasko).

The text is here framed by elegant Baroque woodcut borders featuring floral and architectural motifs on every page and adorned with intricate head- and tailpieces, along with 25 large historiated woodcut initials depicting various scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary and her posthumous miracles. A full-page woodcut of the Dormition of the Mother of God is signed by “Ierodiakon F.”, likely hierodeacon Filaret, a monk and engraver at the Lavra, erroneously identified by Rovinskii as active in the late 18th century.

This is the first edition of this text, republished by the Lavra several times with minor changes, such as in 1808, 1822, and 1848. The “Dormition” woodcut from the present edition was also reused in several other works published by the same press, such as the 1793 edition of Akafisty i kanony [Akathists and Canons], but without Filaret’s signature.

The present copy was bound in contemporary vellum with fine toolwork influenced by Western styles: a fine, attractive and representative production of the Lavra workshops. The boards and spine are decorated with sprawling floral rolls, the upper board featuring an oval roundel with a stylised image of Christ, and the lower board centrepiece with floral and geometric patterns.

The bibliographies by Sopikov, Undolskii, and the catalogue of old printed books in Ukraine by Zapasko and Isaevich (1984) do not reference any earlier editions, nor were we able to locate any; Zapasko and Isaevich locate six holdings of the present edition in Ukrainian institutions, to which we can add two copies in Russia (RGB, GPIB).

Provenance

European private collection.

Bibliography

Undolskii 2260; Sopikov 1233; Zapasko A. P., Isaevich Ia. D., Pamiatniki knizhnogo iskusstva. Katalog staropechatnykh knig, izdannykh na Ukraine, Lvov, Vyshcha shkola, 1984, #2013; Biblioteka Gorkogo, “Pechatnyi dvor Kievo-Pecherskoi Lavry” // Gorky Library website; Rovinskii D. Podrobnyi slovar russkikh graverov, T. II, 1083-84, 1895