Tell us a little about yourself and your research! 

I’m Mykhailo Tupytsia. I graduated from a PhD program in History at the Ukrainian Catholic University and now I am finalising my thesis. I am also an administrative worker at the Ukrainian Catholic University, an executive secretary at “the Analecta of UCU. Series: Theology”, and an executive assistant at the “Kyivan Christianity” Research Program. Among all the working tasks, I like to participate in organising the academic events, seminars, conferences, and research logistics. I believe that history helps us to know ourselves and potentially answer the existential issues of individuals and nations.

Tell us about the work you presented at the conference

My presentation was on July 10th at the panel 49 “Religions of the Book”. Along with me, Cheryl Thurber held a speech about the commercialisation of religion through Christian merchandise; Robin Jensen presented about the reception and interpretation of the Book of Mormon in the 19th century. My presentation “Book Collections in the Mukachevo Eparchy: Reception and Adaptation of Catholic Reform in the 18th Century” was probably the first academic presentation of my entire research project at the final stage. Within my research project, I try to collect data, prepare statistical datasets, reconstruct the repertoire and find the features of the Early Modern Uniate (now Greek-catholic) monastic and parish communities. Mukachevo eparchy at that time was situated in the southern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains within the 10–13 counties of the North-East part of the Hungarian Kingdom under the rule of the Habsburgs. The book collections of its monasteries and parishes in the 18th century were formed under the strong influence of the Tridentine ecclesiastical reforms. However, the Tridentine Council’s resolutions were adopted for the tradition of Eastern Christianity united with the Roman Church in the 1720 Council of Zamość. Despite the institutional dependence on the Eger Latin Diocese, the Mukachevo Eparchy accepted the Zamość Council resolutions from the Kyivan Metropolitanate. The book collections of the parishes demonstrate the implementation of the liturgical unification and preaching regulation according to the Zamość Council resolutions. The monastic book collections repertoire reveals the shift of the theological texts from Church-Slavonic, of the Kyivan Metropolitanate origin, to the Latin teaching of the time. On the one hand, this research shows the features of the book culture of the Mukachevo Eparchy in a narrow context. On the other hand, in a wider context, it highlights the necessity to reconsider the role of the Kyivan Metropolitanate in the religious life of the communities of East-Central Europe, especially the Eastern Christian ones.

Beside your own panel, what was your favorite session at the 2025 SHARP Conference?

This was my first SHARP Conference. I must admit the high-quality organisation of the Conference in general. The Conference was the one where the young researcher could make new contacts with prominent researchers, publishers, and get in touch with the local book culture environment. I managed to visit several panels among the many interesting ones. My academic interest in the Early-Modern book culture made me follow the related panels. I found it interesting and attended two of them, “Seventeenth-century Vicar’s Book Communities” and “Early Modern Bibliographic Communities”. The first panel is an example of the research cooperation of the vicar John Ward’s source legacy. Presenters showed the vicar’s reading interests, repertoire of the medical library, and knowledge networks. The second panel was dedicated to the gender and labour in the London book trade, inscriptions in title pages and Latin tropes of the books, and the reception of the apocalyptic writing of Pseudo-Methodius’ Revelations in the German Lands. All the presentations were built on the practical research projects involving the digital tools, databases, textual analyses and traditional work with the old printed books and manuscripts de visu.

Give us a reading recommendation!

Nataliia Sinkevych. The Religiosæ Kijovienses Cryptæ by Johannes Herbinius (1675): A Description of Kyiv and Its “Sacral Space” in Early Modern Multiconfessional Discourse. Lviv: Ukrainian Catholic University, 2022. 192 pp. (Kyivan Christianity Series, vol. 29).