On 2 April 2025, a solemn presentation of the facsimile-type edition of the Dubno Gospel was held at the Metropolitan’s House of the National reserve “Sophia of Kyiv”. The presentation was led by Nelia Kukovalska, Director General of the National reserve “Sophia of Kyiv”, and Leonid Kichaty, Director of the State historical and cultural reserve of Dubno. The presentation was attended by state and church figures, people involved in the publication process, benefactors and other guests. The “Academic Initiative” Foundation became one of the benefactors of the Gospel edition, what is specially mentioned in the text of the book.
The Dubno Gospel originated as a calligraphic rewrite of the liturgical Gospel in the Church slavonic language. It was created by hieromonk Arsenii, who copied the text for 27 years (from 1539 to 1566) in the Dubno Holy Cross Monastery. It is noteworthy that at the same time in Volyn was createn the Peresopnytsia Gospel (1556-1561), which makes it appropriate to compare the texts of these two manuscripts.
The next historical step after the rewriting of books was book printing. In particular, the Ostroh Bible, the first printed book containing the full text of the Bible, was printed with the blessing of the monk Job Zalizo (the future abbot of the Pochayiv monastery) by Prince Konstantyn Vasyl Ostrogski in 1580-81. It is likely that Job Zalizo personally used the Dubno Gospel during the liturgy, as he was hegumen at the Dubno Monastery of the Holy Cross from 1584 to 1604, after which he moved to the Pochaiv Mount.
The Dubno Gospel was published by the Horobets Publishing House, headed by Hanna Horobets, as part of the project “Returning the Cultural Heritage to Ukraine”. This project has existed since 2009 and aims to return in the form of facsimile copies ancient Ukrainian manuscripts created in Rus-Ukraine and scattered around the world.
