Ostrog Bible

Printed in 1581 at Ostroh in Volhynia, under the patronage of Prince Konstantin Ostrogski and with the press work of Ivan Fedorov, the Ostrog Bible was the first complete printed Bible in Church Slavonic and stands as a landmark of Orthodox print culture. It presents the complete Bible, drawing on Greek and Church Slavonic sources together with Latin aids, and its base text follows the Church Slavonic tradition aligned with the Greek Septuagint. Its approach is ecclesial and formal, and it is best classified as a compiled revision, taking as its predecessor and base the Gennadius Bible along with earlier Slavonic books. Its distinctive character lies in the fact that it was assembled from multiple Slavonic and Greek witnesses rather than produced as a wholly new translation. It became the reference point for subsequent Church Slavonic editions used across the Orthodox Slavic world.