Cross-cultural Contacts between the Serbs Lived in the Former Hungarian Kingdom and West-Ukrainian Territories - As Reflected in the Import of the Liturgical Books

It is a false concept that the ideas of the Enlightenment and national awakening were transferred to the Slavic peoples of the Habsburg Empire solely by the Viennese artists and scientists whose activity was prompted and supported by the royal court itself in the 18th century. Th is statement is partially true, but not entirely. Vienna was one route of the transmission of Western European cultural and political infl uences, but its role should not to be overvalued in the examination of cultural relations between Slavic peoples and the Habsburg Empire. Th e Krypiakevich Institute of Ukrainian Studies in Lviv has carried out several signifi cant researches in the last decades. Iaroslav Dmitrovich Isaievich has led the institute for fourteen years, he is also a member of the Academy of Sciences and his fi ndings on the topic are of primary importance. His work on the history of typography and book trade made it inevitable to reconsider the contacts of the Western territories of the present-day Ukraine with the Slavic peoples of the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom. Th e author of this paper, who is an expert of the old printed liturgical books of the Byzantine rite, has also come to the conclusion that book trade played a crucial part in the transmission of the Enlightenment. Apparently, the new ideas spread from Poland across Ukraine to the Serbs who lived in Hungary and on the Balkans. Serbian Ortodox Church as a determining factor in the national awakening was not taken into consideration either. As far as Ortodoxy is concerned, it is essential to make a distinction between the Greek and Serb churches and between the Russian and Balkan Ortodoxy as well. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to describe the contacts between the Serbs and the Ukrainian territories, to present the book trade between these peoples and areas, and to give a new insight into the ecclesiastical and national relations on the Balkans. Keywords: Serbian culture, liturgical book handling, Ortodoxie, early modern period, Western Ukrian