On the issue of the beginning of book printing in Moscow

This short article was written by us some time ago on one special occasion. The first thought of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible about establishing a printing house in Moscow dates back to 1547. There is news that this year the sovereign sent to Western Europe to invite various scientists, artists and artisans to Russia, a German who lived in Moscow, named Hans Schlitte or Schlitten, and that among the scientists, artists and artisans recruited by Schlitte or Schlitten, but not brought to Russia, there was a typographer. The whole story of Schlitten's unsuccessful attempt is as follows. Arriving in Russia and learning the Russian language, he somehow gained access to Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich. Telling the sovereign about the superiority of Western European life over Russian (similar to how Lefort told Peter), he aroused in the sovereign a desire to transfer this life to Russia, as a result of which Ivan Vasilyevich, who accepted the intention to transform his state, sent him to Western Europe so that he could recruit local scientists, artists and artisans for this task of transforming Russia. Having gone to the West, Schlitten appeared in Augsburg to the German Emperor Charles V, in order to ask his permission to recruit the people needed by the Russian sovereign in the empire. After a meeting with the Sejm, the emperor gave the requested permission, with the only condition that scientists, artists and artisans should not be released from Russia to Turkey and, in general, that their abilities should not be used to harm the empire 1 . Schlitten gathered a huge crowd of people he needed, who expressed a desire to go to Russia, and, having arrived with her in Lubeck, prepared to sail by sea to Livonia. But everything collapsed (as if) from the base envy of the Hansa. The residents of Lyubka feared that an enlightened Russia would become more powerful and more dangerous for its neighbors; They imposed their views on the emperor and ended up with Schlitten (allegedly) illegally imprisoned, and the scientists, artists and artisans he recruited were forced to disperse 2. Schlitten (allegedly) recruited 123 people for Russia, namely: 4 theologians or theologians, 4 doctors, 2 lawyers, 4 pharmacists, 2 operators, 8 barbers, 8 doctors, 1 smelter, 2 well workers, 2 millers, 3 carpenters, 12 masons, 8 carpenters, 2 architects, 2 foundry workers, 1 glazier, 1 papermaker, 2 miners, 1 person skilled in plumbing (?), 5 interpreters, 2 mechanics, 2 watchmakers, 1 gardener for grapes, another for hops, 1 brewer, 1 moneyman, 1 assayer, 2 cooks, 1 cake maker, 1 salt maker, 1 card maker (?), 1 weaver, 4 carriage maker, 1 furrier, 1 oil mill, 1 potter, 1 printer, 2 blacksmiths, 1 coppersmith, 1 root worker (?), 1 singer, 1 organist, 1 wool cutter, 1 falconer, 1 plasterer, 1 master for brewing alum, another for boiling sulfur, 4 goldsmiths, 1 flatter (flacker?), 1 bookbinder, 1 tailor 3 . The story of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich sending Hans Schlitten to Western Europe to invite scientists, artists and craftsmen, about which there is absolutely nothing in our Russian sources and about which we know from Western sources and from Schlitten himself, is a dark story. To think that it was a pure invention of Schlitten, who, undoubtedly, was a very, very great adventurer, 4 that is, to assume that Schlitten completely impostorly presented himself in Germany as an agent of the sovereign, as if it were impossible. It is likely that he was instructed, or that he himself imposed himself, to get some artisans and craftsmen from their homeland. But that he was not entrusted with inviting all those people who appear on the list we have given, which belongs to him, this cannot be doubted, for, of course, he was not entrusted with inviting theologians. Thus, regarding the typographer who appears on Schlitten’s list, one can think (assuming that the list is not an essay and that the typographer was actually among those invited) both that he was invited on behalf of the sovereign, and that he was invited at Schlitten’s own discretion. That it is necessary to think the last thing, in other words, that the first thought of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich about establishing a printing house in Moscow should not be attributed to the year 1547, this can be seen from the actions of the Stoglavy Cathedral, which took place in 1551. In one of his questions to the council, the tsar speaks about the faulty writing of books by scribes: “The scribes write divine books from incorrect translations (lists), but having written them they do not edit: inventory after inventory comes with incomplete writing and indirect points; and from those books in the churches of God they honor and sing and (the disciples) learn and write from them: what about this negligence and about our great will negligence from God be according to divine rules?“ (of the first 37 questions, question 5th). If the sovereign had already had the idea of ​​establishing a printing house in Moscow before the council, then either he himself would have declared to the council the need for the speedy implementation of the idea, or the council would have asked him about it, for the establishment of a printing house was the only real means of eliminating the defects of liturgical books. Meanwhile, neither the tsar nor the council say anything about the printing house, and the second, in response to the first’s submission, prescribes a completely different (very invalid) measure for eliminating faults in the books (instructs archpriests and senior priests to inspect the books - Stoglav chapters 27 and 28. The afterword to the first printed Moscow Apostle of 1564 speaks of the establishment of a printing house in Moscow: “by the command of the pious Tsar and Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of All Russia, and with the blessing of the Right Reverend Metropolitan Macarius, we began to seek the craftsmanship of printed books in the summer of 61, having washed thousands, in 30 the summer of his state" 5. Based on this documentary and seemingly official evidence, the first concerns about establishing a printing house in Moscow are dated back to 1553. But here is a strange misunderstanding, in a way that is not entirely clear to us, which has not yet attracted anyone’s attention (as far as we know). Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich began to reign in the year 1533 and in 1553 it was not the 30th, but the 20th year of his state, so in the preface to the apostle there is an undoubted mistake either in the year from S. M. - “in the summer of 61” instead of “in the summer of 71”, or in the year of the state - “in 30 summer of the state" instead of "in the 20th summer of the state." With a strong probability the error should be seen in the year from S.M. and instead of “in the summer of 61, thousands were osmy” read “in the summer of 71, thousands were osmy”, which will be the year 1563 A.D. The same afterword says that the tsar began to think about establishing a printing house in Moscow after the establishment of the Kazan diocese (since when purchasing handwritten liturgical books for the churches of the newly discovered diocese, there was an extreme malfunction of these books). But the Kazan diocese was established in February 1555. And Ivan Fedorov himself, in order to eliminate any disputes, then correcting the mistake he made in the preface to the Moscow Apostle of 1564, corrects it exactly as we indicate; in the preface to the Lvov Apostle of 1573, he says: “this drukarnya was erected in the reigning city of Moscow, in the summer of 7071, in the thirtieth year of the state (the pious Tsar and Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of All Russia)” 6. The first concerns about setting up a printing house in Moscow began not in 1553, but later; but not in 1563, but earlier. Subsequently, the apostle of 1564 speaks not of the first, but of the second or secondary concerns that immediately preceded the printing of the apostle and the fruit of which was this printing of the latter. We said that, according to the afterword to the apostle, the tsar began to take care of the establishment of a printing house in Moscow after the opening of the Kazan diocese, which took place in February 1555. It must be thought that the sovereign turned to these concerns more or less soon after the opening of the diocese; and in any case, we find in Moscow the “master of printed books” exactly a year after the opening of the diocese in February 1556. Unfortunately, our information about the first master of printed books, who did not have time to open a printing house and did not print anything, is limited only by the fact that from two royal decrees dated February 9 and March 22, 1556, which do not speak about book printing, we know his name, which is Marusha Nefediev 7. It is likely to think that Marusha, who somehow learned the art of typography from someone, was suddenly abducted by death during preparations for printing books. The second or secondary concerns about the establishment of a printing house in Moscow, which ended with its actual establishment and the beginning of book printing, after a significant delay, for the explanation of which we cannot yet say anything, took place in 1563. According to the clear speeches of the afterword to the first printed apostle, it was so that in this year 1563 (but not earlier, and with the only caveat that according to the then September count, the year 1563 began not on January 1, but four months earlier, on September 1, 1562) the king ordered the construction and organization of a printing house and that in the soon built and arranged printing house and printing began on April 19 of this year. The opinion that has not yet been completely abandoned should be considered completely unfounded, that the book printers of 1563, the deacon of the Gostun Cathedral Ivan Fedorov and Peter Timofeev from Mstislav, set up a printing house and worked under the leadership of the Dane Hans Missenheim (Bogbinder, which is the same as the German Buchbinder - bookbinder, which Missenheim was in his craft, then much more more important than at present). The Danish king Christian III, who sent Hans Missenheim to Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich in 1552 with a proposal to the sovereign to accept Lutheranism, sent him with Missenheim a Bible and two books containing Lutheran doctrine, regarding which he wrote in his letter to him: “we are sending to your beloved brotherhood our sincerely beloved servant and subject John Missenheim with the Bible and two other books that contain the essence of our Christian faith, and we did this with the following intention: if the Metropolitan, the patriarchs (and) bishops of your beloved brotherhood and your other clergy are pleased with our proposal (about the adoption of Lutheranism by the Russians) and if they like these two books equally with the Bible and are approved by them, then this same servant of ours will try to print these books, having translated into your language, in many thousands of copies, so that in this way, in the course of a few years, it could bring great benefit to your churches and other subjects of your beloved brotherhood, zealous for the glory of Christ and for their salvation.” 8 The king’s words about Hans Missenheim: “he will try to print these books in many thousands of copies” were understood by scientists to mean that Missenheim would set up a printing house in Moscow and print books in many thousands of copies there. But the context of the speech in the king's charter clearly speaks for a different understanding. After the words we have quoted, the king asks the king that, having listened to Missenheim and agreed with him regarding the reward (implied for the printing of books: after that, the king says, as de pretio inter vos convenerit), let him go back as soon as possible (quam celerrime). From this request of the king it follows with complete clarity that, in his opinion, Missenheim had to translate the books into the Slavic language at home and print them in one of the home printing houses, so that later, it is understood, he would return to Russia with the finished books. But even if the words of the king’s letter were to be understood as they are understood, then it would not at all follow from them that Missenheim should be considered the founder of a printing house in Moscow. Is it likely to assume that the tsar entrusted the establishment of a printing house in Moscow for the printing of “divine” books to such a person who came to him with a proposal for the Lutheran heresy, i.e., who was not just a heretic, but also a propagandist of heresy? And it is not visible or known from anywhere that Missenheim was a typographer, and if some assume this, then it is completely without any reason. The conclusion, obviously, was drawn up in such a way that in 1552 the king proposed to print books, and to the next year 1553, on the basis of a mistakenly understood afterword to the apostle of 1564, the beginning of concerns about the establishment of a printing house in Moscow was attributed, i.e. one was put in connection with the other. In reality, as we said, worries began not in 1553, but in 1555-1556. How and from whom Deacon Ivan Fedorov and Peter Timofeev of Mstislava learned the art of typography remains completely unknown. It seems likely to think that the initiative came from Pyotr Timofeev. He is called Mstislavtsev, of course, because he was a native of the city of Mstislavl, currently a district town in the Mogilev province. Mstislavl then belonged to Poland, and in the middle of the 16th century the Poles in Krakow already had four or five printing houses, so learning the art of typography there was not particularly difficult for a person who wanted to learn. Having become acquainted with the art of typography, Pyotr Timofeev went to Moscow in order to make an application of the knowledge he had acquired in this latter city. As a stranger in Moscow, he could not act in it on his own, which is why he sought out a natural Muscovite as his comrade, who was Ivan Fedorov (who later became an enthusiast of typography as an art through which spiritual seeds are scattered in the universe). We consider it probable that the initiative will come from Peter Timofeev because, with such a presentation of the matter, his partnership with Deacon Ivan Fedorov becomes clear to us. On the contrary, if we believed that the latter somehow learned the art of typography on his own, then it would be completely incomprehensible to us why he needed this Mstislavite Pyotr Timofeev as a comrade. In one legend about the establishment of a printing house in Moscow by Deacon Ivan Fedorov and Peter Timofeev, we read: “There are some who say about them, as if from their very own jars the teaching was adopted; it is narrated from some, as if there were no one before them, or they themselves will be, some small and unskillful outlines of the seals of the book, but after that perfect John and Peter the temptation to eat from those fried flasks" 9. In the business of book printing, the most important thing is not typing words from letters or typing (typing), but making letters: you can learn to type words and type by ear; but making letters is another matter: here a real “learned” or acquired art is already necessary. Based on the above words of the legend, one can imagine the situation in such a way that Deacon Ivan Fedorov and Peter Timofeev, having learned the art of typography or having reached the art of typography in the sense of typing words and typing, initially wanted to cope with the production of letters themselves, and that when they failed to do this, the government ordered for them from abroad real word writers or word makers in general. If we imagine the matter in this way, then the unsuccessful efforts of the deacon and his comrade on the production of letters will need to be attributed not to the space of time that we indicated above, as the space of time in which the printing house was established in Moscow, but to the time preceding it - not to the year 1563, but either to the year 1562 or to the years 1562 and 1561. 10 So, the following should be said about the beginning of book printing in Moscow: the first idea about establishing a printing house in it came from Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich (together with Metropolitan. Macarius) not in 1547 and not in 1553, but in 1555–56; the first master of printed books, who, in all likelihood, did nothing after his death, was Marusha Nefediev, mentioned in February and March of 1556; the second book printers, Deacon Ivan Fedorov and Peter Timofeev of Mstislavets, set up a printing house on behalf of the sovereign in 1562, and, perhaps, for a more or less long time before this they had been working on the printing business (making letters) privately; if the German Hans Schlitten actually invited a printer to Russia, it was not on the instructions of the tsar, but of his own volition, and the Dane Hans Missenheim should not be considered the leader of Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Timofeev in setting up the printing house. The Emperor's letter to Schlitten, which gives the requested permission, is dated January 30, 1548, see it in Joseph Fiedler in the article: Ein Versuch der Vereinigung der Russischen mit der Römischen Kirche im sechzehnten Iahrhundert, Wien, 1862, S. 54 (called Schleitte in the letter). For Hans Schlitt or Schlitten, see Karamz. in Ist., VIII, 70, and in Adelung’s Critical and Literary Review of Travelers in Russia, Russian. translation Part I, ? 43, p. 133. From the agreement between Schlitten and Shtemberg (see below), which was concluded on August 1, 1550, it is clear that by this August 1, 1550, Schlitten was already free after almost two years in prison - Turgenev in Historica Russiac Monimenta I, ? LXX, r. 135. At Karamz. vol., VII, approx. 206. While abroad, he attempted to unite the Russian church with the Latin one, asserting and assuring everyone there that this union was decided by the Russian sovereign and that the adoption of “our Christian (i.e., Latin) faith” and its introduction in all principalities and regions of the country was his desire—the sovereign’s. About Schlitten’s monstrous and at the same time funny enterprise, the implementation of which he entrusted to another person whom he accepted in the month of August 1550 into the service of the Russian sovereign (it goes without saying, completely without the latter’s knowledge) to a certain John Stemberg or Steinberg, see Fiedler in the indicated article, S. 22 fin. sqq, in Pichler in Geschichte derkirchlichen Trennung, II, 65 sqq, and briefly in Rev. Macarius in History, VIII, 386, and documents related to the enterprise, in addition to and earlier by Fiedler, were printed by Turgenev in Historica Russiac Monimenta, I, ? CXX, b. 134 sqq (there is something perplexed and suspicious in them). For some more documents relating to the entire history of Schlitten, see book 1. Read General East. and Ancient 1893, in the article “Danish Archive”, page 288 sqq. In the Description of early printed books gr. Tolstova, ? 16, p. 27. Additional to Act. East. Vol. I, ? 96, p. 148. Christian's charter in the Latin original, with a Russian translation, was published by I. M. Snegirev in volume IV of the Russian Historical Collection, published by the Society of Russian History and Antiquities, in the article: “On the relations of the Danish King Christian III with Tsar John Vasilyevich regarding the establishment of a printing house in Moscow.” See Descriptions of Tsarsky's early printed books, page 439. Several Slavic printed books are known, which should be classified as first printed and which were published without publication, that is, without indicating the place and time of publication; Most of our bibliographers consider the books to be works of southern printing houses, i.e., South Slavic or Ugrovlahian, but some of the bibliographers find it most likely to see books from the Moscow press in them. The late A. E. Viktorov, holding the last opinion about books and considering their existence with the quoted words of the legend about the establishment of a printing house in Moscow: “it is told from certain people, as if there were none before them,” etc., expressed the assumption that these hopeless books are precisely the books that were printed in Moscow before the Apostle of 1564 in small and unskillful styles, see his article: “Were there any experiments in book printing in Moscow before the first printing apostle of 1564?”, read at the Kiev Archaeological Congress and published in the 2nd volume of the Proceedings of this congress. But the assumption cannot be recognized as probable. The books in question are printed in real letters (only in different fonts than those in the first printed apostle) and are completely usable, while the words of the legend: “by some small and unskillful markings of the seals of the book,” obviously speak of attempts to print books in such bad letters that they made them unfit for use (which is why the letters are called not letters, but typefaces), so that these books, as it should be thought, having begun printing, were not printed to completion and were not published, but as unsuccessful attempts were destroyed. The opinion that the books in question are Moscow books should almost be preferred to the opinion of the majority of bibliographers. In this case, the most likely thing to think about them will be that they represent books of a secret press (implying, of course, someone’s private one), several attempts of which could have been made in Moscow after the escape of Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Timofeev from here and generally throughout the time until the end of the 16th century. You might be interested in: