A Dutchman Yan Tessing granted a charter for establishment of a private press in Amsterdam

February 10 (20), 1700 Peter I granted a Dutchman Yan Tessing (Ivan Andreevich) with a charter for establishment of a private press in Amsterdam.

The chart authorized Tessing to establish a private press in Holland “to print land and sea maps, drafts, portraits, books on mathematics, architecture and military science…”. The chart was granted for his “services to the great embassy”. A certain limitation concerned the books on religion since “the Church-Slavonic and Greek books are printed in our reigning city of Moscow”.

Tessing was the first among individuals to obtain the right to print and distribute books in the territory of the entire Russia during 15 years and “any other person should bring such drafts so that not be deprived of them…”.

Books and drafts, printed by Tessing, were allowed to be brought to Archangelsk, as well as to other cities and towns; he was authorized to sell them out, paying due taxes, during the period of 15 years beginning from 1700.

In Moscow, the books brought in from Arkhangelsk were to be delivered to the Ambassador's Office, after which they were sold free. If it were the sellers of books from other publishing houses outside of Russia, these books were to be confiscated "first last and all the time without any recovery of expenses" in favor of the great sovereign, and the sellers were imposed penalties of a thousand jefimoks, of which the third part was in favor of Tessing. To distinguish his publications Tessing was obliged to mark his books with his stamp and signature.

Literacy made special demands of the content of books issued by Tessing. They were to “glorify our great sovereign, his imperial name and our Russian kingdom, for the common people benefit and teaching of different kinds of art:.

Tessing’s typography was led by I. Kopievsky, under whose guidance was issued a few books, printed by order of the Russian Tsar. Among them: "A short introduction into any story," "Short and useful guide for arithmetic", "Short collection of Leo Peacemaker", etc. After the death of Tessing in 1701, Kopievsky continued the publication of books for Russia on his own and published over twenty books, most notable of which was the "Book teaching maritime navigation", "Symbols and emblems", "Guidance for the grammar of Slavic-Russian", the first translations of ancient writers. Books were printed in Cyrillic, sometimes in combination with the Latin alphabet.

Lit.: Адарюков В. Я. Книга гражданской печати в XVIII веке // Книга в России. М., 1924. Ч. 1. С. 127-288; Деятельность Петровских типографий // История книги: Учебник для вузов/ Под ред. А. А. Говорова и Т. Г. Куприяновой. М., 1998. Гл. 14.; Присяжнюк Ю. П. Цензурное законодательство в дореволюционной России (к вопросу об истоках авторского права) // Вестник Нижегородского университета им. Н. И. Лобачевского: Гражданское общество, государство и право в переходный период. Нижний Новгород, 2002. Вып. 1 (5). С. 142-153; То же [Электронныйресурс]. URL: http://www.unn.ru/pages/issues/vestnik/99990195_West_pravo_2002_1(5)/B_19.pdf.

Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:

Academy of Sciences Press was founded in St. Petersburg 285 years ago // On this day. 15 October;

The first dated printed book published in Russia // On this day. 1 March;

Decree “On free press” issued // On this day. 26 January;

Пекарский П. П. Наука и литература в России при Петре Великом. Т. 1. СПб., 1862;

Peter the Great approved the new alphabet // On this day. 9 February;

Полное собрание законов Российской империи, с 1649 года. Собрание 1-е. СПб., 1830. Т. 4. № 1751.