Руська релігійна культура Вільна: контекст доби, осередки, лiтература та книжнiсть (XVI - перша третина XVII ст.)

ENWilno (now Vilnius) was a city of many cultures: Lithuanian, German, Polish, Ruthenian, Jewish and Tatar. Polish, Ruthenian, Lithuanian, German, Tatar and Yiddish were spoken here. Various calendars functioned simultaneously. Despite the diversity of ethnicities, in the first half of the 17th century Wilno was dominated by two religious groups: Catholics and the Orthodox. Civitas Rhutenica, a city of Ruthenians with numerous Christian shrines, is located beside the Latin section. The religious culture of the city in the 16lh to first third of the 17th century has not yet been the subject of a special monographic study, which is, to some extent, unfair, because it was here for the first time in the history of Eastern Europe in 1522 that the first Ruthenian book was published, and later the city became a prominent center of book publishing (especially Ruthenian and Polish). The centers of religious culture - Ruthenian (Orthodox and Uniate) monasteries, churches and fraternities - became the basis for the Ruthenian book publishing. The hubs of religious culture in «Civitas Ruthenica» were 16 parishes and temples, among which in the 16th century the cathedral church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as well as the church, monastery and brotherhood of the Holy Trinity stood out. It was around the Holy Trinity Orthodox complex that the center of the Ruthenian religious revival was formed. In the 17th century there were two such hubs: the Uniate one of the Holy Trinity and the Orthodox one of the Holy Spirit.The creators of the Ruthenian religious literature and sacral culture of Wilno were Francysk Skaryna, Petr Mstislavets, the Zaretsky brothers, Vasyl Haraburda, the Ma- monych brothers, Hryn Ivanovich, Andrey Rymsha, Cyril Lukaris, Stefan and Lavrentiy Zyzaniy, Leontius Karpovych, Meletius Smotrytsky, Joseph Bobrykovych, Hypatius Pociej, Josaphat Kuntsevych, Joachim Morokhovsky, Leon Krevza, Joseph Veliamyn Rutsky and many other hegumens, priests, deacons, monks and nuns, hundreds of active lay people who were united in church brotherhoods. The Holy Trinity and the Holy Spirit Orthodox communities of the laity were the leaders of the brotherhood movement of the entire Kyivan metropolis. In the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania of the time, the Christian shrines performed the function of a common public space, which had a sacral character. After all, they were a place of worship. The use of the Holy Trinity and the Holy Spirit churches as the tombs of the noble Ruthenians of that time significantly sacralized the Ruthenian religious hubs. As a result, 128 monuments of Russian religious culture were published in Wilno during the 16th to the first third of the 17th century. The vast majority of them are editions printed in Cyrillic, the rest are 27 Polish-language books, one Latin-language book and one Greek-language book. Ten books have not survived. Most of the books were published in the well-known Mamonych printing house, as well as in the publishing houses of the Holy Trinity and the Holy Spirit Orthodox Brotherhoods.In addition to the traditional theme of the Ruthenian literature - the publication of «Apostles», «Gospels», «Didactic Gospels», «Psalters» (11 editions), «Books of Hours» - the range of the monuments of the 16th century was significantly enriched (a total of 61 books were published in this century). Thus, among the books published in Wilno there appeared prayer books, catechisms, sermons, as well as such rare works as, for example, «Pandects» by Nikon Montenegran, «On the Sign of the Cross» by Maxim Greek, the anonymous «Book of Faith», «Dialogue» by Meletius Pigas, which are brilliant polemical monuments. Undoubtedly, their publication is a convincing evidence of the formation of a new religious culture. Despite the widespread introduction of Polish-language books into the Ruthenian public environment of Wilno in the 17th century, Cyrillic monuments continued to dominate in book publishing. Thus, from an array of 66 books published in the first third of the 17th century in the city printing houses, 40 items were in Cyrillic. Only ten of them were published by Uniates (the Mamonych and the Holy Trinity printing houses), 30 books were published by Orthodox churches (the Holy Spirit printing house in Wilno and Vievis). The range of the religious books of the Wilno Uniates was, in general, poorer. In general, the Orthodox, having suffered significant defeats from the Uniates in the confessional confrontation, compensated by publishing Cyrillic religious monuments and, therefore, clearly were winning the competition. Apart from the applied and liturgical, the religious books also performed cognitive, ideological-educational and aesthetic functions. We can also talk about the high artistic and poetic significance of religious books, including narrative (parenetical and rhetorical), songs and hymns. The «ideal» textbooks were «Primers» and «Grammars». [...]. [From the publication]