Lviv Dormition Brotherhood Press

Lviv Dormition Brotherhood Press. A press founded by the Lviv Dormition Brotherhood in 1586. With a printing press and other equipment used by Ivan Fedorovych (Fedorov), it printed liturgical books, primers, poetry, dramas, and theological, educational, and polemical literature. Its oldest extant publications date from 1591: the 1589 charter of Patriarch Jeremiah II granting the brotherhood the right of stauropegion, a booklet of verses in honor of Metropolitan Mykhailo Rahoza titled Prosphonima , and the grammar Adelphotes. From 1591 to 1722 the press issued 140 books with a total run of some 160,000 copies. They were distributed throughout Polish-ruled Ukraine and Belarus, and even in Wallachia, Moldavia, Serbia, and Bulgaria. They were not, however, permitted to be sold in Russian-ruled Ukraine until 1707. Among the authors published were Pamva Berynda, Andrii Skulsky, Ioanykii Volkovych, Sylvestr Kosiv, Arsenii Zhelyborsky, and Mykhail Kozachynsky. The press's directors and master printers included the monk Myna, P. Kulchych, P. Berynda, Y. Kyrylovych, Mykhailo Slozka, A. Skulsky, I. Kunotovych, D. Kulchytsky, S. Polovetsky, Semen Stavnytsky, Vasyl Stavnytsky, D. Pyniavsky, I. Hrozevsky, and Ya. Paslavsky. The press played an important role in the intellectual life of Ukraine and the defense of the Orthodox church. In 1788 the Lviv brotherhood and its press were succeeded by the Stauropegion Institute.