On August 27 the Press House hosted the presentation of a facsimile reproduction of the Brest Bible, monument of the national book culture.
Work on the publication was carried out by representatives of the National Library of Belarus and the "Segment" publishing house with the support of Belneftestrakh.
Alexander Susha, Deputy Director of the National Library of Belarus, coordinator and scientific director of the reprinting project; Anatoly Chaychits, general director of Belneftestrah CJSC, and Kira Slizhikova, art director of the "Segment" publishing house, spoke about the project.
The Brest Bible was published on September 4, 1563 in the Brest Printing House at the order of and with the money of the Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Mikolaj "the Black" Radziwill. The facsimile is based on a copy, which is now located at the Nicolaus Copernicus University of Toruń. Initially it belonged to one of the descendants of the noble, Boguslaw Radziwill.
The book reveals the glory, power and the richest cultural tradition of Brest, so that’s why the project is dedicated to the celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the city.
The facsimile reprint weighs 15 kg and counts about 1500 pages: this is the largest book in the history of the national press. The size, paper, handwritten inscriptions and notes, bookmark and other features of the original were recreated with absolute accuracy. Due to ancient technologies, a special binding was made. Arrangement was carried out manually. Inside the book there is an insert with a study by Alexander Susha, "Ansavanne shadeura" (Creation of masterpiece).
Even a single copy of facsimile is not cheap. At the presentation, the public demonstrated 2 versions of the publication. They are made of different materials, differ in price, but they are copies of their book ancestor. In the most expensive version, the cost of facsimile can reach up to 3500 BYN. The original Brest Bible was also famous for its high cost, sometimes being perhaps the most important component of an inheritance or dowry.
This really unique book was non-standard for its time. In front of the main text is a calendar, thanks to which everyone could specify which part of the Bible he should read today. For the first time in the history of Belarusian printing on the last pages there is an index of certain words and even phrases, as well as pages on which they can be found.
Now there are 11 copies, this books will be taken to Brest. There is no exact number of circulation: facsimiles will be made to order.
Public Relations Department
