Old Printed Book

An old printed book (starodruk) is a printed book of the early period of printing; in Ukrainian and Eastern European bibliology, editions up to roughly the end of the 18th century (the year 1800 is often taken as the boundary) are traditionally classed as old prints. Old prints combine the features of the printed and the manuscript book: engraved illustrations, initials, headpieces, cinnabar highlights, and colophon-afterwords. They are valuable monuments of history, language, book art, and printing. The centers of Ukrainian old-print production were the printing houses of the Lviv Brotherhood, of Ostroh, and especially the printing house of the Kyiv Caves Lavra, founded by Archimandrite Yelysei Pletenetsky (its first edition being the 'Chasoslov' of 1616), which issued such masterpieces as the 'Kyiv Caves Paterikon' (1661) and illustrated liturgical books. The description and systematization of Ukrainian old prints was carried out by Ivan Ohiienko in 'The History of Ukrainian Printing' (1925). Old prints are kept in the rare-book departments of national libraries.