The Book of books

The exhibition “The Book of books” dedicated to the 500th anniversary of Francysk Skaryna’s Bible and the Day of the Orthodox Book has been opened since March 10 in the Book Museum (347).

The exhibition is dedicated to one of the main books that played a significant role in the development of human culture, the saint Christians’ book – the Bible. In the Christian world the Biblical Scriptures have had a great impact on all sides of life. The Bible has the largest circulation and is the most translated edition in the world.

The exhibition presents the history of the Book of books and its spread on Belarusian lands. Ancient handwritten corpus of the Biblical Scriptures, their translations and publications in the territory of Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Western Europe are among the exhibits of the 15–20th cc. from the fund of the National Library. These are authentic handwritten and printed samples in different languages illustrated by famous masters of different centuries.

A unique facsimile restoration of one of the most ancient handwritten Scriptures of the New Testament “The Epistle from Apostle Peter” in Greek dated the 3rd century (published by the library of Vatican) is exhibited for the first time. Moreover, handwritten monuments of the Turov (12 cent.) and the Polotsk (12–13 cc.) Gospels and modern manuscripts are presented.

Monuments of printed art include a sample of one of the first printed Bibles in Western Europe (Ulm, 1475), one of the first translations of the Biblical Scriptures into German (Wittenberg, 1523), the first precise printed translation into Polish (Krakow, 1561), the first full translation into Old Slavic (Ostrog, 1581). The Biblical Scriptures of typographies in Belarus (Kuteino, Mogilev, Ivye), Russia (Moscow), Ukraine (Lviv, Kyiv) of the 17–18 cc., the best illustrated Biblical editions of the 17–20 cc., and the first attempts of translations into Russian and Belarusian are demonstrated.

Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk and Zaslavl, representatives of the government, scientific, cultural and educational institutions, clergy, researchers and other interested people participated in the opening ceremony of the exhibition.

We invite everyone to visit the exhibition!

Contact phones: (+375 17) 293 27 56, 293 27 22.