500 Years of Belarusian Book Printing

Book Heritage of Francysk Skaryna donated to Russian libraries, museums

MOSCOW, 22 September (BelTA) – The facsimile edition Book Heritage of Francysk Skaryna has been donated to major Russian libraries, museums and archives. The ceremony took place during the event dedicated to the 500th anniversary of Belarusian book printing at the Embassy of Belarus in Russia, BelTA learned from the pres service of the diplomatic mission.

Director of Belarus’ National Library Roman Motulsky gave the unique books to the heads of Russian Academy of Sciences, State Historical Museum, Russian State Library, Scientific Library of Lomonosov Moscow State University, M.I. Rudomino All-Russian State Library for Foreign Literature, Russian State Public Historical Library, Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts and other institutions.

According to Roman Motulsky, the international scientific and publishing project Book Heritage of Francysk Skaryna was launched in 2013. "Our goal was to collect the surviving heritage of Skaryna from all over the world," he said. "the fate of his publications was different. Some of them survived and some did not. That is why there are very few books and some of them have only some pages. We decided to restore them and bring them into one collection," Roman Motulsky said.

A sample of the facsimile edition was also donated to the Embassy of Belarus in Russia. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Russia Igor Petrishenko noted that every nation has the names it is proud of. The books published by Francysk Skaryna are the national heritage, and the personality of the educator is one of the Belarusian symbols. "The importance of his works in the history of spiritual culture of Belarus, Russia, Lithuania, Ukraine and some other countries, his educational and publishing activities made Belarus one of the most developed European countries and a part of intellectual and spiritual heritage of the world civilization," Ambassador Igor Petrishenko said.

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