New edition of the Reims Gospel published

The St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv hosted the presentation of a new edition of a unique relic, the Reims Gospel. The book was presented by the Encyclopedia of Ukraine Foundation (based in Toronto, Canada), which is sponsoring the project, and MS publishing house (Lviv, Ukraine), reports Ukrinform. Nelia Kukovalska, director of the National Sanctuary St. Sophia of Kyiv, called it “a European-scale project.” “This is a remarkable event for us because it is the oldest Ukrainian book; probably, the Reims Gospel-Menologium of Anna Yaroslavna even originated here, in the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, where the Grand Prince of Kyiv Yaroslav the Wise established our first library,” she said, specifying that the St. Sophia and the Gospel were both created in the 11th century. Kukovalska reminded that the original Gospel came to France with Anna, the daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, and is kept in the municipal library in the city of Reims, the ancient coronation capital of French kings. It is believed that when marrying King Henry I Capet in the year 1048-49, Anna swore her royal oath on this book. The initiator of this new edition of the Reims Gospel, the president of the Encyclopedia of Ukraine Foundation Oleh Ivanusiv, noted that this scholarly publication contains much information on the Reims Gospel. It reproduces 32 pages (all those that survived) as they are now, and, in parallel, the same pages reconstructed using computer technology. A fantastic research job was done by the publication’s compiler and author of the introduction, Doctor of Science in History Volodymyr Aleksandrovych. The text is in Ukrainian, English and French. The director of MS publishing house Zinovii Matchak noted that the book was published in a thousand copies, of which the first hundred were a premium version, with natural velvet covers. He said the book will not be sold as it is not a commercial project, but will be distributed to academic institutions and libraries.