The Reims Gospel: a Ukrainian Book Monument of the Eleventh Century: the Story of Its Return to Ukraine

Printed editions created on the territory of Ukraine at the time of the introduction of printing have become unique cultural monuments of national importance in Ukraine and other countries where they are part of statehood history. The extraordinary significance of these book editions for the formation of Ukrainian identity today is a powerful incentive to find various ways to return them to social and cultural space of modern Ukraine. The study of the experience gained by statesmen, scholars, museum workers, and philanthropists from 2017 to 2019 in creating a facsimile copy of the Reims Gospel and preparing a two-volume edition for publication, which, along with the said copy, contains fundamental scientific research on the study of the eleventh-century book heritage, is urgent, given the importance of its involvement in the return to Ukraine of early printed books stored abroad. Such books are of great importance to the formation of Ukrainian identity in the context of russia’s total aggression, including cultural. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the belonging of the Reims Gospel, an 11th-century monument, to the book monuments of Ukraine, using the example of the publication of its facsimile copy and describing the experience of creating facsimile editions of Ukrainian early printed books stored outside Ukraine, as an effective way to return these books to the cultural space of Ukraine. The research methodology was formed by general scientific methods of observation, analysis, and synthesis involving hermeneutic and biographical methods elements. It was found that the complete facsimile edition of the Reims Gospel, published in 2019, was one of the eight books of the period between the 10th and 14th centuries (together with Codex Hankensteinianus, the Lavrishiv Gospel, the Lutsk Gospel, the Lutsk Psalter, the Kholm Gospel, the Reims Gospel, and the Gertrude Psalter), that were returned to Ukraine in the form of facsimile editions within the "Returning Cultural Heritage to Ukraine" project, launched by the Gorobets Publishing House in cooperation with Ukrainian Cultural Foundation. Making facsimile copies of Ukrainian early printed books available for study fosters the emergence of fundamental scientific research, inspires public discussion on their history, and helps to overcome artificially created and long imposed stereotypes of russian-soviet historiography aimed at taking over Ukrainian spirituality.