Basil the Great. Book on Fasting, Ostroh, 1594

An early printed book of the late 16th century from Ostroh: a work by Basil the Great on the monastic life, published at the expense of Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich Ostrozhsky. The Ostroh printing house was one of the first in the East Slavic lands.

It was founded in 1577–1579 by Ivan Fyodorov on the initiative and with the funds of Prince Ostrozhsky. Its most important publication was the Ostroh Bible of 1581, the first complete printed Bible in Church Slavonic. The "Book on Fasting" appeared here in 1594, after the death of the pioneer printer.

The book retains its binding of wooden boards covered in tooled leather: an ornamental quatrefoil in the centre of the covers and, along the edges, bands of a winding stem with fruit.