HMML Global Operations: Ukraine

Ukraine


  • Region

    Europe
  • Country

    Ukraine
  • Cities

    L’viv
  • Repositories

    Vasili Stefanyk National Library, L’viv Historical Museum, and Andrei Sheptytsky National Museum
  • Languages

    Ukranian, Polish, Church Slavonic, Latin, Arabic, and Aramaic
  • Project Dates

    2008–2022

The western Ukrainian city of L’viv is a living palimpsest, having been built in an Austrian style during Austro-Hungarian rule, incorporated into the new state of Poland after World War I, occupied during the Nazi conquest of Poland, and then placed within the Soviet Republic of Ukraine. Now an entirely Ukrainian city, traces of L’viv’s former Polish, Jewish, and Armenian communities remain. HMML has worked with major libraries of L’viv containing thousands of Church Slavonic and Latin manuscripts brought together during the Soviet period. These include the Vasili Stefanyk National Library, the L’viv Historical Museum, and a project at the Andrei Sheptytsky National Museum. More recently HMML has digitized historic manuscript collections in the western Ukrainian cities of Ostroh and Lutsk.


St. George's Cathedral, L'viv
St. George's Cathedral, L'viv
Miniature prayer book in Church Slavonic, L’viv Historical Museum (<a href='https://w3id.org/vhmml/readingRoom/view/146740'>LHMU 135</a>)
Miniature prayer book in Church Slavonic, L’viv Historical Museum (LHMU 135)
16th-c. Gospel book, L’viv Historical Museum (<a href='https://w3id.org/vhmml/readingRoom/view/146632'>LHMU 156</a>)
16th-c. Gospel book, L’viv Historical Museum (LHMU 156)
View of town square area of L'viv from bell tower observation platform at city hall

View of town square area of L'viv from bell tower observation platform at city hall

Andrei Sheptytsky National Museum, L’viv. Photo by <a href='https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Wereskowa'>Wereskowa</a> on <a href='https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D0%9B%D1%8C%D0%B2%D1%96%D0%B2_%D0%A1%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B8_20.jpg'>Wikimedia Commons</a>, (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Andrei Sheptytsky National Museum, L’viv. Photo by Wereskowa on Wikimedia Commons, (CC BY-SA 4.0)
16th-c. Gospel book (Євангеліє Тетр) in Slavonic, Vasili Stefanyk National Library (<a href='https://w3id.org/vhmml/readingRoom/view/150478'>STEF 4</a>)
16th-c. Gospel book (Євангеліє Тетр) in Slavonic, Vasili Stefanyk National Library (STEF 4)
Phil Steger, HMML Deputy Director of Manuscript Preservation (2007–2009), examining frescos in L'viv's 14th century Armenian Cathedral
Phil Steger, HMML Deputy Director of Manuscript Preservation (2007–2009), examining frescos in L'viv's 14th century Armenian Cathedral

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