Books in the Harvard Lib of Early Ukrainian Literature English Tran (HUP) series

Ilarion, Klim Smoljatic, and Kirill of Turov are remarkable for their personal and literary achievements. Franklin prefaces their work with a substantial introduction that places each of the authors in historical context and examines the literary qualities, as well as the textual complexities, of these outstanding examples of Rus' literature.

Among the finest products of early Ukrainian literature were the Lives of the first Rus' saints. Hollingsworth provides a lucid introduction that discusses each saint and his or her cult in the historical as well as social contexts and examines the literary and textual features of the Rus' vitae.

A prominent religious figure, Meletij Smotryc'kyj was caught up in the struggle between Orthodox and Uniate beliefs. His polemics served as the cornerstone of the Orthodox response to the Polish-Lithuanian Reformation and Counter-Reformation. The works collected here offer unique insight into the elite of early modern Rus'.

Krevza's Defense, on the Uniate side, and Kopystens'kyj's Palinodia (1621), a defense of the Eastern Church, are perhaps the most illuminating works on the debate that culminated at the time of the Union of Brest (1596), when much of the Ruthenian ecclesiastical hierarchy declared itself in communion with the Roman Catholic Church.