Triod postnaya LM-50
Author: N / A
Title: Triod postnaya.
Title in English: Lenten Triodion.
Published: Vilno: Mamonichi, [1609].
Format: 440 ll. In-folio.
Binding: bound in beautiful XVIIIth-century embossed full calf. Two original brass clasps both in good condition.
Mamonichi’s typography was one of the first private presses in Western Russia. It was established in 1574 by Pyotr Mstislavets who had previously printed the first book to be produced in Moscow with Ivan Fedorov. The book is a fine example of the Catholic conquest of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Only a century before this book was printed – at the start of the XVIth century – the main religion in the region was Orthodox Christianity and the main language was Russian and local Russian dialects. But in the middle of the XVIth century the Grand Duchy signed an agreement with Poland to create a unified state (Rzeczpospolita). After that the influence of the Catholic Church gathered in Lithuania and its capital, Vilno, in particular. The first university in the country was founded by Jesuits in 1579. As the Polish had developed much more advanced methods of printing, their numerous printers started to produce liturgical and polemical books to convert the local population – first the nobility and then the poor. Yet, initially, few voices were raised in Lithuania in support of Orthodox Christianity. The answer was to print polemics and several Orthodox books - a contrast to Catholic conquest. The most successful typographers in this field were the Mamonichi brothers. They printed around 85 books in Russian, Greek and Polish. At that time (1609) there was no market in Lithuania for Orthodox liturgical books so they were mostly sold to the Russian state. That is how some (though only a few) survived. Subsequent attempts to print liturgical non-Catholic books were made at the end of the XVIIIth century when Old Believers (starovery) were allowed to print several books in Vilno which was a part of Poland at that time.Golenchenko. 69. The book came out without any printer’s imprint but detailed research suggests that it is linked with Triod Tsvetnaya which came out the same year in the same typography and shares similar printing materials.
The liturgical Orthodox hymnal for celebrations with varying dates, The Triad of the Fast, was published in 1609 in Vilnius, in the Mamoničiai printing house. It was the second printing house in Vilnius (after Pranciškus Skorina’s), and operated in 1574-1624. In 1586, the printing house was granted the privilege to print works on religion and law in ecclesiastical Slavic, Greek, and Russian by the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Stephen Báthory.
Reference: "The Collection of Lawyer Jaunius Gumbis: the Past Preserved in Books". Museum and Collector - 7. Vilnius: National Museum of Lithuania, 2018, p. 107.
Published: "The Collection of Lawyer Jaunius Gumbis: the Past Preserved in Books". Museum and Collector - 7. Vilnius: National Museum of Lithuania, 2018, p. 106-109.
Exhibitions: "The Collection of Lawyer
Jaunius Gumbis: the Past Preserved in Books", September 3, 2018 – October
21, 2018.