Рукописна та книжкова спадщина України (Jan 2024)
Many-faced Stefan Javorski: Kyiv intentions and book gifts against background of paradigm of life
Abstract
The aim of the paper is to study the Kyiv topics in the life and work of Metropolitan Stefan Javorski, to show the multilayered nature of his texts, the diversity of his personality in publicand personal dimensions, to consider the essence of his significant book gift to St Cyril's Monastery and several books gifted to the Kyiv Cave Monastery as an intellectual and spiritual gesture with possible connotations. The methodology is based on modern developments in "intellectual history", "history of everyday life", sociology and anthropology of books, which allow us to show the diversity of a person and a thinker and its manifestations in texts andbook gifts, to reveal the Kyiv intentions of Stefan Javorski. Robert Darnton’s method of "the life of books" through the prism of the author’s/donor’s attitude to them and the physical functioning of these books allows us to reveal Stefan Javorski’s gestural system through the books he donated to Kyiv monasteries. Novelty. The study introduces into scientific circulation the discovered corpus of Minor Books donated by Stefan Javorski to the Kyiv St. Cyril’s Monastery of the Holy Trinity and two books donated to the Kyiv Cave Monastery. The authoranalyses the meaning of these donations, the possible intentions of the donor both in relation to specific books and to the named monasteries and their figures. Conclusions. Stefan Javorski manifested himself in different ways in public and private life and communication. He was a rather cautious person, so he only occasionally demonstrated the "real" him not only in public but also on a private level, especially in his writing. Therefore, his book gifts are one of the possible "keys" to decoding the many faces of Stefan Javorski at a particular time, in fact, at the very moment of the book gift. Javorski spent almost all of his time outside of Kyiv (1700-1722) striving to return there, and his Kyiv intentions were equivalent to those of Nizhyn. The study of his specific book gifts that survived is another touch to characterise the multifaceted personality of Stefan Javorski, which requires new in-depth studies.
