Databases of Ukrainian handwritten books of the XI-XVI centuries.

7 August 2025 year in the Chernihiv regional historical museum named after. VV. Tarnovsky, a presentation was held "Databases of Ukrainian manuscript books of the XI-XVI centuries. within the framework of the project "Returning cultural heritage to Ukraine", which is carried out in partnership with the National Reserve "Sofia Kyivska" with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Fund.

We visited the west: Olena Bashkatova (PR project manager), Anna Horobets (director of the "Sparrow" publishing house and head of the project "Returning cultural heritage to Ukraine"), Olena Podolska (patron of the project "Returning cultural heritage to Ukraine", the producer of the Ukrainian opera singer, People's Artist of Ukraine, Victoria Lukyanets, soloist of the Vienna Opera).

To date, there is no objective information on the volume of the national source base of medieval Ukrainian manuscript books, which are located in Ukraine and outside its borders. It is urgent to carry out the attribution of books with the aim of distinguishing the Ukrainian from the East Slavic cultural book heritage, as well as securing rare manuscripts as our national heritage, which are annexed to the Russian heritage in the scientific catalogs of places where books are stored and in the works of Russian scientists.

Hanna Horobets spoke about facsimile editions of five key Ukrainian manuscripts, printed within the project, which were issued with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Fund in 2018, 2019, 2020-2021 years — the Lavryshiv Gospel of the XIV century,, Gertrude's prayer book of the 11th century., Rheims Gospel of the XI century., Octoikh of Vienna XII century. and the Prayer Book of Prince Volodymyr XIV century.

Currently, due to the war in Ukraine, the manuscripts are in danger of physical destruction, which also requires their fixation and digitization. It is to solve these problems that the Database of Ukrainian manuscript books from the XI to the XVI centuries was created and is constantly updated. in Ukrainian and English. Thanks to previous projects, implemented with the support of UKF, the Register was created and data entered into it 600 manuscript books of Ukrainian origin. The goal of the project is to supplement the Database of Ukrainian manuscript books of the 11th - 16th centuries., adding more data to the registry 400 рукописів. The database is presented on the website "Ukrainian manuscript book" ukrmanuscript.com.

The event was organized and conducted by the head of the exposition department, Zinaida Petkova.