During a scientific expedition to Mount Athos, Serhii Shumylo, Director of the International Institute of Athos Heritage, discovered 144 Kyivan publications of the eighteenth century in the book depository of an Athos monastery. These are mostly publications of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra printing house.
The scholar wrote about this on his Facebook page.
"In my previous post, I mentioned that there are more than 60 such publications here. Now, though, we can say for sure that there are 144 of them. I am greatly impressed by this number. These are the editions of the eighteenth century, but there are also more than 20 rare editions of the Metropolis of Kyiv of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (including three copies of the Ostroh Bible of 1581)," Shumylo said.
According to the scholar, the largest influx of old Ukrainian printed books to Athos dates from the 1730s to the 1770s. After the said period, the number of Kyivan publications in the collection of the Athos monastery markedly decreased.
"Among other things, the cessation of book arrivals might be connected with the liquidation of the autonomy of the Cossack Hetmanate by Catherine II in 1764, the destruction of the Zaporozhian Sich in 1775, and the final elimination of the Cossack regimental system of Ukraine in 1781 in the territories controlled by the Russian Empire. After that, by order of the Russian authorities, Ukrainian educational institutions were reorganized or liquidated, strict censorship was introduced, and numerous restrictions on Ukrainian book publishing were issued," said the Director of the International Institute of Athos Heritage.
"Thus, the number of old Ukrainian printed books sent to Athos can be used to trace the development of Ukrainian culture and book publishing and their artificial suppression by the Russian imperial authorities," he added.
According to Serhii Shumylo, the large number of old Ukrainian printed books kept on Athos testifies to the close contacts of Athos monasteries with the clergy and monks of the Metropolis of Kyiv, as well as with the Ukrainian Cossacks and Cossack officers, including hetmans and Kish otamans of the Zaporizhian Sich.
"I don't know whether there is another place housing such a large number of old Ukrainian printed books. For all these books to be in one monastery... It is truly incredible. This is a priceless treasure of the Ukrainian spiritual and cultural heritage stored in the closed libraries of Athos monasteries," Shumylo emphasized.