Published in the city of Mogilev...

Mogilev is the largest center of the Belarusian Cyrillic book printing of the late 17th – the first half of the 18th centuries. In 1633, the Mogilev Orthodox community received the royal sanction to open a printing house.

In 1636–1638, the editions of Spiridon Sobol were published there. The third edition of “Апостол” / “Apostle” (1638) prepared in Mogilev was presented at the exhibition. In the 1640s, there were published some books of printer Feodor Grishanovich.

From the 1690s till 1701, the printing house was led by member of the Mogilev City Council Maxim Voshchenko – the Belarusian publisher, printer, engraver and founder of the Mogilev school of engraving.

The exhibition presents the old-printed editions with the mark “the printing-house of Maxim Voshchenko” such as "Небо новое” / “The New Sky” by Ioaniky Galyatovsky (1699), “Перла многоценное” / “The Pearl of Many Values” by Cyril Trankvilion-Stavrovetsky (1699), “Диоптра” / “Dioptra” (1698). There are also on display editions with engravings of other masters of the Mogilev school. The most interesting among them is the book "Книга житий святых” / “The Book of Lives of the Saints” (1702) with the title page designed by Vasily Voshchenko and an architectural landscape of Mogilev. An engraving in “Трефологион” / “Trephologion” (1748) has a signature of another artist, Athanasius.

In the early 18th century, the Mogilev community printing house released the books for Old Believers. There were exhibited the first known Old Belief editions “Часовник” / “Chasovnik” (1701) and “Псалтирь” / “Psalter” (1705).

Due to this printing house there were released about 40 editions which played a significant role in distribution of education in Belarus and development of Belarusian publishing and book engraving art.

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