Laureates of Best Books and Publishing House of the Year national award announced

The 4th All-Russian Forum and Festival of Cultural Heritage and Traditional Folklife Culture Volunteering Initiatives named the laureates of the Best Books and Publishing House of the Year national award. This year the award features seven nominations, including Encyclopaedia, Book Series and Collected Edition, History, Publicism, Culture, Books for Children and Youth, and Art Albums. A special prize will also be awarded for the Contribution to the Russian Culture. The award has been established in 2000 by the Russian Biographical Institute, the Russian State Library, Literaturnaya Gazeta and educational society Orden.

Editions titled the Russian Writing. The History of Letters and Calligraphy, published by Likhachev Russian Research Institute of the Cultural and Natural Heritage, were named the best in Culture – those are authored by Andrey Sannikov, linguist and Candidate of Philological Sciences, and Yuri Koverdyaev, artist, bonds designer and a member of the professional union of artists of Russia. The two are also managers of the School of Historical Calligraphy.

The album focuses on key types of Ancient Russian writing from a calligraphy perspective, and tells briefly about the origin and development of Slavonic writing. The book also features detailed calligraphical samples of Russian handwritten styles, namely Uncial (based on the Ostromir's Gospel), Semi-Uncial (based on the Illuminated Compiled Chronicle) and cursive (based on one of patriarch Nikon's documents). Details of the so called historical memory of the letters are given in layman's terms too, since its contemporary forms are the echoes of all kinds of historical eras, including Russia and the Ancient Rus, Byzantium, the Ancient Rome, European Middle and Modern Ages.

Awarding ceremony is scheduled for March the 1st at 3.00 pm in the Russian State Library.

The Russian Writing. The History of Letters and Calligraphy. Published by Likhachev Russian Research Institute of the Cultural and Natural Heritage.

Calligraphers presented a copy of the album, soon to become available in stores, to the Museum. Copies will also be available for purchase in the Contemporary Museum of Calligraphy.

The Museum team is excited to congratulate the colleagues!

Yuri Koverdyaev currently works on the project of the Constitution of the Russian Federation as amended in 2014.