En
Ru
The first dated printed book published in Russia
On March 1 (14), 1564 the first accurately dated Russian printed book “The Apostle” was published in the Moscow Printing Yard by the first printer Deacon Ivan Fedorov. Since 2010, on the initiative of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', a holiday has been celebrated annually in memory of this significant event - Orthodox Book Day.
Before the book printing began in Russia a book was an expensive object. Only cathedrals, the largest convents and tsar’s libraries stored relatively complete collections of the handwritten books. In spite of the fact that the book printing was invented in the middle of the 15th century, the first Russian printed books appeared only a century after that owing to the creation of the tsar’s typography in 1553 in Moscow. Before the reforms of the patriarch Nikon in 1650-1660 the typography had issued about 250.000 books.
At first the Russian editions were published without notice on the date of issue. The first dated printed book in Russia appeared only in 1564. On April 19, 1563 Ivan Feodorov supported by his apprentice and assistant Pyotr Mstislavets with the blessing of metropolitan Makariy started to print the ‘Apostolos’. According to the printers the work was completed ‘… in the year of 7070 on the first day of March [March 1st, 1564] in the time of archbishop Afanasiy, the metropolitan of All Russia. All the output data of the book and the history of its issue the authors placed in the ‘Apostol’ afterword.
The text of the book is written systematically, in the beginning of each part is presented the table of contents of the subsections and their contents in brief. There are no obsolete words or non Slavic expressions. Ivan Feodorov made rich headpieces for each section, colorful vignettes in the upper part of a page, initial capitals in the beginning of the paragraphs. The book is supplied with a large frontispiece gravure representing a evangelist Luka. It was the first gravure in the history of the Russian art where a man’s figure is the center of the composition.
Right after the issue of ‘Apostol’ the printers became subject to persecutions from books’ copyist fearing competition. After the arson which destroyed their workshop Feodorov and Mstislavets were forced to run away to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania where they continued their work in the typography founded in the estate of hetman Khodkevitch.
Since 2010, annually, as part of the celebration of Orthodox Book Day, a series of church and social events are held during the first spring months: workshops, conferences, creative meetings and other cultural events. In 2014 according to chairman of the publishing council of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Kliment of Kaluga and Borovsk: “The purpose of this holiday is not only to remember the event of the publication of the first book, but also to draw attention to the meaning of the book for each of us, to remember our first favorite book, which once opened up a new world of knowledge to us, revealed the secrets of spiritual life, introduced us to the great Russian culture, and introduced us to the world of beauty”.
Lit.: Апостол 1564 года [Электронный ресурс] // Книжные памятники Русского Севера. Б. д. URL: http://virtmuseum.aonb.ru/z5/z5_ap64.html; Бахтиаров А. А. История книги на Руси. СПб., 1890; Апостол. М., 1564; То же [Электронный ресурс]. URL: http://www.spsl.nsc.ru/rbook/Издания%20Ивана%20Федорова/Апостол-московское%20издание/index.html; Немировский Е. Л. Иван Фёдоров (Москвитин) // Словарь книжников и книжности Древней Руси. Вып. 2 (вторая половина XIV-XVI в.). Ч. 2. Л., 1989; У истоков русского книгопечатания. М., 1959.
Based on the Presidential Library’s materials:
Denisov L. I. First printers Johann Gutenberg and Ivan Fedorov. Moscow, 1908;
Ivan Fedorov, first printer: [collection]. Moscow; Leningrad, 1935;