The image of a woman as an owner and a donator of a Cyrillic book in Ukrainein the 18th ct. (according to marginalia)

Abstract

According to the marginalia on copies of Pochaiv Cyrillic old-printed books from the fonds of V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, the cases were found when the owners or donators of books were women. It was found out that a woman in the XVIII ct. was not only a book co-owner along with her husband and other family members, but also an individual donator of a book to the temple, besides a woman as an active participant in the life of a church community could be involved in the collective purchase of books to a local church. The testimony of the re-binding of a book that was in the church property at the cost of the parishioner was also discovered. Though most of the records notify about the donation of books to temples, monasteries, there are also records about the donation of books to private persons. In general, there are a lot more donators of books than direct owners among the women names in the records. The cases, when the marginalia is localized, show that women donating the analyzed copies were peasants and, to a lesser extent, burghers. Women owning Pochaiv Cyrillic old-printed books were mostly nuns, but also representatives of priestly families.