On 27 August, 2014, the National Library of Belarus hosted a press conference dedicated to the re-edition of the Turov Gospel, the oldest book monument of Belarus.
The Turov Gospel, written in the 11th century, is the oldest monument of book culture created on the territory of modern Belarus. The manuscript was discovered in Turov, 1865, and since then it had been kept in Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences (Vilnius). The book monument is the Gospel with additional notations two of which were made in the early 16th century on behalf of the Ostrozhsky noble family.
”Before celebrating the Day of Knowledge, the Belarusian Written Language Day and the Day of Libraries, Xerox Company and the National Library of Belarus have prepared a splendid gift to researchers, students and amateurs of history – a facsimile reprinting of the Turov Gospel manuscript, – Roman Motulsky, director of the National Library of Belarus, said at the press conference opening. – The mission of the National Library of Belarus is to return our book heritage to Belarus through facsimile reprinting of surviving monuments: the Slutsk Gospel was re-edited first, and recently the Polotsk Gospel has been reprinted”.
”In Belarus, there are very few historical monuments left. The Turov Gospel is a unique cultural monument along with the Nesvizh and the Mir castles, – Alexander Shvets, head of the Xerox Company Representative Office in Belarus said commenting on this significant event. – We hope that this project will help our compatriots to get acquainted with this rare monument of written language which makes an integral part of our cultural and historical heritage”.
Alexander Susha, deputy director for scientific work and publishing activity of the National Library of Belarus and editor-in-chief of the facsimile edition, noted that the book featured all the peculiarities of the original and contained commentaries of historians and bibliographers in Belarusian, Russian and English languages, so that all the world community would have an opportunity to get acquainted with the spiritual treasures of Belarus.
Piotr Lysienko, senior researcher of the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of Belarus and author of scientific papers on the history of the Turov region told that the Turov Gospel had been written in the same font as the Ostromir Gospel, the most ancient manuscript of the middle 11th century created in Russia. This fact testifies that these manuscripts were created simultaneously, and the culture both in Russia and Belarus was on a very high level.
Priest Aleksey Hoteev, member of the Belarusian Orthodox Church editorial board, on behalf of Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus, Mitropolit of Minsk and Slutsk Pavel gave a blessing and salutatory word to all the guests and said that the preservation of spiritual heritage – the Turov Gospel re-edition – was a great event for the people of Belarus.
The facsimile reproduction of this monument of the Slavic written language is published in an edition of 500 copies with the use of up-to-date technologies. The copies are to be transferred to Belarusian and foreign scientific, cultural and educational institutions.
The Turov Gospel re-edition is part of the long-term project of Xerox Company and the National Library of Belarus on reconstruction of Belarusian monuments of written language and their presentation to wide public. Within the framework of this project the Vilna ABC-Book (1767), the earliest Belarusian primer, was published in 2012. It is expected that such projects will be carried out, and facsimile copies of other unique monuments of book culture will be reprinted in future.
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