A Ukrainian scholar discovers 144 Kyivan printed books on Mount Athos

Serhiy Shumylo, a research fellow at the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, discovered 144 old printed books from Kyiv’s printing houses during an expedition to Mount Athos in Greece.

The scholar found publications from the 18th century in the library of one of the Athos monasteries. Most of these prints were published by the printing house of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. 

“I am incredibly impressed by the number of old Ukrainian books. These are only 18th-century editions, and there are also over 20 rare editions from the Kyiv Metropolis of the 16th to 17th centuries here (including three copies of the Ostroh Bible from 1581),” said Serhiy Shumylo. 

According to him, most Ukrainian old printed books were sent to Athos between the 1730s and 1770s. After this period, the number of publications sent to the Greek Orthodox monastery sharply decreased. 

“The cessation of book deliveries is associated with Catherine II’s abolition of the autonomy of the Hetmanate in 1764, the destruction of the Zaporizhzhia Sich in 1775, and the final abolition of the Cossack regimental system in Ukraine in 1781 in the territories controlled by the Russian Empire,” explained the scholar. 

He believes that the evolution of Ukrainian culture and book publishing can be traced through the arrival of old printed books on Athos as well as the intentional suppression of this process by the Russian Empire’s authorities.

“I don’t know if there is any other place where such a large number of Ukrainian old prints are concentrated. And this is just one monastery. It’s simply incredible. All of these are invaluable treasures of Ukrainian spiritual and cultural heritage preserved in the closed libraries of Athos monasteries,” Shumylo shared. 

The scholar concluded that the large number of old publications on Mount Athos may indicate close ties between the clergies of Kyiv and Athos.

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Main image: Serhiy Shumylo’s Facebook page

Copy editing: Joy Tataryn, Terra Friedman King