About this Item
A Russian Orthodox service book for Easter and the week following it, in the Old Church Slavonic language, printed, published and bound at the Pechersk Lavra (Monastery of the Caves) in Kiev. The monastery was established in the 11th century. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 the Orthodox Churches in Russia and Ukraine developed independently. The power of the Czars allowed the Russian Orthodox Church to dominate, so that the Ukrainian Church came under the Moscow Patriarchate in 1686. The Monastery of the Caves is therefore now Ukrainian Orthodox, but fell under the authority of the Russian Orthodox Church when the present service book was published. It nevertheless had its own traditions and rites, so that the present book should be regarded as part of the Ukrainian heritage.The only other copy we have located is at Amsterdam University Library, one of three Easter service books by the Kiev Pechersk Lavra recorded on WorldCat, all octavos. With a lengthy cyrillic inscription on an endleaf. The sewing is somewhat loose and as a result a few leaves are tattered at the edges. There are occasional minor smudges and drops of candle wax. Much of the gold-tooling has rubbed off the binding and the spine is slightly damaged. In spite of these minor defects, the book is in good condition, especially for a book of this nature.l For the Kiev bindery: S. A. Klepikov, "Historical notes on Ukrainian bookbinding", in: The book collector, 15 (1966), pp. 135-142. Contemporary gold-panel-stamped and gold-tooled calf by the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, sewn on 4 cords, with a panel stamp of Jesus on the front board (9.7 x 4.5 cm, perhaps with a name in the left half of the lower border) and a panel stamp of Maria with the serpent holding an apple under her feet (9.5 x 4.3 cm), each in a gold-tooled border and with another gold-tooled border around the whole board, gold-tooled spine with "Kanonu Paskhi" (Easter Canon) in Old Slavonic capitals in the second of five compartments, gilt edges. The endpapers, like the paper of the book itself, are laid and have a blue-green cast. Easter liturgy in Old Church Slavonic, with title-page and about 20 other pages printed in red and black, the title in a woodcut border and with a woodcut Paschal lamb, a full-page engraving of Jesus's Resurrection (10 x 6 cm) on the back of the title-page, all pages after the title-page with borders made up of 4 woodcut strips, woodcut head- and tailpieces and decorated initials (a 17 mm and a 9 mm series), and decorations built up from cast fleurons. Set in 3 sizes of Old Slavonic poluustav cyrillic type. Printed on laid paper with a blue-green cast.
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