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[EARLY UKRAINIAN IMPRINT] Sluzhba so akafistom Sviatetiliu Khristovu Nikolaiu, i zhitii I chides ego [i.e. The sermon, life and the description of miracles of Saint Nicolas]

Item #2605

Kyiv: Lavra press, 1747. 127 leaves. 20,5x16,2 cm. Original full-leather dining with wooden boards and blind ornamental stamping throughout the covers. Complete. Wax stains throughout the first 50 leaves of the book (the sermon), the rest is clearer. The book has been used in service, but clearly was well-kept.

Provenace: The book includes a number of manuscript notes on the transmission of the ownership. The earliest on the rear wrapper in red ink dates to 25th of January, 1821 and goes: ‘My lord, your cross is the weapon against the devils, they look at it and tremble, as we wait when the dead will raise and death will be defeated'. 1828 inscription by priest Ignat Takha on the front flyleaf, the later short texts about the purchase of the book, dated 1846, 1861, 1870 on the front endpaper.

The third edition of the sermon and life of St. Nicolas at Lavra Press.

The book is a great example of the illustrated book of XVIIIth century. For this edition the set of woodcuts were created: the frontispiece of full-length icon of Nicolas, as well as 26 large initials, each portraying the event from the life of the saint. They are included in the first part, the sermon. Alongside them, several dozen of regular woodcut initials as well as headpieces are
scattered throughout the edition. The image and cult of St. Nicholas came to Rus' from Byzantium. The first evidence of the veneration of this saint is mentioned in the chronicle around 882: when the construction of the Church of St. Nicholas in Kyiv is described. Later his image appears in the mosaics of the main cathedral of the newly baptized country - St. Sophia in Kyiv. St.Nicholas has been one of the most popular saints in Russian and Ukraine since. The Life of Nicholas in this edition is a reworking of the text created by the famous Byzantine hagiographer Simeon Metaphrast. The Life is written in a rhetorical manner. The Life tells of such miracles of the saint as the miracle of "three maidens", "three men", "how he saved the ship from the flood", etc. The Life of Metaphrast was reworked by the Bulgarian scribe Damaskin Studite (16th century) and came to Rus' as part of his complex of works and existed in manuscripts. The first edition of St.Nicolas sermon and life in Church Slavonic came out in Moscow in 1640 and was not illustrated.

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