On November, 21st, the Baranovichi Central City Library name dafter V.P. Tavlay hosted the presentation and donation ceremony of the first five books of the facsimile edition The Book Heritage of Skaryna.

Representatives of cultural, scientific and education institutions of the Brest Region took part in the event.

Director of the National Library of Belarus R.S. Motulsky acquainted the audience with the project having emphasized the importance of Skaryna’s heritage to the culture of Belarus and Eastern Europe.

Director R.S. Motulsky said that the activities of the Belarusian first printer had reflected humanistic, educational and democratic tendencies and trends of the European Renaissance and cultural contacts with foreign countries. Translations of the Bible made by Skaryna is the unique phenomenon in Belarusian and Eats-Slavic culture in the whole. It is known more than 300 printed copies kept in libraries and museums of Belarus, the Great Britain, Germany, Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia, Russia, Ukraine. 10 books are stored in the National Library of Belarus. This is the only collection of the first printer’s editions in the country.

The project is timed to the 500th anniversary of the first book printed by Francysk Skaryna for Eastern Slavs. The project is designed for 2013–2017 and is carried out by the National Library of Belarus and the BelVEB Bank. In 2014, the first five volumes have been published.