Univ and Pochaiv old-printed books — sources of the Ukrainian and Church Slavonic languages

The article analyzes Univ and Pochaiv old-printed books as important sources for studying the Ukrainian and Church Slavonic languages through the lens of copy-based printed catalogues of the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine. It highlights the role of monastic printing houses of the 16^th to 18^th centuries in shaping the Cyrillic print heritage and outlines the thematic, linguistic, and genre repertoire of their publications. Special attention is devoted to scholarly catalogues of Univ and Pochaiv early prints as instruments for documenting edition variants, artistic design, and the history of individual copies.

The study demonstrates that these catalogues contain not only bibliographic descriptions but also a substantial corpus of printed texts and marginal inscriptions, most of which are published for the first time. The linguistic features of these inscriptions — their geography, chronology, and functional diversity ranging from provenances to prayers, poetry, and personal notes — are examined in detail. It’s shown that Univ and Pochaiv old-printed books provide valuable material for investigating the Ukrainian book language and the Ukrainian recension of Church Slavonic in the early modern period. The article concludes by emphasizing the high source-study potential of the Vernadsky Library catalogues for historical-linguistic research and for the compilation of historical dictionaries of the Ukrainian language.

Univ old-printed books, Pochaiv old-printed books, Cyrillic printing, Ukrainian language, Church Slavonic language, scholarly catalogues, marginalia

Copyright (c) 2025 N. Zabolotna

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Zabolotna, N.V. (2025). Univ and Pochaiv old-printed books — sources of the Ukrainian and Church Slavonic languages. Ukrainian Linguistic Medieval Studies, 2, 92-101. https://doi.org/10.37919/3083-6212.2025.2.92-101