The Phenomenon of Greek Religious Engraving: The Place of the Prints from the Collection of the Moscow Theological Academy Museum in the History of the Greekworld Engravings

Abstract

The article is devoted to the phenomenon of Greek religious engravings. There are an easel engraving with images of saints and views of monasteries, which distributed among pilgrims to promote Christian monasteries of the Orthodox Church of the East. When and why were they become used? A lot of Orthodox monasteries became poor after occupation by Ottoman Empire. Moreover, The Mount Athos had not been known in Europe until sixteenth century. The monks of the Saint Catherine’s Monastery found that the views of the Monastery mast be interesting for pilgrims and contributed to fame of their monastery. First woodcuts printed in a large number in Leo police in the middle of the 17th century. It was a great success. The monks exchanged this engraving on charity. And the Athos’s monks followed the example of Sinai’s monks. The first engravings for The Mount Athos were printed in Europe, in such cities as Vienna, and Venice. From the end of the 18th century metal plates engraved on the Mount Athos and in the 19th century the printing of engravings was amazingly extended. The most part of engravings from the collection of Moscow Theological Academy Museum printed in the middle of the 19th century in The Mount Athos. Also, this collection has some unique prints, such as the Burning Bush. This article shows the importance of the Greek engravings for the orthodox world such the instrument for advertising the most holy places for pilgrims. This etching made a great influence on our imagination nowadays about this holly places.