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In the framework of the project “Memories of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” we present to your attention the selection of photos from the Preserve collection - “Lavra Printing House”.

As you know, the printing house of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra was the first and for a long time the only one in Kyiv. It was founded in the times of Archimandrite Elisha Pletenetsky (1599–1624). The first book of the Lavra printing house – “Horologion” (Book of Hours) was published in late 1616. In the preface, the Archimandrite compared this book to a prayer preceding any good deed. He was convinced that Horologion would pioneer other Lavra publications needed by both the church and the pious reader, as well as “schools in the Orthodox city of Kyiv and other cities”.

Kyiv-Pechersk printers published books in Church Slavonic, Old Ukrainian, Greek, German, Polish and Latin. In addition to church publications, dictionaries, works on philosophy and history, encyclopedic publications, primers, calendars and poetry collections were published. The books of the Lavra printing house were decorated with engravings depicting the monastery buildings, plans of caves, which became the first printed maps in Ukraine, and so on.

From the middle of the 19th century, when the printing house in the Lavra had to withstand fierce competition with other Kyiv printing houses, the active modernization of its equipment was initiated. Steam and then electric book printing presses appeared, and the letter foundry and bookbindery were renovated. The size of edition at that time reached tens of thousands of copies. The printing house existed until the end of the 1920s. At that time, its facilities were used by the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences together with the State Publishing House of Ukraine.

Today, the Lavra printing house houses the Museum of Books and Printing of Ukraine.

Next week in the project “Memories of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” you will be able to see historical photos from the series “Archimandrites of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra”.

Let’s discover the beauties of the Preserve’s collection together!

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