Cyrillic books in the libraries of the basilians monasteries of the Lviv eparchy in the 18 Century

Stypendium Muzeum Historii PolskiThe paper studies importance of the old Cyrillic books in the basilian monastery libraries in the 18 century. Comprehensive analyzing of the Cyrillic books in the libraries of Krekhiv, Vicyn and Zolochiv monasteries represent this topic. It is made the content studying of the library except “church” (liturgical) books, because the last ones were Church Slavonic in the uniate and the orthodox monasteries as well. Inventory descriptions of the monasteries are the main sources for this research. In general, as big as small basilian monasteries libraries in the 18 century mostly consisted of the Latin and Polish books, but also there were Cyrillic books. In the Krekhiv monastery Church Fathers treatises were mostly Cyrillic. For instance there were the works of St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil the Great, Dorotheus of Gaza, Gregory the Theologian and others. Also some monasteries had a few Cyrillic hagiographic (compendiums of lives of the Saints) and homiletic (collections of sermons) books. Often Cyrillic books of the basilian monastery libraries were written by Orthodox authors, for example Krekhiv monastery had a collection of books by intellectuals from Kyiv-Mohyla College (Academy)