Manuscript

A manuscript is a text written by hand, as well as a handwritten book or document of the era that preceded printing or existed apart from it. Manuscripts are the principal source of early literature: before the invention of printing, texts were copied by hand on parchment or paper, so each manuscript is unique. Manuscripts are studied by paleography, codicology, and textology. The oldest dated East Slavic manuscripts are the Ostromir Gospel (1056–1057, copied by the deacon Hryhorii) and the Izborniks of Sviatoslav of 1073 and 1076. An outstanding monument of Ukrainian manuscript art is the Peresopnytsia Gospel (1556–1561), one of the first translations of the Gospel into the Ukrainian vernacular of the time, on which the presidents of Ukraine now take the oath. The manuscript heritage of Kyivan Rus' was studied by Ivan Franko, Volodymyr Peretz, and Yaroslav Isaievych. The term 'manuscript' is also used for the authorial original of a new work before its publication.