In the fifteenth century AD, there lived in Strasbourg an artisan named Johann. Johann was born in Mainz, but his family was expelled from this city for political reasons after 1420. For unknown reasons, the craftsman changed his father's patrician surname Gensfleisch to his mother's - Gutenberg.
In 1434, in Strasbourg, Johannes Gutenberg was awarded the title of master.
He went down in history thanks to the invention of printing with the help of movable metal characters. That is, typesetting fonts from metal movable bars, on which letters were cut in a mirror image. From such bars, lines were typed on the boards, which subsequently transferred special paint to paper. This invention is considered to be the technical basis of printing.
Type-setting boards with movable type (wooden on the left, metal on the right)
The first book printed using a set of letters, which has survived to this day, was released in 1456. This is a large-format 42-line Latin Mazarin Bible, also called the Gutenberg Bible. Moreover, the master himself only prepared a set of boards for this book, and Johann Fust, together with Peter Schaeffer, released the Bible. The book was printed on a machine, which Gutenberg was forced to give to Fust for debts.
The honor of the invention of printing was disputed by historians of almost all Western European peoples. The Italians defended their position most convincingly. They believe that movable letters were invented by Pamfilio Castaldi, and, without giving much importance to this invention, gave it to Johann Fust, who established the first printing house. However, no confirmation of this fact has survived to this day.
So at present, Johannes Gutenberg is considered to be the inventor of movable type printing and the founder of printing, although the first typesetting appeared 400 years before his birth. The Chinese Bi Sheng invented to make them from baked clay. However, such an invention in China did not really take root due to the huge number of complex hieroglyphs that made up their writing. The production of such letters turned out to be very laborious, and the Chinese continued to use woodcuts (printing from wood prints in which inscriptions were cut) until the beginning of the 20th century.
The method of printing invented by Gutenberg lasted almost unchanged until the nineteenth century. And, although long before him, such methods as woodcuts and screen printing were invented, it is printing with the help of movable metal characters that is considered to be the technical basis of printing.
In Russia, the art of printing in the thirties of the sixteenth century brought Ivan Fedorov - Deacon of the Moscow Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker Gostunsky. Ivan received his education at the University of Krakow, graduating in 1532.
The first accurately dated Russian printed edition was issued by him and his assistant, Peter Mstislavets, in 1564 in Moscow. This work was called "Apostle". The second edition, The Clockworker, came out a year later. And it turned out to be the last book printed in Fedorov's Moscow printing house.
Unpleased with the appearance of printing, the census takers staged mass persecution of printers. During one of the rebellions, Federov's printing house burned to the ground. After this story, Ivan and Peter Mstislavets fled from Moscow to the Principality of Lithuania. In Lithuania, they were received with great hospitality by Hetman Khodkevich, who founded a printing house on his estate Zabludovo. There, in Zabludovo, Fedorov worked until the seventies, after which, without Mstislavets, he moved to Lvov, where he continued printing in the printing house he founded.
The famous Ostrog Bible, the first complete Bible in the Slavic language in the history of printing, was released by the pioneer printer in the city of Ostrog (where he lived for three years before returning to Lviv) on behalf of Prince Konstantin Ostrogsky in the late seventies of the sixteenth century.
By the way, history remembers Ivan Fedorov not only as the first Russian printer. Having a versatile education, he cast guns well and became the inventor of a multi-barreled mortar with interchangeable parts.
Typography, i.e., the reproduction of texts and illustrations by pressing paper or other material onto an inked printing plate, replaced the slow and laborious process of copying books by hand. Book printing first spread in China and Korea. In connection with the development of the culture of Ancient China, with the growth of cities, the development of handicrafts, trade, literature, and art in them, the book business reached a significant development here.
In the ninth century n. e. In China, printing began with printed boards. The texts or illustrations to be reproduced were drawn on wooden boards, and then the places that could not be printed were deepened with a cutting tool.
The relief image on the board was covered with paint, after which a sheet of paper was pressed against the board, on which an impression was obtained - an engraving.
In China, a method was also invented for making printing plates from ready-made relief elements, that is, a set with movable type. According to the Chinese author Shen-Guo, who lived in the 11th century, this invention was made by the blacksmith Bi-Sheng (Pi-Sheng), who made letters or drawings from clay and fired them. These clay movable letters were used to type the printed text.
Typesetting from China was transferred to Korea, where it was further developed. In the XIII century. instead of clay letters, cast from bronze were introduced. Books printed using bronze letters in Korea in the 15th century have survived to this day. Printing from typesetting was also used in Japan and Central Asia. In Western Europe, book printing arose in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. During this period, the foundations of world trade were laid, the transition from handicraft to manufactory, and the old, handwritten method of reproducing books could no longer satisfy the growing needs. It is being replaced by typography. At first, a method of printing from boards appeared in Europe, on which images and text appeared. A number of books, playing cards, calendars, etc. were printed in this way. In the middle of the 15th century. board printing becomes insufficient to meet the needs of society and economically unprofitable, and it is replaced by movable type printing.
The German inventor Johannes Gutenberg (1400-1468) was the inventor of movable typesetting in Europe. It was not possible to determine exactly the time of printing the first book from typesetting letters, and 1440 is considered to be the conditional date for the start of European printing by this method. Johannes Gutenberg used metal typesetting letters.
At first, a matrix was made by extruding letter-shaped recesses in soft metal. Then a lead alloy was poured into it and the required number of letters was made. The letters-letters were arranged in a systematic order in the typesetting cash desks, from where they were taken out for typing.
For printing, manual printing presses were created. The printing press was a manual press, where two horizontal planes were connected: typesetting was installed on one plane, paper was pressed against the other. Previously, the matrix was covered with a mixture of soot and linseed oil. Such a machine gave no more than 100 prints per hour. Movable type printing spread rapidly in Europe, although Gutenberg and the entrepreneur Fust, who provided him with financial assistance, tried to keep the invention secret. In the Czech Republic, the first book "The Trojan Chronicle" was printed by an unknown printer already in 1468. From 1440 to 1500, that is, over 60 years of using this method, more than 30 thousand book titles were printed. The circulation of each book reached approximately 300 copies. These books are called incunabula.
Nuremberg Chronicle. Incunabula ed. 1493
The printing of books in Old Church Slavonic began at the end of the 15th century. Great success was achieved by the Belarusian printer Georgy (Francis) Skorina. who printed books in Prague in 1517-1519. and Vilna in 1525
Francysk Skaryna, 1517
In the Muscovite state, book printing arose in the middle of the 16th century. Ivan Fedorov was the founder of book printing in Russia.
The first dated book "The Apostle", printed at the Moscow Printing Yard (the first Moscow printing house), was released in 1564. The printers were Ivan Fedorov and his assistant Pyotr Mstislavets.
Ivan Fedorov independently developed the printing process, produced the Old Slavonic font, and achieved an exceptionally high quality of printing. However, persecution from the clergy, who saw heresy in the printing of books, as well as from the copyists of books, forced the first printer to leave Moscow and go first to Belarus, and then to Ukraine, where he continued to print books. However, much speaks for the fact that book printing appeared in Russia before 1564. Six books have come down to us, on which neither the date of publication, nor the name of the printer, nor the place of printing are indicated. Their analysis shows that they were printed at least 10 years before the Apostle. The earliest of these books is dated 1553.
"Geometry of Slavonic Land Surveying" - the first book typed in civil type
In the 17th century several printing houses were already operating in Russia, but until the end of the 18th century. The typography technique did not undergo significant changes, only the font changed: Peter I introduced a civil font instead of the Old Slavonic.
Under Ivan the Terrible, book printing first appeared in Russia (1564).
“The old customs have gone mad” – this is what was pointed out at the Stoglavy Cathedral as the main cause of all church troubles. Restoring the old order and preserving it in all its purity became the main task of the clergy. Of the writers of that time, perhaps only one Maxim Grek quite clearly understood that this was not enough and that Russians most of all needed enlightenment, the awakening of living thought ... Other most prominent writers sought salvation only in observing the “holy antiquity”.
Monument to Ivan Fedorov in Moscow
A very important monument of this time should be considered the "Cheti-Minei" of Metropolitan Macarius. This huge work (12 large books) collected the lives of the saints, the words and teachings for their holidays, their creations of all kinds, entire books of Holy Scripture and interpretations on them. Twelve years, under the leadership of Macarius, scribes worked on this collection. Another work is also very important - this is the Pilot Book - a collection of church laws, decrees and rules of Russian princes and saints. Finally, Macarius is also credited with compiling a collection of information on Russian history called the Book of Powers. All these works were a support for the preservation of antiquity, they provided spiritual weapons for the fight against various "innovations" and "opinions", which were feared more than fire; they even said about them: “the mother of all passions is opinion; opinion is the second fall,” they were all the more afraid because at that time in the West “innovations” and “opinions” of the “Luthor heresy” shook the old order of the church.
But no matter how much care was taken to ensure that no “opinions” penetrated into the Russian land, nevertheless at this time (1553) the heresy of Matvey Bashkin and Theodosius Kosoy manifested itself here. Bashkin heard enough of "Western philosophies" and himself began to explain the Holy Scriptures according to his own mind and speak "perplexed speeches" and found followers in Moscow. Heresy, however, was discovered, a council was convened to judge heretics. It turned out that they, like the Jews, rejected the deity of the Son and His equality with God the Father, the sacrament of communion and repentance, the veneration of icons, saints, etc. Theodosius Kosoy, a monk of the Cyril Monastery, went even further into heresy. Bashkin and his supporters were sent to monastic prisons. Theodosius, however, managed to escape to Lithuania, where he continued to spread his heresy. Zinoviy Otensky (Otensky monastery not far from Novgorod) wrote especially strongly against heretics.
The fight against heresy, the desire to preserve unshakable antiquity, forced most of all to think about how church, liturgical books could be protected from damage: books in Russia then were still handwritten. As a rule, at monasteries and at bishops there were "doctors" who were engaged in the correspondence of books out of zeal and love for the cause. In addition, there were scribes in the cities who traded in the correspondence of both liturgical and all sorts of "fourth books", which were usually sold at the markets.
When, after the capture of Kazan, new churches began to be built in the newly conquered land, it took a lot of liturgical books, and the tsar ordered to buy them - it turned out that out of the huge number of purchased handwritten books, very few were suitable; in others there were so many omissions, errors, typos, distortions, unintentional and intentional, that there was no way to correct them. This circumstance, according to some, led the tsar to the idea of starting book printing in Moscow. Already a hundred years have passed since book printing appeared in Western Europe, and in Moscow there was no mention of book printing until 1553. When the tsar told Metropolitan Macarius of his intention, he liked it very much.
“This idea,” he said, “was inspired by God himself, it is a gift from above!
Then the king ordered to build a special house for printing and printing, to look for craftsmen. The construction of the house, or the Printing Yard, as it was called, lasted ten years. Finally, in April 1563, the printing of the first book, Acts of the Apostles, printed in Moscow, began, and on March 1, 1564, was completed.
The chief master in the first Russian printing house was a Russian man - deacon Ivan Fedorov, and his main employee was Pyotr Timofeev Mstislavets. Ivan Fyodorov, apparently, studied his business well, perhaps in Italy: he not only knew how to type and print books himself, but also cast letters very skillfully. The same masters printed another Chasovnik next year, and then had to flee from Moscow: they were accused of heresy and spoiling books. They say that the enemies of the Russian printing pioneers even set fire to the Printing House. Ivan Fedorov himself said that he was forced to flee from Moscow "by the vexation of many bosses and teachers who, for the sake of envy, conspired many heresies against us, wanted to turn a good deed into evil, and completely destroy God's cause."
"Apostle" Ivan Fedorov, 1563-1564
The first Russian printers fled to Lithuania and continued to do their work here; however, even after their flight of Ivan Fedorov, book printing was again restored in Moscow, but it was carried out on such an insignificant scale that it could not displace handwritten books written by illiterate scribes from use.
The beginning of book printing is included in a number of outstanding events not only in the history of Russian culture, but in general in the history of our country.
The emergence of book printing in Moscow in the 16th century met the needs of the centralized Russian state, which significantly expanded its territory after the successful campaigns of Ivan IV (the Terrible) against Kazan and Astrakhan. Orthodox churches were built in the newly acquired vast lands; there was a need for a large number of church books. Manuscripts were created by scribes slowly and with a large number of errors and inconsistencies.
Publications printed in the state printing house had identically edited texts, which were more in line with an important political task than handwritten books.
For a long time it was believed that the first who became the founders of our book printing was Ivan Fedorov, deacon of the Church of St. Nicholas Gostunsky in Moscow, who published the book "Apostle" in 1564.
But already in the second half of the 19th century, Russian researchers, and above all Alexei Viktorov, suggested that before Ivan Fedorov, books were already being printed in Moscow in the so-called anonymous printing house. Soviet historical science proved the fact that such a printing press operated in Moscow from 1553 to 1564. The work began modestly, the publications did not indicate where and when this or that book was published. Therefore, this name arose - Anonymous Printing House. There are seven "hopeless" editions - three Four Gospels, two Psalters. Lenten Triode and Color Triode. These books were published in large editions, this is evidenced by a fairly serious number of copies that have survived to this day. The significance of the Anonymous Printing House, apart from the very first printed books, lay in the fact that Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Mstislavets took their first steps in it, who were destined to become initiators, pioneers who led Moscow onto a wide book road.
Ivan Fedorov chose the Apostle, which had existed in Russia since the 12th century, as the first book for printing. For a long time, it was believed that Ivan Fedorov was simply a skilled craftsman, an executor of the orders of Tsar Ivan the Terrible and Metropolitan Macarius. It seems that Fedorov simply took a commonly used manuscript and printed it.
Recent research has established that translation was undertaken before the book was typed; then careful editing took place, the text was corrected and even insertions were made, the origin of which is still not entirely clear to scientists. The printed "Apostle" more than numerous handwritten lists corresponded to the norms of the spoken language that sounded in Moscow in the days of Ivan the Terrible.
Unlike many European countries that professed Catholicism, not national languages were used in book printing, but Latin. Often this limited the social impact of printing, since the broad masses of the people were still poorly familiar with the Latin language.
Undoubtedly, the emergence of typography in Moscow was influenced by the earlier development of this sphere in neighboring countries - and above all in Lithuania (Belarus), where the great Belarusian first printer Francis Skorina worked.
The "Apostle" by Ivan Fedorov absorbed the achievements of the culture of all previous times, starting with the appearance of the alphabet on the Kiev horizon, the cultural features of Novgorod, Moscow, Rostov the Great and other lands of all Russia.
Imagine that we took the "Apostle" in our hands. Time has weathered the smell of printing ink. The book of 268 sheets at first resembles a handwritten one, especially in the visual appearance of the letters. But, looking closely, we are convinced that we have a Moscow-type typeface in front of us: each letter - you can’t look enough! Everything here is beyond praise: the engraving that opens the edition, headpieces, initials, lines of ligature. By its two-colour printing, the "Apostle" resembles a handwritten folio produced by a skilled scribe. Durable glossy paper, and if you look at the pages in the light, you will see watermarks: a signet with a star and a crown, a boat, a celestial sphere. Ivan Fedorov used expensive French-made paper. The absence of misprints in The Apostle is not the result of careful reading, but the result of the philological education of Ivan Fedorov and his assistants.
The intellectual feat of the First Printer also lies in the fact that he did not limit himself to editorial and typographical work - Fedorov himself drew and engraved. He wrote an afterword to the Apostle, in which it is reported that “by the command of the pious tsar” money was issued for the printing house, it is emphasized that temples are being built throughout great Russia, which the autocrat decorates with “honest icons and holy books.” Thus, it was made clear that the construction of a printing press was given state significance, and a book was equated with an icon and a temple.
Fedorov's afterword was supposed to inspire readers with the idea that book printing is not a private undertaking, but a matter that was approved by the highest authorities, the tsar and the metropolitan. The afterword made a great impression on Ivan Fedorov's contemporaries - they remembered him many decades later.
Ivan Fedorov and his assistants began printing the Apostle on April 19, 1563, and finished on March 1, 1564. At that time, hardly anyone understood how great an event took place in Moscow. Over a thousand identical books! The printing house replaced a thousand scribes who could not cope with such a volume of work even in a year!
And, probably, Ivan Fedorov, the First Printer, or, as he was later called, Ivan Drukar, looked farthest of all. In the southern Russian, Western Ukrainian and Belarusian lands, the printing house was called a drukaria, and the printer was called a drukaria. The nickname stuck to Ivan Fedorov.
All his life he only did what he was doing, that is, he was engaged in printing books. In general, he was a versatile master who owned many crafts. Fedorov cast guns, invented multi-barrel motors with interchangeable parts. The glory of Ivan Drukar bypassed Russia, its echoes were heard far beyond the borders of the country.
In the center of Moscow, near the Kitaigorod wall, there is a monument to the Russian pioneer printer Ivan Fedorov. On the front side of the marble pedestal, repeating in bronze the inscriptions of the first Russian letters, it is deduced: "St. Nicholas the Wonderworker of Gostunsky, deacon Ivan Fedorov." On the back side: “The first beginning of printing in Moscow…” and the date of the beginning of printing of the “Apostle” – April 19, 1563.
Anatoly Manushin
Illustration Mikhail Suprunenko
On March 14, the Day of the Orthodox Book is celebrated in our country. This holiday was established by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on the initiative of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and is celebrated this year for the sixth time. Orthodox Book Day is timed to coincide with the release date of Ivan Fedorov's book "The Apostle", which is considered the first printed book in Russia - its publication is dated March 1 (according to the old style) 1564.
Birch bark letters
Today we would like to introduce you to the history of book printing in Russia. The first ancient Russian letters and documents (XI-XV centuries) were scratched on birch bark - birch bark. Hence their name - birch bark letters. In 1951, archaeologists found the first birch bark letters in Novgorod. The technique of writing on birch bark was such that it allowed the texts to be preserved in the ground for centuries, and thanks to these letters we can find out how our ancestors lived.
What did they write about in their scrolls? The content of the found birch bark letters is varied: private letters, household notes, complaints, business assignments. There are also special entries. In 1956, archaeologists found in the same place, in Novgorod, 16 birch-bark documents dating back to the 13th century. These were student notebooks of a Novgorod boy named Onfim. On one birch bark, he began to write the letters of the alphabet, but this occupation, apparently, quickly tired him, and he began to draw. Childishly clumsily, he depicted himself on a horse as a rider, striking the enemy with a spear, and wrote his name next to it.
handwritten books
Handwritten books appeared a little later than birch bark. For many centuries they have been an object of admiration, a luxury item and gathering. These books were very expensive. According to one of the scribes, who worked at the turn of the XIV-XV centuries, three rubles were paid for the skin for the book. At that time, three horses could be bought with this money.
The oldest Russian manuscript book, the Ostromir Gospel, appeared in the middle of the 11th century. This book belongs to the pen of Deacon Gregory, who rewrote the Gospel for the Novgorod posadnik Ostromir. "Ostromir Gospel" is a true masterpiece of book art! The book is written on excellent parchment and contains 294 sheets! The text is preceded by an elegant headpiece in the form of an ornamental frame - fantastic flowers on a golden background. Inscribed in the frame in Cyrillic: “The Gospel of John. Chapter A. It also contains three large illustrations depicting the apostles Mark, John and Luke. Deacon Gregory wrote the Ostromir Gospel for six months and twenty days - one and a half sheets a day.
The creation of the manuscript was hard and exhausting work. The working day lasted in summer from sunrise to sunset, in winter they also captured the dark half of the day, when they wrote by candlelight or torch, and monasteries served as the main centers of book writing in the Middle Ages.
The production of ancient handwritten books was also an expensive and time-consuming affair. The material for them was parchment (or parchment) - the skin of a special dressing. Books were usually written with quill pen and ink. Only the king had the privilege of writing with a swan and even a peacock feather.
Since the book was expensive, it was kept. To protect against mechanical damage, a binding was made of two boards covered with leather and having a fastener on the side cut. Sometimes the binding was bound with gold and silver, decorated with precious stones. Medieval handwritten books were elegantly designed. Before the text, they always made a headband - a small ornamental composition, often in the form of a frame around the title of a chapter or section.
The first, capital letter in the text - "initial" - was written larger and more beautiful than the rest, decorated with an ornament, sometimes in the form of a man, animal, bird, fantastic creature.
Annals
There were many chronicles among the handwritten books. The text of the chronicle consists of weather records (compiled by years). Each of them begins with the words: "in the summer of such and such" and reports of the events that took place that year.
The most famous of the chronicles (XII century), describing mainly the history of the Eastern Slavs (the narrative begins from the Flood), historical and semi-legendary events that took place in Ancient Russia, can be called "The Tale of Bygone Years" - the work of several monks of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and , first of all, Nestor the chronicler.
Typography
Books in Russia were valued, collected in families for several generations, mentioned in almost every spiritual letter (testament) among the values and family icons. But the ever-increasing need for books marked the beginning of a new stage of education in Russia - book printing.
The first printed books in the Russian state appeared only in the middle of the 16th century, during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, who in 1553 set up a printing press in Moscow. To house the printing house, the tsar ordered the construction of special mansions not far from the Kremlin on Nikolskaya Street in the vicinity of the Nikolsky Monastery. This printing house was built at the expense of Tsar Ivan the Terrible himself. In 1563, it was headed by the deacon of the church of Nikolai Gostunsky in the Moscow Kremlin - Ivan Fedorov.
Ivan Fedorov was an educated man, well versed in books, knew the foundry business, was a carpenter, a painter, a carver, and a bookbinder. He graduated from the University of Krakow, knew the ancient Greek language in which he wrote and printed, knew Latin. The people said about him: such a craftsman that you can’t find it in foreign lands.
Ivan Fedorov and his student Pyotr Mstislavets worked for 10 years on the establishment of a printing house, and only on April 19, 1563, they began to produce the first book. Ivan Fedorov himself built printing presses, he himself cast forms for letters, he typed, he corrected. A lot of work went into the production of various headpieces, drawings of large and small sizes. The drawings depicted cedar cones and outlandish fruits: pineapples, grape leaves.
Ivan Fedorov and his student printed the first book for a whole year. It was called "Apostol" ("Acts and Epistles of the Apostles") and looked impressive and beautiful, resembling a handwritten book: by letters, by drawings and by screensavers. It consisted of 267 sheets. This first printed book appeared on March 1, 1564. This year is considered the beginning of Russian book printing.
Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Mstislavets went down in history as the first Russian printers, and their first dated creation became a model for subsequent editions. Only 61 copies of this book have survived to this day.
After the release of The Apostle, Ivan Fedorov and his assistants began to prepare a new book for publication - The Clockworker. If the "Apostle" was produced for a year, then it took only 2 months for the "Hourmaker".
Simultaneously with the publication of the Apostle, work was underway on the compilation and publication of the ABC, the first Slavic textbook. The ABC was published in 1574. She introduced me to the Russian alphabet, taught me how to compose syllables and words.
And so the first Orthodox books and the alphabet appeared in Russia.
