Peresopnytsia Gospels

From Textus Receptus

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Revision as of 04:58, 25 February 2009

The Peresopnytsia Gospels (Ukrainian: Пересопницьке Євангеліє, Peresopnytske Yevanheliie), dating from the 16th century, is one of the most intricate surviving East Slavic manuscripts. It was made between August 15, 1556 and August 29, 1561, at the Monastery of the Holy Trinity in Dvirtsi, and the Monastery of the Mother of God in Peresopnytsia, Volyn'. The scribe was Mykhailo Vasyl’ovych, son of an archpriest from Sianik, who worked under the direction of Hryhorii, the archimandrite of the Peresopnytsia Monastery.

The manuscript is a Gospel Book containing only the four Gospels of the New Testament, and is ornamented with Glagolitic characters, which were influenced by the Italian Renaissance style. The Glagolitic alphabet was invented by Saints Cyril and Methodius in the 9th century to translate the Bible and other religious works into old Church Slavonic, the language of the Bulgarians and Serbs, and the liturgical language of the Russian Orthodox Church. Although it is not in daily use it was used for religious purposes until the late 19th century in Croatia. This is the first known example of a vernacular Old Ukrainian translation of the canonical text of the Scriptures.

The Peresopnytsya Gospels are the most well-known translations of canonical texts into the Old Ukrainian language. Luxuriously decorated under the influence of the Italian Renaissance, the work also shows characteristic Ukrainian decorations, and a high artistic level in the miniatures of the Ukrainian icon-painting school connected with Byzantine and Eastern Slavonic traditions.

The Peresopnytsya Gospels were commissioned by Princess Nastacia Yuriyivna Zheslavska-Holshanska (Zaslavska-Olshanska)of Volyn, and her daughter and her son-in-law (Yevdokiya and Ivan Fedorovych Czartoryski).

After its completion the book was kept in the Peresopnytsya Monastery. On 17 April 1701 it was presented to Pereyaslav Cathedral by Ivan Mazepa the Hetman of Ukraine. From 1799 it was kept in Pereyaslav Seminary. Later on it was held in Poltava Seminary, Poltava Museum of History and Regional Studies, Kyiv-Pecherska Lavra preserve. On 24 December 1948 this treasure of Ukrainian culture was placed at the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine.

Three Ukrainian Presidents—Leonid Kravchuk in 1991, Leonid Kuchma in 1994, and Viktor Yushchenko in 2005—took the oath of office on the Gospels.