Name

Biography

The first printed book, which indicates the name of Ivan Fedorov (and Peter Mstislavets who helped him), was "Apostle", work on which was carried out, as indicated in the afterword to him, from April 19, 1563 to March 1, 1564. This is the first accurately dated printed Russian book. This edition, both in the textological and in the printing sense, is significantly superior to the previous anonymous ones. The following year, Fedorov's printing house published his second book, The Clockworker.

After some time, persecution of printers began on the part of scribes and part of the clergy, accusing Fedorov of Satanism and magic. After the arson that destroyed their workshop (later researchers believe that another printing house was burned), Fedorov and Mstislavets were forced to flee to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. There they were cordially received by Hetman Khodkevich, who founded a printing house in his estate Zabludovo. The first book printed at the Zabludovskaya printing house by Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Mstislavets was the Teaching Gospel () - a collection of conversations and teachings with an interpretation of gospel texts. In 1570, Ivan Fedorov published the Psalter with the Book of Hours, which was also widely used for teaching literacy.

There is another explanation for Fedorov's move to Zabludovo. Yes, acad. M.N. Tikhomirov emphasized that the version about the attacks of scribes and arson "is based only on Fletcher's story ... This legend ... is extremely implausible. After all, fonts and engraving boards were supposed to die in the fire, and we know that Ivan Fedorov took them out .. Nowhere is there any indication of the persecution of printing by the clergy. On the contrary, printed books were published "with the blessing" of Metropolitans Macarius and Athanasius. In addition, Fletcher wrote ... a quarter of a century later ... according to rumors ... "M.N. Tikhomirov explains Fedorov's dismissal from the printing business by the fact that he, belonging to the white clergy and being a widow, did not take the veil as a monk in accordance with the rules in force. At the same time, sending him to Zabludovo is explained by the political task of supporting Orthodoxy in the period before the conclusion of the Union of Lublin and, according to M.N. Tikhomirov, committed with the consent or even at the direction of Ivan IV.

To continue the printing business, Ivan moved to Lvov and here, in the printing house he founded, printed the second edition of the Apostle (). The Lvov edition of the Apostle also contains an introductory word from Ivan Fedorov himself, where he talks about persecution (“Not from the Sovereign, but from many chief and priest who plotted many heresies on us for the sake of envy”), which he “... from lands, fatherlands and our kind were expelled to hitherto unknown lands. The entrepreneurial activity of the first printer was not particularly successful: in Lviv, he again faced competition from scribes, who hindered the development of his business. A few years later he was invited to his place by Konstantin Ostrozhsky in the city of Ostrog, where he printed, on behalf of the prince, the famous "Ostroh Bible", the first complete Bible in Church Slavonic.

Ivan Fedorov was versatile enlightened, along with the publishing business, he cast guns, invented a multi-barreled mortar with interchangeable parts. Between February 26 and July 23, 1583, he traveled to Vienna, where he demonstrated his invention at the court of Emperor Rudolf II. For a certain time (during 1583) he worked in Krakow, Vienna and, possibly, Dresden. He had close ties with the enlightened people of Europe. In particular, correspondence between Ivan Fedorov and the Saxon elector Augustus was found in the Dresden archive (the letter was written on July 23, 1583). In 1575 he was appointed manager of the Derman Monastery.

Alternative theory of the beginning of book printing in Ukraine

Almost all modern sources claim that Ivan Fedorov was the first printer on the territory of Ukraine. However, according to Ukrainian researchers Orest Matsyuk, Yakym Zapasko and Volodymyr Stasenko, in the 15th century there was a printing house in Lviv, which in 1460 its owner Stepan Dropan presented to the monastery of St. Onufriy. Over time, according to these researchers, its activities ceased. Thus, these three researchers argue that Ivan Fedorov only revived the printing business in the city. For the first time this point of view was formulated by Ilarion Ohiyenko in his work “The History of the Ukrainian Press” (Ukrainian. History of Ukrainian friendship) in 1925, and developed by Orest Matsyuk in Soviet times. However, this alternative theory was severely criticized by another well-known Ukrainian researcher Yevgeny Nemirovsky. Studying the Chronicles of the monastery of St. Onuphry, Nemirovsky confirmed that Stepan Dropan really donated money and land to the monastery, but there is no mention of a printing house in the Chronicles. Ogiyenko's conclusion that Stepan Dropan was the first printer is based only on the fact that in 1791 the monks made a number of claims to the Stavropegian brotherhood. Among their demands, the brothers also claimed the printing house, citing the fact that Stepan Dropan allegedly bequeathed it in 1460, which is not confirmed in the Chronicles. The appeal to the figure of Stepan Dropan by the monks, therefore, was nothing more than an unsuccessful tactical move, in order to get a printing house. Yevgeny Nemirovsky notes that in 1460 there were no printing houses in any European city, except for Mainz: “If books were printed in Lvov before 1460, then only the inventor of book printing, Johannes Gutenberg, could establish a printing house here.”

Memory

In philately

Editions

Moscow Apostle.

Main article: Apostle 1564

1. Apostle. Moscow, printed from April 17, 1563 to March 1, 1564, 6 unnumbered sheets + 262 numbered ones (hereinafter referred to as numbering in Cyrillic letters), page format not less than 285 x 193 mm, two-color printing, circulation of about 1000, not less than 47 copies. Electronic version .

2 and 3. Watchmaker. Moscow, two editions (7/VIII - 29/IX and 2/IX - 29/X 1565), 173 (in the second edition 172) unnumbered sheets, format not less than 166 x 118 mm, printed in two colors, at least 7 copies.

4. Gospel teaching. Zabludov, 8/VII 1568 - 17/III 1569, 8 unnumbered + 399 numbered sheets, format not less than 310 x 194 mm, printed in two colors, at least 31 copies have survived.

5. Psalter with hour book. Zabludov, 26/IX 1569 - 23/III 1570, 18 unnumbered sheets + 284 sheets of the first account + 75 sheets of the second account, format (according to a heavily cropped copy) not less than 168 x 130 mm, printed in two colors. Very rare edition: only three copies are known, and all are incomplete. For the first time in Cyrillic book printing, graphed tables were typed. There is an electronic version.

6. Apostle. Lvov, 25/II 1573 - 15/II 1574, 15 unnumbered + 264 numbered sheets, format not less than 300 x 195 mm, two-color printing, circulation 1000-1200, at least 70 copies have survived. Reprint of the Moscow edition of 1564 with somewhat richer design. There is an electronic version of an almost complete copy.

7. Primer. Lvov, 1574, 40 unnumbered sheets, typesetting strip 127.5 x 63 mm, printed in two colors, the circulation was supposedly 2000, but so far only one copy has been found (kept in the library of Harvard University).

8. Greek-Russian Church Slavonic book for reading. Ostrog, 1578, 8 unnumbered sheets, typesetting strip 127.5 x 64 mm, printing in one color, for the first time Ivan Fedorov has set in two columns (in parallel Greek and Slavonic text), only one copy is also known (kept in the State Library of Gotha , eastern Germany). This copy is bound together with a 1578 copy of the Primer (see below), which is why they are often considered one book, referred to as Ostroh alphabet 1578 (see, for example, facsimile reprint: M .: Kniga, 1983). There is an electronic version of these two editions.

9. Primer. Ostrog, 1578, 48 unnumbered sheets, set strip 127.5 x 63 mm, printed in one color, the circulation was large, but only two incomplete copies have survived (one has already been mentioned, the second is kept in the Royal Library of Copenhagen). Repetition of the Lviv primer of 1574 with the addition of the "Word about letters" by Chernorizets Khrabr. There is an electronic version of this book and the previous one.

10. New Testament with Psalms. Ostrog, 1580, 4 unnumbered + 480 numbered sheets, format not less than 152 x 87 mm, printed in two colors, there is no data on the circulation, at least 47 copies have survived.

11. Alphabetical subject Pointer to the previous edition (“Book, collection of things…”). Ostrog, 1580, 1 unnumbered + 52 numbered sheets, typesetting strip 122 x 55 mm, printed in one color, at least 13 copies survive (often filed towards the end of the previous book, but obviously printed separately and designed as a special separate edition).

12. Chronology Andrey Rymsha (“Which is a short description for the old centuries”). Ostrog, 5/V 1581, two-page leaflet (the text is placed on the inner pages), the typesetting strip is about 175 x 65 mm. The only known copy is kept in the National Library of Russia, Saint Petersburg.

Book printers - contemporaries of Ivan Fedorov

The first books in Church Slavonic were published by Schweipolt Fiol in Krakow in 1491. They were: "Oktoih" ( "Antiphonary") and "Chasoslovets", as well as "Lenten triode" and "Color triode". It is assumed that the triodie (without a designated year of publication) was issued by Fiol before 1491.

see also

• Spherical panorama of the monument to Ivan Fedorov in Moscow
• Day of Publishing, Printing and Book Distribution Workers of Ukraine
• Rev. Sergiy Baritsky

Notes

1. Before Fedorov, the doctor of medicine from Polotsk, Francysk Skorina, was engaged in printing books in the Church Slavonic language. Cm. Vladimirov P.V. Dr. Francysk Skaryna: His translations, publications and language. - St. Petersburg, 1888.
   // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
   Podokshin S. A. Francysk Skaryna. - M.: Thought, 1981. - 216 p. - S. 28.
2. Andrievsky A. The first Russian book printer. - 4th ed. with additions by Prof. A. M. Loboda. - Petersburg-Kyiv: Employee, 1910.
3. Koeppen P.I. Tombstone of the first Russian printer // Herald of Europe. - M ., 1822. - No. 14. - S. 160-161.
4. K. F. Kalaidovich Note about Ivan Fedorov // Herald of Europe. - M ., 1822. - No. 11-12. - S. 279-302.
5. For the first time this version was put forward by V. K. Lukomsky (in the collection “Ivan Fedorov the pioneer printer”, M. - L., 1935, pp. 167-175. It was subsequently supported by E. I. Nemirovskiy (“Essays on the history of the publishing brand”)
6. Nemirovsky E. L. Ivan Fedorov (about 1510 - 1583) / Responsible. ed. A. A. Chekanov. - M .: Nauka, 1985. - 320 p. - (Scientific and biographical literature). - 50,000 copies.
7. Fletcher, J. Chapter 21 - St. Petersburg. , 1911.
8. Tikhomirov M.N. The beginning of book printing in Russia // Russian culture of the X-XVIII centuries. M., 1968. S. 315-318.
9. "Searchers", program "Bookworm Grozny"
10. Zapasko Ya., Matsyuk O., Stasenko V. The cobs of Ukrainian friendship. - Lviv, 2000. - 222 p. (ukr.)
11. Stepan Dropan (Ukrainian)

The merit of the Russian first printer Ivan Fedorov. Unfortunately, history keeps the secret of many pages of the biography of the first printer.

It is not known for certain when Ivan Fedorov was born, and it is also not known exactly what class the first printer belonged to. The approximate date of birth of Ivan Fedorov is the second decade of the 16th century. Place of birth is a mystery. Some claim that Fedorov is from Moscow, others from a village near Kaluga.

In 1563 Ivan Fedorov, at the request of Metropolitan Macarius and Tsar Ivan the Terrible, established the first printing house in Moscow. Not without reason, Ivan was the first Russian book printer. He was well educated in reading and writing, expressed his thoughts well and read a lot.

Historians fully admit that by the time the printing house was built, he was already known as a master of printing. Fedorov, together with his associates, specially selected fonts for the printing house, prepared the printing press. On March 1, 1564, the first Russian book printed at his printing house, The Apostle, was published. The book turned out to be good. The second book printed at the printing house was the Book of Hours. The Book of Hours was printed within two months.

Metropolitan Macarius soon dies. The work on the production of books in Moscow ends here. The boyars set fire to the printing house. Printing masters fled to Lithuania in fear. Ivan Fedorov also leaves Moscow. Ivan, together with his children, settled in Lithuania, in the Zabludovo estate, owned by Hetman Khodkevich. The Polish nobility spared no expense for the development of printing. So, Ivan Fedorov founded a new printing house in Lithuania. The printing house did not work for long, releasing several books, due to certain circumstances, the production will be closed.

Hetman Khodkevich gave Ivan Fedorov a village. For some time, Ivan will be engaged in agriculture. The fate of a simple landowner does not appeal to him and he goes to Lvov. His path was hard. Fedorov was the father of a large family, and the time was turbulent - epidemics, in addition, there were many bulky and heavy typographic tools in his belongings. In Lvov, the ideas of building a printing house were not successful at first. Ivan Fedorov did not despair, and turned to ordinary citizens with a request to donate money for the construction, the people responded. But local artisans were very afraid of competition, and due to the peculiarity of local laws, they interfered in every way to build a printing house.

The first printer overcame all the difficulties and hardships. The printing house was ready. A whole year of hard work lay ahead. And so, on February 25, a new edition of the book "The Apostle" is published. Fedorov is working on a set of "ABC". Things are going with varying success, several times he laid his printing house. In 1575, at the request of Konstantin Ostrozhsky, Yi van became the head of the Derman Monastery. Here Fedorov worked hard, and finally solved all his financial problems. Within the walls of the monastery, he was engaged in the publishing house of the Slavic Bible - "Ostrozhevskaya Bible". The book came out very high quality in terms of layout, the content can also be expressed only in positive terms. When compiling the book, Ivan Fedorov read and analyzed a lot of literature, even went to Turkey to compare sources.

In the period from 1578 to 1581, Ivan Fedorov published such books as: "Psalter with the New Testament", "Chronology of Andrey Rymsha". In 1582 Ivan Fedorov returned to Lviv. Here he unsuccessfully tries to buy out his printing house, then organize a new one. In the last years of his life, the talented Russian printing pioneer Fedorov developed a collapsible model of a cannon, and even offered it to Saxony and Austria. The rulers of these states did not like the development. Ivan Fedorov died on August 3, 1583.

FEDOROV, Ivan Fyodorovich(Moskovitin Ivan Fedorovich) (c. 1510-1583) - the founder of Russian book printing in Russia and Ukraine.

He studied at the University in Krakow. In his youth (1530-1550) he lived and worked in Ukraine, was known as a cannon master (he invented a multi-barreled mortar). Presumably, it was there that he learned about the printing business: in Krakow at the end of the 15th century. books in Cyrillic were printed by Shvaypolt (Svyatopolk) Feol; In Western Rus', the first printed books in Cyrillic were distributed at the beginning of the 16th century. thanks to Francysk Skaryna.

Upon arrival in Moscow, Ivan Fedorov found himself surrounded by Metropolitan Macarius. In Moscow, Ivan received the position of a deacon in the church of St. Nicholas Gostunsky in the Kremlin and soon took part in the work of the commission to "correct" church books (eliminate inconsistencies). The desire to start publishing books in the capital was caused by an urgent need to establish discrepancies in the existing canonical literature, and to distribute verified canonical texts throughout the churches and monasteries of the country. The second reason was the desire to prevent the spread of Uniatism from the West, to put up a barrier to Catholic expansion to the East. All that was needed was a person capable of technically carrying out these tasks.

In Moscow, Ivan Fedorov quickly mastered the intricacies of typographic art in the so-called Anonymous Printing House, created a little earlier on the initiative of a number of educated Russian people of that time (Hegumen Sylvester, Metropolitan Macarius, etc.). Until the mid-1550s, the first test single printed sheets, the first books (undated, without title pages, without titles) were published in it. All of them were intended for everyday worship ( Printed Triode, two gospels) but no way has yet been found to produce enough copies quickly.

In 1553, by order of the tsar, the construction of the State Printing Yard on the Nikolsky Cross (now Nikolskaya Street near the Kremlin) began in the capital. With the participation of Metropolitan Macarius, in connection with the approaching opening of the printing house, they began to "seek the skill of printed books." At the request of the Russian tsar, the king of Denmark sent a master of printing to Moscow, but whether this master was associated with I. Fedorov remained unknown. One way or another, but the printing house was headed not by a foreigner, but by Ivan Fedorov, who in 1563 took in 1563 as assistants certain Pyotr Timofeev, the son of Mstislavets and Marusha Nefedyev.

April 19, 1563 "cunning masters of printing" Ivan Fedorov and Peter Mstislavets began work on their first book - Acts and Epistles of the Holy Apostles(now abbreviated as Apostle). This work lasted for about a year. On March 1, 1564, the first Moscow printed liturgical book was dated by the first state printing house in Moscow. The first printer himself did a lot of textual and editorial work on it, designed it according to all the rules of the printing art of that time. Having creatively reworked the ornamental techniques of the school of Theodosius Izograf (the leading designer of Russian manuscript books in the early 16th century), borrowing the external design from Russian miniatures, Ivan Fedorov made in this book rich headlines for each section, colorful vignettes at the top of the pages, initial initials (at the beginning paragraphs), typed it in semi-authoritative type, developed on the basis of a handwritten Moscow letter of the mid-16th century.

After The deeds of St. apostles Fedorov and Mstislavets printed the Teaching Gospel, in 1565 two editions Clockmaker (Book of hours), also a liturgical book containing prayers and hymns for daily church services. It began to be used as an educational book for learning to read.

The attitude to the innovation provoked a protest from a significant group of clerics. handwritten creation Apostle usually began after prayers and ablutions; the soulless printing press was perceived by them as something unclean. In addition, new trends in the book business provoked a protest from the scribe monks (their work became unprofitable, the machine made it possible to print books faster and cheaper). The printers were accused of spreading heresy. Since the main defender of Ivan Fedorov, Metropolitan Macarius, died in 1563, the first printers were left without patronage. In 1566, a fire broke out in their printing house (possibly the result of arson), and they decided to urgently leave the capital of Muscovy. “Envy and hatred of us from the land and fatherland and from our kind were expelled to other countries, hitherto unknown,” I. Fedorov wrote later.

The first printers fled to Lithuania, taking with them 35 engraved boards. Being warmly received by the Polish king Sigismund, Ivan Fedorov found refuge with the Polish hetman Khodkevich, a philanthropist and educator, who founded a printing house in his estate Zabludov (not far from Grodno in the Bialystok Voivodeship). The first book printed in the Zabludovsky printing house by Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Mstislavets was Teaching Gospel(1568), called Zabludovsky. In 1569, Peter Mstislavets left for Vilna, where he started his own printing house, and Ivan Fedorov continued to work in Zabludovo, publishing Psalter with watchbook (1570).

Printing was a costly business. When Khodkevich, who had become impoverished by the beginning of the 1570s, was unable to provide financial support to book publishing, Ivan Fedorov decided to leave for Lvov. Here, in 1573, the "dukar Moskvitin" ("Moscow printer") organized his own printing house and in 1574 managed to republish Apostle in the amount of more than 1000 copies, attaching his own afterword to the publication. Thus, he laid the foundation for book printing in Ukraine. In the same year, in Lvov, he published the first Russian printed primer with grammar - ABC, in his words - "for the benefit of the Russian people." (Single copy ABCs I. Fedorova discovered in 1939, now located in the United States in the library of Harvard University).

Soon Ivan Fedorov took advantage of the offer of one of the very well-born princes of the Commonwealth - Prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky - to set up a new printing house in the main city of his possessions - Ostrog in Volhynia. Around 1580, on the initiative of this prince, the "Ostroh Academy of the Seven Free Sciences" was opened there, in which the Church Slavonic language was also taught. At the suggestion and with the support of Prince Ivan Fedorov, in 1580–1581 he published the second edition here. ABCs, printed New Testament with Psalter, placing on the back of the title page of the book the coat of arms of Prince Ostrozhsky. In the same Ostrog, Ivan Fedorov published an alphabetical index by Timofey Annich under the intriguing title Book, a collection of the most necessary things and no less original. Chronology Andrei Rymsha - a small publication on two pages, containing a list of 12 months of the year in Church Slavonic, Ukrainian and Jewish languages, indicating the most important events and holidays in each month. Here Ivan Fedorov published the famous Ostrog Bible- the first complete Bible in the Church Slavonic language. Printed in large, new for that time font, on 628 sheets, it was a masterpiece of technical execution and artistic taste (about 300 of its copies have survived to this day). Ivan Fedorov's boards with the font he developed for this book were kept by his followers for a long time after his death, and some of them were in working order for almost 200 years.

Living in Ostrog, Ivan Fedorov often came to Krakow "on the business of casting a small military cannon." In those same years, he visited Vienna and Dresden, until the last days of his life he was interested in the development of technical thought in Western countries and tried to gain recognition for his inventions. At the beginning of 1583, in Vienna, he demonstrated to Emperor Rudolph the "folding cannon" he had devised and designed.

December 5, 1583 I. Fedorov died. He was buried in Lvov in the St. Onufrievsky Monastery. In 1977, the Ivanov Fedorov Museum was opened here. In 1990, the monastery fell into the hands of the Basilian monks, who liquidated this museum.

To date, twelve printed editions of Ivan Fedorov are known - monuments of Russian typographic art. The fonts cast by Fedorov are perfectly readable, headpieces, endings, capital letters are distinguished by amazing subtlety of work (miniatures of the Evangelist Luke, psalmist David, coats of arms of Hetman Khodkevich, Prince Ostrozhsky, the city of Lvov). All of them are accompanied by the publishing mark of the first printer himself - the initials "I.F." A distinctive feature of Fedorov's books is the presence in them of the author's prefaces and afterwords, written in a lively colloquial language on behalf of the printer. They contain the history of the creation of his books, biographical information about the author-publisher.

After the departure of Ivan Fedorov to Lithuania, book printing in Moscow was transferred to Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, but at the end of the 16th century. returned to the capital. Fedorov's students - printers Timofey Nevezha, Andronik and Ivan Nevezhins, Nikifor Tarasiev and others - continued his work, publishing about 20 printed books, and in 1597 Apostle was again published in a circulation of 1050 copies.

In 1909 in the center of Moscow, next to the Kitaigorod wall, where in the 16th century. the Sovereign's printing house was located, a monument to Ivan Fedorov was erected (sculptor S.M. Volnukhin). In 1998, at the Moscow Compound of the Trinity-Seogievskaya Lavra, an icon was consecrated depicting Metropolitan Macarius and the first printer, Deacon Ivan Fedorov, next to the printing press - the first image of a printing press and the first printer on an Orthodox icon.

Lev Pushkarev, Natalya Pushkareva

In the center of Moscow, near the walls of the ancient Kitai-Gorod, a bronze figure of a man dressed in a long ancient caftan rises on a high pedestal. Her hair, tied with a strap, falls over her shoulders. His face is serious and concentrated: he is reading a sheet of a freshly printed book.

The name Ivan Fedorov is carved on the stone of the monument.

An excerpt from the book Pioneer Ivan Fedorov by B. Gorbachevsky

Tsar Ivan the Terrible ordered in the center of Moscow, near the Kremlin, in the area of ​​Kitay-gorod, on Nikolskaya Street, to build the sovereign's printing house, where to start making books.

A lot of time was spent on this. With great difficulty, Ivan Fedorov and his faithful assistant Pyotr Timofeev created the first printing press ...

But then the day came when the first printed book in Rus' was ready. The tsar ordered to bring her to his white-stone Kremlin ...

Ivan Fedorov carefully unfolded the canvas, took out a thick book in a strong leather binding. Slowly he handed his brainchild to the king.

With difficulty, Ivan Fedorov concealed his excitement. What will the king say? Will he like a book that took so much time and effort to print? It took ten months to print a book, and the fate of the entire printing business depends on one royal word ...

Ivan Vasilievich silently took the book in his hands. Opening the leather binding, he slowly flipped through page after page, read aloud the full title of the book now called The Apostle.

Beautiful front page: it depicts a man sitting between two columns, copying a book. The tsar stares intently at the drawing, touches the pages with his fingers, carefully reads the text. The book is clearly printed. Letter for letter. Line to line. Not like in written books.

The capital letters are printed in red ink - vermilion, and the text - in black ink. In front of each part of the book there is a patterned headpiece - a drawing depicting lush herbs and leaves on a black field. Among the leaves, cedar cones hang on thin twigs ...

Ivan Vasilyevich reached the last sheet - everything is in place, not a single mistake. At the end of the book I read that it was printed on March 1, 1564. Printers mention their works very modestly...

Grozny's face brightened. Ivan Fedorov understood: he liked the book.

- Well, they save their honor with their heads, okay, I printed the book. He pleased the tsar, - he praises Ivan Fedorov.

The tsar gave a sign to one of the boyars, ordered to bring books from his library to the ward. They brought them. He called the boyars closer to him and laughs:

But our books are no worse! The Drukari did not shame the honor of the Russian land.

Many books were published by Ivan Fedorov, but the main one is "ABC" (1574).

Of course, his "ABC" is different from modern ones. It contained the necessary grammar rules, introduced children not only to letters and numbers. It contained many instructive instructions and sayings from the Bible, the most famous book of all time.

Blessed is the man who has gained wisdom, and the man who has gained understanding. *** If you forgive people their sins, then your Heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive people their sins, then your Father will not forgive you your sins either. *** And why are you looking at the speck in your brother's eye, but you don't feel the beam in your eye? Or how will you say to your brother: let me take the speck out of your eye, but there is a log in your eye? Hypocrite! First take the log out of your eye, and then you will see how to take the speck out of your brother's eye. *** Do not cause offense, but patiently endure what has been caused. *** Before sunset, put up with those with whom you have to break up.

Drukar - typographer, printer, book printer.

Foreign - the same as foreign

Publications in the Literature section

"Apostle" - the first dated printed book in Rus'

In March 1564, the first printed dated book, The Apostle, was published. The history of book printing in Russia began with it. We recall interesting facts about the "Apostle" and its publishers.

Books "By hand"

Ivan III Vasilievich. Portrait from the "Royal titular". XVII century.

The title page of the manuscript "Stoglav" from the Main Collection of the Library of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.

Pioneer Ivan Fedorov. Ivan Tomashevich. 1904

Printing in Russia was preceded by the era of handwritten books. They were rewritten in monasteries, and at the same time they could not do without the "human factor". To prevent errors and deviations from church norms from appearing in books, the rules for the work of "writers" of sacred texts were published in Stoglav in 1551. The collection also contained church rules and instructions, ancient Russian norms of law and morality.

“The Blessed Tsar and Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of All Rus' ordered to buy holy books at auction and invest in holy churches. But among them there were few suitable ones - all turned out to be corrupted by scribes, ignorant and ignorant in the sciences. Then he began to think about how to organize the printing of books, so that henceforth the holy books would be published in a corrected form.

Ivan Fedorov, afterword to the "Apostle"

The first printing house in Rus'

Progress helped to start solving the problem on a national scale. A century earlier, the printing press was invented, and later it appeared in Russia. In the middle of the 16th century, several "anonymous" - without specifying the publisher - books of religious content were published in Rus'. These were three Gospels, two Psalms and a Triodion. In 1553, Tsar Ivan the Terrible ordered the construction of the Printing Yard at the expense of the tsar's treasury - not far from the Kremlin, on Nikolskaya Street. Of the buildings of the first printing house, the oldest one has been preserved - the “correct” or proofreader.

By order of the sovereign "to find the skill of printed books," the deacon of the Kremlin church of St. Nicholas Gostunsky Ivan Fedorov took up the matter. Fedorov was widely educated: he knew Greek and Latin, knew how to bind books and was engaged in foundry business.

Why "Apostle"

Monument to Ivan Fedorov, Moscow. Photo: artpoisk.info

"Apostle", 1564 Book cover. Photo: mefodiya.ru

Place of the former printing house, Moscow. Photo: mefodiya.ru

For printing the first edition, they took the "Acts and Epistles of the Apostles", written by the Evangelist Luke, - part of the New Testament. The book was used in divine services, in the preparation of priests and for teaching reading and writing in parochial schools.

Printing such a serious book required careful preparation. For a new undertaking, Ivan Fedorov needed helpers - among them was Pyotr Mstislavets, who is also considered one of the first book printers in Rus'. At first, everyone learned to type text and print it. Fedorov and his assistants made molds for each letter, cast more and more lead letters of different fonts and carved wooden ornaments to decorate the chapters. The sovereign personally supervised the preparation process.

Ivan Fedorov and Metropolitan Macarius were especially diligent in selecting the original source - versions of the handwritten "Apostles" were sent from the monasteries. At the Printing Yard, a “reference chamber” was opened, where a sample was prepared for printing. The text of the book itself also required elaboration.

“It must be said that Ivan Fedorov “lightened” the book by eliminating from it many official materials that were not included in the canonical text, but were traditionally placed in the handwritten Apostles. These are all kinds of prefaces, interpretations, etc.”

Evgeny Nemirovsky, bibliologist, doctor of historical sciences

Almost ten years passed from the royal command to start the printing press to the printing itself. Only in April 1563 did the masters begin to make the book itself.

Book work

Fragment of the book "Apostle". 1564

Fragment of the book "Apostle". 1564

Printed the first book for almost a year. As a result, a "handwritten semi-ustav" of the 16th century was taken as a font sample - medium-sized rounded letters with a slight slope to the right. Church books were usually copied in this style. To make the printed book easier to read, the craftsmen painstakingly aligned the lines and spaces between words. For printing, glued French paper was used - thin and durable. Ivan Fedorov himself engraved and typed the text himself.

In 1564 the first Russian printed dated book was published. It had 534 pages, each with 25 lines. The circulation at that time was impressive - about two thousand copies. To this day, about 60 books have been preserved in museums and libraries.

A work of printing art of the 16th century

Frontispiece and title page of the Apostle. 1564. A copy from the State Public Scientific and Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Fragment of the book "Apostle". 1564. A copy from the State Public Scientific and Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The Apostle was decorated in the style of ancient Russian handwritten books. The wooden binding was covered with morocco with gold embossing and brass clasps. Inside, the "Apostle" was "with pictures": the book was decorated with 48 drawings of intricately intertwined herbs with fruits and cones. The printer marked the beginning of the chapter with an ornament, and the letters and inserts were also marked with red vermilion. The paints were of such high quality that they did not fade even after centuries.

With such a traditional design, a new element of decor appeared in the Apostle: an engraved frontispiece - a drawing placed on the same spread as the title page. It depicts the figure of the Evangelist Luke in an arch on two columns.

“Last year they introduced printing ... and I myself saw with what dexterity books were already printed in Moscow”, - noted the work of Moscow printers in 1564 by the Italian aristocrat Rafael Barberini, who visited Russia in those years.

Years of preparation and scrupulous work on the book paid off: the researchers did not find a single mistake or misprint in the book.

The author of the epilogue spoke about the great church building "throughout the city" of Muscovite Rus', especially "in the newly enlightened place in the city of Kazan and within it", and the need for printed church books that were not distorted by scribes: mind."

Other books by Ivan Fedorov

A year after the release of The Apostle, Ivan Fedorov published a collection of prayers called The Clockworker. The book came out in two "factories", that is, editions. The first printer spent about three months at work, after which he left Moscow for Lvov.

“... It is not fitting for me to shorten the time of my life either by plowing or sowing seeds, because instead of a plow I master the art of handicraft tools, and instead of bread I have to sow spiritual seeds in the Universe and distribute this spiritual food to everyone according to order ...”

Ivan Fedorov

Later he published another version of the "Apostle" and the first Russian textbook - "Azbuka", following his life principle - "scatter spiritual seeds." Ivan Fedorov published another book in the printing house of the city of Ostrog in 1581 - the Ostrog Bible.