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Feb 26 23 tweets 7 min read
The Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Національна бібліотека України імені В.І. Вернадського) was established in Kyiv in 1918, and is now ranked as one of the world's top 20 largest national libraries.

This is its story. 1/
The library was established on 2 August 1918 by Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi as the 'National Library of the Ukrainian State' (Natsionalna biblioteka Ukrayinskoyi Derzhavy). The first head of the 'Provisional Committee on Creation of the National Library' was Vladimir Vernadsky. 2/
The library was originally located in temporary housing - the St. Princess Olga Gymnasium - until 1919. 3/
From 1919 to 1930 it was located, still on a temporary basis, in the Pavlo Galagan Gymnasium. 4/
Finally, in 1930, the library moved into purpose built premises near Kyiv University, in the city's center. It was to remain here until 1989. 5/
The first official director of the National Library was Stepan Pylypovych Posternak, appointed in 1922. In 1929 he was arrested and accused of involvement in the Union for the Liberation of Ukraine, and the Brotherhood of Ukrainian Statehood. He was released in May 1930. 6/
On December 30, 1937, Viktor Fyodorovich Ivanytsky was arrested for a second time, and accused of carrying out "anti-Soviet activities". On December 31, the NKVD troika of the Ukrainian SSR handed down a sentence to shoot immediately.

He was shot on January 19, 1938. 7/
The collection of the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine contains more than 15 million items. These include large collections of manuscripts, rare printed books and incunabula. The library has the most complete collection of Slavic writing in Ukraine. 8/
The Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine is the world’s foremost repository of Jewish folk music recorded on Edison wax cylinders. Many of these were field recordings made during the Soviet or pre-Soviet era by ethnologists such as Susman Kiselgof or Moisei Beregovsky. /9
The library's collection of Jewish Musical Folklore (1912-1947) was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2005. 10/
The oldest item in the library is Papyrus 7 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), or ε 11 (von Soden), designated by 𝔓7, an early copy of the Gospel of Luke 4:1-2 in Greek, which may date to as early as the 3rd century. 11/
As a depository library, the Library annually receives 160,000 to 180,000 documents (books, magazines, newspapers, etc.). Holdings include all Ukrainian publications and copies of all Ukrainian candidate and doctoral theses. 12/
Formost amongst the treasures of the Library is the priceless Peresopnytske Gospels, written between 1556 and 1561, and covered in some detail in this thread here:
Almost equally important are the Orsha Gospels. This book, which dates to the 13th century, is one of the oldest to use Cyrillic script. The book was thrown away by a monastery in Orsha. It was found by Napoleon's troops in 1812 and now resides in the Library's collection. 14/
The Orsha Gospels [Ukrainian: Оршанське Євангеліє] has superb colored illuminations of Saint Luke and Saint Matthew, in the Palaeologian dynasty style, together with over 300 illustrations of flowers and animals. The codex consists of the Gospels and a menologion. 15/
Ivan Kotliarevsky's epic poem version of Virgil's Aeneid, is the first piece of literature written in modern Ukrainian. It was also the first book to discuss the culture and history of Ukraine. The library holds five first edition copies. 16/
The Library holds the only holographic manuscript to survive in the hand of arguably the most famous of all Ukrainian composers, Artemiĭ Vedel (1767-1808). It consists of 6 parts of the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, 12 choral pieces and a composition for trio with choir. 17/
The Vernadsky National Library has, since 1989, been housed in this purpose-built building in central Kyiv. Constructed between 1975 and 1989, it has 27 floors and an area of 35,700 m². 18/
A wide-angled shot of the Vernadsky National Library, today one of Kyiv’s most prominent modernist buildings. 19/
This is the Vernadsky Library's famous "Green" reading room. Especially popular with the public since inception, it's also been the venue for several music videos and television adverts. 20/
The library normally receives around 260,000 visitors a year, with up to 2,000 people a day using its reading rooms. Its website and online catalogue receive 90,000 visits a day, with an average of 20,000 downloads. 21/
This thread is indebted to an excellent piece in the Kiev Post, the premier English language Ukrainian news source. Their Twitter account is @KyivPost, and is well worth following for continually updated news on the situation in Kyiv & Ukraine.
kyivpost.com/lifestyle/the-…
Just seen this bad typo, my apologies: It was Stepan Pylypovych Posternak Постернак Степан Пилипович of course who was arrested for a second time in 1937 and executed. Viktor Fyodorovich Ivanytsky acted as director of the library after his initial arrest.

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More from @incunabula

Feb 25
All six Ukrainian Presidents since 1991, including Volodymyr Zelensky, have taken the oath of office on this book: the 16th century Peresopnytsia Gospels [Ukrainian: Пересопницьке Євангеліє], one of the most remarkably illuminated of all surviving East Slavic manuscripts. 1/ Image
The Peresopnytsia Gospels were written between 15 August 1556 and 29 August 1561, at the Monastery of the Holy Trinity in Iziaslav, and the Monastery of the Mother of God in Peresopnytsia, Volyn'. The scribe was Mykhailo Vasyl’ovych, son of an archpriest from Sianik. 2/ Image
The Peresopnytsia Gospels are held in the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, in Kyiv. Its collection holds more than 15 million items, making it the 20th-largest library in the world. 3/ Image
Read 26 tweets
Feb 24
"A Magnum Opus Beyond Measure: Yongle's Encyclopaedia Enigma". This is the catalogue of an exhibition held at the National Library of China in Beijing in 2018 and then at the Shenzhen Nanshan Museum in early 2020. 1/ ImageImage
The catalogue explores the history of the production of the two versions of this Chinese cultural icon, the Yongle Dadian (Yongle Encyclopaedia), under the Yongle and Jiajing emperors of the Ming dynasty. 2/ Image
It allso includes many associated rare printed and manuscript works related to the Encyclopaedia, and tells the story of the ongoing efforts by China to reclaim the scattered extant fascicles following the destruction by fire of the Hanlin Library in 1900. 3/ Image
Read 4 tweets
Dec 29, 2021
A large and luxurious finely-bound 18th century Qur’an, written in black and red in very fine naskhi in an austere, entirely undecorated style, described by Maggs in 1939 as "in the style peculiar to the islands of the Indian Ocean." Possibly originating from the Maldives. 1/
The binding is 18th century red Morocco with a fore-edge flap, very elaborately gilt-tooled with floral designs. The design shows some non-Islamic influences, and may have been executed in a workshop in southern India, possibly one attached to a mission press. 2/
It's a massive tome, 650 folios, on good quality burnished unwatermarked paper, almost certainly of Indian manufacture. The essentially complete absence of any decoration throughout is unusual and very striking. 3/
Read 12 tweets
Dec 27, 2021
Kyffin: A Celebration - Gwasg Gregynog, 2007.
Bound by Stuart Brockman in 2007 in translucent vellum over an original watercolour painting and tooled with chimney smoke in palladium, punctuated with gilt diamond shaped tooling; deep blue and silver patterned endpapers. 1/ Image
A tribute to Kyffin Williams's art with a striking image of a Welsh village stretching across both boards.
Brockman has here brought the "vellucent" technique of translucent vellum over painted boards - first developed by Chivers of Bath around 1903 - into the 21st century. 2/ ImageImageImage
The Bath bookbinder Cedric Chivers first patented his "vellucent" method of art-bookbinding in 1898. An artist would paint on a thin surface medium; then a sheet of vellum, shaved to translucent thinness, was laid over it, giving the underlying painting a luminous warmth. 3/ Image
Read 5 tweets
Dec 4, 2021
An unusual Somali Qur’an section, copied in a script quite distinct from the majuscule Arabic scripts used either along the Swahili coast or in West Africa, carefully but austerely written by an unnamed holy man in the town of Afgoi in the late 19th or early 20th century. 1/
The text is presented as a continuous block, 10 lines of thick majuscule per page, intended for a reader familiar enough with the Qur’an that it foregoes division markers of any kind - there are no marginal division markers, surah headings, or verse markers. 2/
There's a half-page of Arabic prayers on f.1r and two Italian inscriptions at the end: the first records that this Qur’an section was copied by a holy man in the town of Afgoi in Nov. 1911; the second is a presentation inscription from Dr. Carlo Bottari, dated 17 August 1912. 3/
Read 4 tweets

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