Ukrainian Descriptive Poetry in Cyrillic Editions of 17-18th Century from the Funds of Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine

In the article poetry, which accompanies book engraving, found in copies of Cyrillic old-printed editions from funds of Vernadsky National library of Ukraine (VNLU), is revised. Such texts belong to the genre of «descriptive poetry», which was widely spread in the literature of Ukrainian Baroque. The aim of our research is to re-actualize unstudied Ukrainian descriptive poetry texts, preserved in VNLU. The analysis ofexisting bibliographic data evidences that funds of VNLU hold the majority of this genre samples. The 95 titles of descriptive poetry from VNLU funds were classified according to the addressee and presented in Addition 1 to this article. Collected material enables to study specific features and history of Ukrainian descriptive poetry. Its topical diversity is connected with the function of enhancement the artistic effect ofbook illustration. Being verbal addition to artistic image of book engraving, descriptive poetry is placed mainly on the backside of the title leaf, before the main text or the structural part of the edition. Such poetical texts glorify images of the author, prayer addressee or the central image of the book. According to its main addressee, descriptive poetry may be divided in four thematic groups: poems dedicated to 1) the Trinity; 2) Angels; 3) Virgin Mary; 4) Saints. First samples of the genre are fixed in editions of the first part of 17th century. Descriptive poetry was frequently used in liturgical editions of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra printing-house in last decades of 17th - first quarter of 18th century. Poetical texts, created at this time, were found also in Lviv and Pochaiv editions on 18th century. At the same time, Pochaiv liturgical editions of the second part of 18th century are decorated with the cycles of original descriptive verses that were not detected in previous editions. The texts from VNLU copies are valuable source for Ukrainian book poetry of 17-18th centuries anthology compilation.