About Us
For 35 years, more than ten manuscripts have been created in the Khrapai Yury Manuscript Workshop, dozens of handwritten texts have been written. Authentic texts and copies of the pearls of the handwritten books of Old Rus' are recreated in them with the care of researchers and the love of masters. We see our task in the revival of the lost art of the handwritten book, as well as the preservation and development of its traditions.
It is believed that during the existence of the Ancient Kievan state, tens of thousands of manuscripts were created.
However, only a very small part of the manuscript heritage has come down to us. Most of the surviving ancient Ukrainian manuscripts are in foreign book depositories. They are inaccessible, and often unavailable to researchers.
Khrapai Yuriy's manuscript workshop strives to make the pearls of handwritten books more accessible to all fans of the history and book art of Rus'-Ukraine
We preserve the handwritten heritage of ancestors
For 35 years we have created more than ten manuscripts. They reproduced the ancient texts of the Rus'kaya Pravda, the Word about the Law and Grace of Hilarion of Kyiv, the Tale of Igor's campaign, the Tale of the life and exploits of knyaz Mikhail of Chernigov, and other outstanding manuscripts of antiquity
We also reproduced more than a hundred exact copies of individual sheets of famous manuscripts of the 11th-16th centuries, such as the Kyiv Psalter, the Lutsk Gospel, the Peresopnytsia Gospel. In them, with the zeal of researchers and the love of masters, sheets of ancient Ukrainian and Western European manuscripts of special artistic and historical value are reproduced.
Reviving handwritten traditions of antiquity
No less important is the mission of our project - the revival of the lost art of the handwritten book, as well as the preservation and development of its traditions.
Our manuscripts are written with a goose or iron pen on natural or vegetable parchment, handmade paper and birch bark. We try to carefully preserve and convey the handwriting of the old masters, the spelling of ancient texts, the authenticity of headpieces and miniatures. In this case, medieval manners of writing and ancient techniques and materials are used.
Having started our project back in 1986, over the 35 years of its promotion we have gained considerable experience, and also strengthened our desire to continue to please those who are not indifferent to the reproduced pearls of the manuscript heritage - sources of knowledge, spirituality and culture of Ukraine and Ukraine
We issue facsimile editions
A separate area of our activity is the preparation and production of facsimile editions, in which the handwritten texts of antiquity revived by us are reproduced, their translations and explanatory materials are given.
Each copy of these facsimile editions is signed by the author of the handwritten reconstruction and is unique due to differences in the color of the leather of the binding, decorative elements, endpapers, and book block materials. Microcirculation makes them a worthy decoration of a private collection or a museum collection.
We hold exhibitions
We attach great importance to the visualization of the national manuscript heritage
Powerful visual images and the opportunity to see the reproduced manuscripts with your own eyes gives immeasurably more impressions and spiritual uplift from touching the handwritten heritage of our ancestors.
To do this, we regularly hold exhibitions in Ukraine and abroad.
The exhibitions of the manuscripts recreated by us in St. Sophia of Kyiv, museums of the Kyiv Lavra and other sacred places had a great public resonance and success.
