Typology of book fasteners on Ukrainian Cyrillic monuments of 14th - 18th centuries

Abstract

The aim of the work. To study the types of fasteners on Ukrainian frames of the14th - 18th centuries and determine the most typical for the specified period. The research methodology involves the use of statistical, comparative and empirical methods. Their complex use makes it possible to establish the time and place of distribution of various types of fasteners both for an individual monument and forthe entire assembly. Scientific novelty. An analysis of existing publications devoted to the study of medieval book fasteners was carried out. An attempt was made tounify the terminology used in their description. For the first time, a detailed visual, technical-constructive and iconographic study of fasteners of 14th - 18th centurieswas carried out, the most distributed types and chronological limits of their usewere determined. Conclusions. The study made it possible to determine the main constructive types of book fasteners characteristic of Ukrainian Bookbinding of the Middle Ages and Early Modern period. The limits of their use are clearly related to the constructive types of bookbinding that were widespread in Ukrainian lands indifferent historical periods. In particular, it was possible to single out the types of clasps characteristic of Ukrainian bookbinding of the Kyiv and Galicia regions. From the middle of the 16th century the dissemination of book printing on the territory of Ukraine contributed to the introduction of the Gothic type of bookbinding. Along with it, there is a spread of fastenings on the catch plate, which become dominant, but do not completely supplant fastenings on the pegs. The longest tradition of using Byzantine-type bookbinding and clasps lasted in Galicia until the end of the 17thcentury. This is due both to the dominant positions of the Orthodox Church in this region, and to the absence of printing houses on the territory of the Przemyśl Diocese and their relatively small number in the Lviv Diocese. The search for optimal means of improving fastenings contributed to the emergence of new subtypes within the existing ones. Their detection requires further expansion of research boundaries. This will make it possible to determine the typical features characteristic of fastenings in other regions of Ukraine and clarify the chronological and regional boundaries of their appearance and distribution. The study highlighted a number of additional issues related to the production and distribution of certain types and subtypes of fastenings, which opens new directions for their further study.

Keywords

• typology of book fasteners, eye-and-pin-clasp, hook-clasp, solidmetal сlaps, peg, catch plate, catch plate with pin, tri-plaited strap, anchor plate,strap-end.