All about the printing press. Typography in Rus'
Typography, that is, the reproduction of texts and illustrations by pressing paper or other material onto an inked printing plate, replaced the slow and labor-intensive process of copying books by hand. Book printing first spread in China and Korea. Due to the development of culture Ancient China, with the growth of cities, the development of crafts, trade, literature, and art in them, bookmaking reached significant development here.
In the 9th century. n. e. Printing from printing boards began in China. Texts or illustrations to be reproduced were drawn on wooden boards, and then the places that were not to 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 to the board, on which an impression was made - an engraving.
A manufacturing method was also invented in China. printed forms from ready-made relief elements, i.e. a set of movable letters. According to the information of 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 types were used to type the printed text.
Type printing from China was transferred to Korea, where it was further improved. In the 13th century. Instead of clay ones, letters cast in bronze were introduced. Books printed using bronze type in Korea in the 15th century have survived to this day. Printing from typefaces was also used in Japan and Central Asia. In Western Europe, book printing arose at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th centuries. During this period, the foundations of world trade were laid, the transition from craft to manufacture, and the old, handwritten method of reproducing books could no longer satisfy the growing needs. It is being replaced by printing. First, in Europe, a method of printing from boards appeared on which images and text were drawn. A number of books were printed in this way, playing cards, calendars, etc. In the middle of the 15th century. printing from boards becomes insufficient to meet the needs of society and is economically unprofitable and is being replaced by printing from movable type.
The inventor of printing with movable type in Europe was the German Johannes Gutenberg (1400 - 1468). It was not possible to accurately establish the time of printing the first book using type, and the conventional date for the beginning of European book printing using this method is considered to be 1440. Johann Gutenberg used metal types.
First, a matrix was made by pressing letter-shaped indentations into soft metal. Then lead alloy was poured into it and the required number of letters was made. The type letters were arranged in a systematic order in typesetting boxes, from where they were taken out for typing.
Manual printing presses were created for printing. The printing press was a manual press where two horizontal planes were connected: typeface was installed on one plane, and paper was pressed against the other. The matrix was first coated with a mixture of soot and linseed oil. This machine produced no more than 100 prints per hour. Movable type printing quickly spread in Europe, although Gutenberg and the entrepreneur Fust, who provided him 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, i.e., over 60 years of using this method, over 30 thousand book titles were printed. The circulation of each book reached approximately 300 copies. These books were called "incunabula".
Nuremberg Chronicle. Incunabula ed. 1493
Printing books on Old Slavonic language began at the end of the 15th century. The Belarusian printer Georgy (Francis) Skorina achieved great success. who printed books in Prague in 1517-1519. and Vilna in 1525
Francis Skaryna, 1517
In the Moscow state, book printing arose in the middle of the 16th century. The founder of book printing in Rus' was Ivan Fedorov.
The first dated book “Apostle”, printed at the Moscow Printing House (the first Moscow printing house), was published in 1564. The printers were Ivan Fedorov and his assistant Pyotr Mstislavets.
Ivan Fedorov independently developed the process of book printing, produced the Old Church Slavonic font, and achieved exceptional High Quality book printing. However, persecution from the clergy, who saw heresy in the printing of books, as well as from copyists of books, forced the pioneer printer to leave Moscow and go first to Belarus, and then to Ukraine, where he continued to print books. However, much suggests that book printing appeared in Rus' 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 dates back to 1553.
"Geometry Slavonic Land Measurement" - the first book typed in civil font
In the 17th century Several printing houses were already operating in Russia, but before late XVIII V. The printing technique did not undergo significant changes, only the font changed: Peter I introduced a civil font instead of Old Slavonic.
Books existed long before the invention of printing. But before they were written by hand and then rewritten several times, making the required number of copies. This technology was extremely imperfect and took a lot of effort and time. In addition, when rewriting books, errors and distortions almost always crept in. Handwritten ones were very expensive, and therefore could not be found widely.
The first books made by printing appeared, apparently, in China and Korea as early as the 9th century BC. new era. For these purposes, special printed ones were used. The text that needed to be reproduced on paper was drawn in a mirror image and then carved onto the surface of a flat piece of wood with a sharp tool. The resulting relief image was smeared with paint and pressed tightly to the sheet. The result was a print that repeated the original text.
This method, however, was not widely used in China, since each time it took a long time to cut out the entire required text on a printed board. Some craftsmen even then tried to make a form from movable ones, but the number of hieroglyphs in Chinese writing was so large that this method was very labor-intensive and did not justify itself.
The invention of printing by Johannes Gutenberg
In more modern form printing originated in Europe in the first half of the 15th century. It was during these times that there was an urgent need for cheap and accessible books. Handwritten publications could no longer satisfy the developing society. The printing method that came from the East was ineffective and quite labor-intensive. An invention was needed that could allow books to be printed in huge quantities.
Inventor original way The German master Johannes Gutenberg, who lived in the mid-15th century, is rightfully considered to be one of the pioneers of book printing. Today it is very difficult to determine with high accuracy in what year he first printed the first text using the movable typesetting letters he invented. It is believed that the first printing machine came out of Gutenberg's press in 1450.
The method of printing books developed and implemented by Gutenberg was very ingenious and practical. At first, he made a matrix from soft metal, in which he squeezed out indentations that looked like letters. Lead was poured into this mold, ultimately obtaining the required number of letters. These lead signs were sorted and placed in special typesetting cash registers.
A printing press was designed to make books. In essence, it was a manually driven press that had two planes. A frame with a font was placed on one plane, and a frame with a font was placed on the other plane. blank sheets paper. The assembled matrix was coated with a special coloring composition, the basis of which was soot and linseed oil. The productivity of the printing press was very high at that time - up to hundreds of pages per hour.
The printing method invented by Gutenberg gradually spread throughout Europe. Thanks to the printing press, it became possible to reproduce books in a relatively large quantities. Now the book has ceased to be a luxury item, accessible only to a select few, but has become widespread among the masses.
A great cultural achievement was the beginning of book printing in Russia during the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century. The first Russian printer was Ivan Fedorov: born in the 20s of the 16th century, died on December 6, 1583 in Lvov.
The construction of the first state printing house in Moscow ended in 1563, and on March 1, 1564, the first book “Apostle” was published here, the technical and artistic execution of which was excellent. Subsequently, the printing house printed several more books of religious content, then its activities were interrupted. Ivan Fedorov and his assistant Pyotr Mstislavets, persecuted by church and secular reactionaries, were forced to leave their homeland and settle outside its borders, becoming the founders of book printing in Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine.
Afterword to "The Apostle", printed by Ivan Fedorov in Lvov. 1574. The first failure did not stop Ivan the Terrible, and he opened a new printing house in Alexandrovskaya Sloboda. But printing developed relatively slowly.
Along with Ivan Fedorov, among the first Russian printers one should also name Marusha Nefedyev, Nevezha Timofeev, Andronik Nevezha and his son Ivan, Anisim Radishevsky, Anikita Fofanov, Kondrat Ivanov. Many of them were both engravers and type foundries.
In 1803, when it was 250 years since the beginning of Russian book printing and 100 years since the publication of the first Russian newspaper, the historian Karamzin said: “The history of the mind represents two main eras: the invention of letters and printing.”
To call Ivan Fedorov the creator of the first Russian printing press is not enough.
He is a pioneer. The beginning of book printing in Russia is associated with his name.
The date and place of birth of Ivan Fedorov are unknown. He was born around 1520. The version about his origin from the Novgorod masters of handwritten books can be considered reliable. Historical information, associated with the origins of Russian book printing, are as follows. The first printed Slavic books appeared in the Balkans, but these were Glagolitic letters, which in Russia in the 15th-16th centuries. there were no walks. By the end of the 15th century. the first four books in Cyrillic were printed in Krakow; two of them are dated 1491. The name of their printer is known - Schweipolt Feol. The Belarusian educator Francis Skaryna began printing books in his native language in Prague in 1517. Moreover, there are seven known books printed directly in Russia in the 50s of the 16th century, that is, ten years before the first printed “Apostle”.
However, neither the place nor the date of publication of these books, nor the names of their printers have yet been established. “The Apostle” by Ivan Fedorov, published in 1564 in Moscow, is the first printed Russian book about which it is known who, where, why and when it was printed. This information is contained in the chronicle on the weekend, or title, as we now say, page of the book and in the afterword by Ivan Fedorov.
In this afterword, and in even more detail in the preface to the second edition of the Apostle, Ivan Fedorov sets out the history of the creation of the Russian printing house, the history of the troubles and adversities that befell the first printer of the Russian book.
The first printing house in Moscow was opened in 1.563, and on April 19 of the same year, Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Mstislavets were there.
Unlike Western European ones, the Moscow printing house was not a private, but a state enterprise; funds for the creation of the printing house were allocated from the royal treasury. The establishment of the printing house was entrusted to the deacon of the St. Nicholas Church in the Moscow Kremlin, Ivan Fedorov, an experienced bookbinder, book copyist and carver-artist. The printing house required a special room, and it was decided to build a special Printing Yard, for which a place was allocated near the Kremlin, on Nikolskaya Street. Ivan Fedorov, together with his assistant Pyotr Mstislavets, a Belarusian from Mstislavl, took an active part in the construction of the Printing House.
After construction was completed, the organization of the printing house itself began, the design and manufacture of the printing press, the casting of the font, etc. Ivan Fedorov fully understood the principle of printing with movable type from the words of others.
Perhaps Fedorov visited Maxim the Greek at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, who for a long time lived in Italy and personally knew the famous Italian typographer Aldus Manutius. However, it is unlikely that anyone could explain to him in detail the technique of printing. Fedorov made numerous tests and eventually achieved success; he learned to cast high-quality type, type them and make impressions on paper. Fedorov was undoubtedly familiar with Western European printed books. But creating the shape of your own block letters, he relied on the traditions of Russian writing and Russian handwritten books. . The first printed "Apostle" is the highest achievement of typographic art of the 16th century. Masterfully crafted font, amazingly clear and even typesetting, excellent page layout. In the anonymous publications that preceded the Apostle, the words, as a rule, are not separated from each other. The lines are sometimes shorter and sometimes longer, and the right side of the page is curvy. Fedorov introduced spacing between words and achieved a completely straight line on the right side of the page. The book contains 46 ornamental headpieces engraved on wood (black on white and white on black). The lines of script, also engraved on wood, were usually printed in red ink, highlighting the beginning of the chapters. The same role is played by 22 ornamental “cap letters”, that is, initial or capital letters. Ivan Fedorov used a completely original method of two-color printing from one printing plate, which has never been found anywhere else.
In 1565, in Moscow, Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Mstislavets published another book - “The Book of Hours”. Ivan Fedorov and his comrade in Moscow were very prominent and respected people. But the oprichnina introduced by Ivan the Terrible caused them great concern. “For the sake of envy, many heresies were plotted against us,” Ivan Fedorov later wrote, explaining his and Metislavets’s departure to Belarus, which then belonged to the Polish Lithuanian state. So Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Mstislavets published only two books in Moscow, but this is quite enough for Ivan Fedorov to forever remain the first printer of Rus'. Having the ecclesiastical rank of deacon, Ivan Fedorov took from Moscow not only his wife and children, but also the tools and materials necessary to continue printing books.
Soon Fedorov and Mstislavets were able to resume work in Lithuania, on the estate of Hetman Khodkevich in Zabludov. Here in 1569 the “Teaching Gospel” was printed. Unlike the Moscow ones, this book was not liturgical and was intended for home reading. From Khodkevich's estate, Ivan Fedorov moved to Lvov in 1572, despite the fact that Khodkevich, as a reward for his work, gave Fedorov a village where the pioneer printer could engage in farming and live comfortably. But Fedorov refused settled life, considering his printing activity an apostolic ministry. (Apostles, which means “sent” in Greek, were the disciples of Christ whom he sent throughout the world to tell about himself.)
In Lvov, on February 14, 1574, the first accurately dated printed book in Ukraine, the so-called Lvov “Apostle”, was published; the font and some of the headpieces in this book were borrowed from the Moscow "Apostol", but the endings and patterned initials were made anew. In the same year, in Lvov, Ivan Fedorov first published a book for Russian children - "ABC".
The second edition of the ABC was published in 1576 in the city of Ostrog, where Fedorov was invited by Prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky. In 1580 Fedorov released New Testament e Psalter in a small format, easy to read. This is the first book in Russian history that is accompanied by an alphabetical subject index.
But the real feat of Ivan Fedorov was the colossal work on the complete Slavic Bible. This gigantic Work occupied 1256 pages. Fedorov and his assistants used not only Greek, but also Hebrew text Old Testament, as well as Czech and Polish translations. And the basis was the text of the Gennady Bible.
It is to this “Ostrog Bible,” as historians now call it, that the Slavic biblical text that exists in modern editions dates back. Only an extraordinary person was capable of such heroic work, and for the first time in the history of Russia, and Ivan Fedorov was just that. He was fluent in several languages - Greek, Latin, Polish. He was well versed in the intricacies of Church Slavonic grammar.
The Ostrog Bible, published in 1580-1581, was Fedorov’s last printed work. After the Bible, Fedorov released only Andrei Rymsha's "Chronology" - the first work of a secular nature printed in Ukraine. Prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky lost interest in Fedorov’s publishing activities, and the pioneer printer again had to look for funds to continue his life’s work.
During these years, Ivan Fedorov invents a collapsible cannon and is engaged in
improvement of hand bombards. In search of a customer, he sets off from Lvov on a long and difficult journey for those times - to Krakow and Vienna, where he meets Emperor Rudolf II and demonstrates his invention to him. Rudolf II was completely satisfied with it, but he refused the conditions put forward by Fedorov. Then Ivan Fedorov wrote a letter to the Saxon Kurfürth August: “...So, I master the art of making folding cannons... each, without exception, of this kind of cannon can be disassembled into separate, strictly defined parts, namely fifty, one hundred and even, if necessary, into two hundred parts...” The letter speaks unclearly about the invention; one can only judge that it was a multi-barreled mortar with interchangeable parts.
Returning to Lvov, Fedorov fell ill and on August 3, 1583, “fell ill to the point of death.” Ivan Fedorov died in one of the outskirts of Lviv, which is called Podzamche. He died in poverty, without the funds to redeem the printing property and printed books pledged to the usurer.
He was buried in the cemetery at the Church of St. Onuphrius, the temple belonged to the Lviv Orthodox Brotherhood. A tombstone was placed on Fedorov’s grave with the inscription: “Drukar of books never seen before.” These words contain perhaps the most exact specification great deed accomplished by Ivan Fedorov.
Not much is known about the life and work of Ivan Fedorov. What we know about him is known from the books published by the master, or rather from the afterwords to them, which he wrote for each of his publications. The first accurately dated printed book in Russian, “Acts of the Apostles” (“Apostle”), was published in Moscow at the state printing house. This great event for Rus' took place in March 1564. By order of Ivan IV, a large state printing house was created in Moscow in 1553 - the Sovereign Printing House. Its leader was the deacon of the St. Nicholas Church in the Moscow Kremlin, Ivan Fedorov.
Work on the book continued from April 19, 1563 to March 1, 1564. The publication of the “Apostle” marked the beginning of book printing in Rus'. At the same time, a number of publications of the “anonymous” printing house that worked in Moscow in the early 50s are known. XVI century, and, thus, Ivan Fedorov should be considered only the continuer of book printing in Russia. In the publication and design of the book, Ivan Fedorov was helped by Pyotr Timofeev Mstislavets (i.e., a native of the Belarusian city of Mstislavl). The book is printed in the “old printing” style, which was developed by Ivan Fedorov himself on the basis of the Moscow semi-statutory letter of the mid-16th century, and is richly ornamented. At the end of the “Apostle” there was a detailed afterword, which described who printed, where, how and when the Moscow printing house was founded. In October 1565, it was published in two editions next book Ivan Fedorov - "Chasovnik" ("Book of Hours"). The “Book of Hours” was a collection of prayers that was used during worship; It was also used to teach children to read and write in Rus'.
In 1566, with the consent of Tsar Ivan IV Vasilyevich, the printers, taking with them some of the printing materials, left Moscow forever and moved to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The reason for his departure was attacks from the zemstvo clergy and boyars, as Fedorov himself later wrote in the preface to the Lvov edition of the “Apostle” in 1574; he experienced persecution from “many bosses and priests.” Another reason for the departure of printers from Moscow was, in the face of the threat of creating a union of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with the Kingdom of Poland, the spread of the printed word for the purpose of Orthodox propaganda in Belarus and Ukraine. In 1569, on the estate of the Great Hetman Grigory Aleksandrovich Khodkevich, Zabludov, printers at the expense of the latter founded a new printing house, where the “Teacher's Gospel” (1569) was printed - a collection of patristic words and teachings for Sundays and holidays and "Psalter" with "Speaker of Hours" (1570). In these books, Ivan Fedorov for the first time called himself “Ivan Fedorovich Moskovitin”, i.e. a native of Moscow. The last book was published by Ivan Fedorov alone, since Pyotr Mstislavets left for Vilna. From Lithuania, having experienced “all kinds of troubles and hardships, the worst,” Ivan Fedorov moved to Lvov. Here, in 1574, he published “The Apostle” and the first Slavic printed textbook, “ABC” (only one copy of the edition of “ABC” has survived, which is currently stored in the library of Harvard University in the USA).
Subsequently, Ivan Fedorov founded a new, fourth, printing house on the family estate of the Kyiv governor, Prince Konstantin Konstantinovich Ostrozhsky - Ostrog. Here he published five editions - “The ABC” (1578), “The New Testament” and “The Psalter” (1580), an alphabetical index to the New Testament. “The book is a collection of the most necessary things, briefly, for the sake of finding the New Testament in the book according to the words of the alphabet” (1580), together with Gerasim Smotritsky - a wonderful monument of world typographic art, the first complete Slavic Bible, called the “Ostrozh Bible” (1580-1581 .) and the first printed calendar-leaflet on two pages "Chronology". Compiled by the Belarusian poet Andrei Rymsha, a close associate of Prince Radziwill (1581). Ivan Fedorov’s books amaze with their artistic perfection; many of them are now stored in museums and private collections in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev and Lvov, as well as in Poland (Warsaw and Krakow), Yugoslavia, Great Britain, Bulgaria and the USA.
In the fifteenth century AD, there lived a craftsman named Johann in Strasbourg. Johann was born in Mainz, but his family was expelled from this city for political reasons after 1420. For unknown reasons, the artisan 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 using movable metal type. That is, typesetting fonts made of metal movable bars on which letters were cut out in a mirror image. From such bars, lines were typed onto boards, which subsequently transferred special paint to paper. This invention is considered to be technical basis printing.
Typesetting boards with movable letters (wooden on the left, metal on the right)
The first book printed using set type that has survived to this day was published 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 the Bible was published by Johann Fust, together with Peter Schaeffer. The book was printed on a press that 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 nations. The Italians defended their position most convincingly. They believe that movable letters were invented by Pamphilio Castaldi, and, without betraying this invention special significance, ceded it to Johann Fust, who established the first printing house. However, no evidence of this fact has reached our days.
So at present, Johannes Gutenberg is considered to be the inventor of printing using movable type and the founder of printing, although the first typefaces appeared 400 years before his birth. The Chinese Bi Sheng came up with the idea of making them from baked clay. However, such an invention did not really take root in China due to the huge number of complex hieroglyphs that made up their writing. The production of such letters was very labor-intensive, and the Chinese continued to use woodcuts (printing from wooden impressions in which inscriptions were cut out) until the beginning of the 20th century.
The printing method invented by Gutenberg existed almost unchanged until the nineteenth century. And, although such methods as woodcut printing and screen printing were invented long before him, it was book printing using movable metal types that is considered to be the technical basis of printing.
He brought the art of printing to Russia in the thirties of the sixteenth century. Ivan Fedorov - deacon of the Moscow Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker of Gostunsky. Ivan received his education at the University of Krakow, which he graduated in 1532.
The first accurately dated Russian printed edition was published by him and his assistant, Pyotr Mstislavets, in 1564 in Moscow. This work was called "Apostle". The second edition, "The Book of Hours", was published a year later. And this turned out to be the last book printed in Fedorov’s Moscow printing house.
The scribes, not happy with the advent of printing, staged mass persecutions of printers. During one of the riots, Federov's printing house burned to the ground. After this story, Ivan and Pyotr 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 Zabludov. There, in Zabludov, 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 published 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 Goths of the sixteenth century.
By the way, history remembers Ivan Fedorov not only as the first Russian printer. Having a diverse education, he was good at casting cannons and became the inventor of a multi-barreled mortar with interchangeable parts.
Modern life cannot be imagined without the invention that was given to the world by a simple German artisan. Printing, of which he became the founder, changed the course of world history to such an extent that it is rightfully classified as one of the greatest achievements of civilization. His merit is so great that those who, many centuries before, created the basis for the future discovery are undeservedly forgotten.
Print from a wooden board
The history of book printing originates in China, where back in the 3rd century the technique of so-called piece printing came into use - imprinting on textiles, and later on paper, of various designs and short texts, carved on a wooden board. This method was called woodblock printing and quickly spread from China throughout East Asia.
It should be noted that printed engravings appeared much earlier than books. Individual samples made in the first half of the 3rd century, when China was ruled by representatives of the same period, have survived to this day. The technique of three-color printing on silk and paper also appeared.
The first woodcut book
Researchers date the creation of the first printed book to 868 - this is the date on the earliest edition, made using the woodcut technique. It appeared in China and was a collection of religious and philosophical texts entitled “The Diamond Sutra”. During excavations at the Gyeongji Temple in Korea, a sample of a printed item was found that was made almost a century earlier, but due to some features, it belongs more likely to the category of amulets than books.
In the Middle East, piece printing, that is, as mentioned above, made from a board on which text or a drawing was cut out, came into use in the middle of the 4th century. Woodcut printing, called “tarsh” in Arabic, became widespread in Egypt and reached its peak by the beginning of the 10th century.
This method was used mainly for printing prayer texts and making written amulets. A characteristic feature of Egyptian woodcuts is the use of not only wooden boards for prints, but also those made of tin, lead and baked clay.
The emergence of movable type
However, no matter how the piece printing technology improved, its main drawback was the need to re-cut out all the text for each successive page. A breakthrough in this direction, thanks to which the history of printing received a significant impetus, also occurred in China.
According to the outstanding scientist and historian of past centuries Shen Ko, the Chinese master Bi Shen, who lived in the period from 990 to 1051, came up with the idea of making movable characters from baked clay and placing them in special frames. This made it possible to type specific text from them, and after printing required quantity scatter copies and reuse them in other combinations. This is how movable type was invented, which is used to this day.
However, this brilliant idea, which became the basis for all future book printing, did not receive proper development during that period. This is explained by the fact that in Chinese There are several thousand hieroglyphs, and making such a font seemed too difficult.
Meanwhile, considering all stages of book printing, it should be recognized that it was not Europeans who first used typesetting. The only known book of religious texts that has survived to this day was made in 1377 in Korea. As the researchers established, it was printed using movable type technology.
European inventor of the first printing press
In Christian Europe, the technique of piece printing appeared around 1300. On its basis, all kinds of religious images made on fabric were produced. They were sometimes quite complex and multi-colored. About a century later, when paper became relatively affordable, Christian engravings began to be printed on it, and at the same time, playing cards. Paradoxically, the progress of printing served both holiness and vice.
However, the full history of book printing begins with the invention of the printing press. This honor belongs to the German artisan from the city of Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg, who in 1440 developed a method of repeatedly applying impressions to sheets of paper using movable type. Despite the fact that in subsequent centuries primacy in this field was attributed to other inventors, serious researchers have no reason to doubt that the emergence of book printing is associated precisely with his name.
The inventor and his investor
Gutenberg's invention consisted in the fact that he made letters from metal in their inverted (mirror) form, and then, having typed lines from them, made an impression on paper using a special press. Like most geniuses, Gutenberg had brilliant ideas, but lacked the funds to implement them.
To give life to his invention, the brilliant artisan was forced to seek help from a Mainz businessman named Johann Fust and enter into an agreement with him, by virtue of which he was obliged to finance future production, and for this he had the right to receive a certain percentage of the profits.
A companion who turned out to be a clever businessman
Despite the external primitiveness of the used technical means and the lack of qualified assistants, the inventor of the first printing press was able to short term produce a number of books, the most famous of which is the famous “Gutenberg Bible”, stored in the Mainz Museum.
But the way the world works is that in one person the gift of an inventor rarely coexists with the skills of a cold-blooded businessman. Very soon, Fust took advantage of the part of the profit that was not paid to him on time and, through the court, took control of the whole business. He became the sole owner of the printing house, and this explains the fact that for a long time the creation of the first printed book was mistakenly associated with his name.
Other candidates for the role of pioneer printers
As mentioned above, many peoples Western Europe Germany challenged the honor of being considered the founders of printing. In this regard, several names are mentioned, among which the most famous are Johann Mentelin from Strasbourg, who in 1458 managed to create a printing house similar to the one that Gutenberg had, as well as Pfister from Bamberg and the Dutchman Laurens Coster.
The Italians did not stand aside either, claiming that their compatriot Pamfilio Castaldi is the inventor of movable type, and that it was he who transferred his printing house to the German businessman Johann Fust. However, no serious evidence for such a claim was presented.
The beginning of book printing in Russia
And finally, let us dwell in more detail on how the history of book printing developed in Rus'. It is well known that the first printed book The Moscow state is the “Apostle”, made in 1564 in the printing house of Ivan Fedorov and both of them were students of the Danish master Hans Missenheim, sent by the king at the request of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. The book's afterword states that their printing house was founded in 1553.
According to researchers, the history of book printing in the Moscow state developed as a result of the urgent need to correct numerous errors that had crept into the texts of religious books, long years copied by hand. Through inattention, and sometimes intentionally, the scribes introduced distortions, which became more and more frequent every year.
Held in 1551 in Moscow church cathedral, called “Stoglavy” (based on the number of chapters in his final resolution), issued a decree on the basis of which all handwritten books in which errors were noticed were withdrawn from use and subject to correction. However, often this practice only led to new distortions. It is quite clear that the solution to the problem could only be the widespread introduction printed publications, reproducing the original text many times.
This problem was well known abroad, and therefore, in pursuit of commercial interests, many European countries, in particular, in Holland and Germany, they established the printing of books based on their sale among Slavic peoples. This created favorable conditions for the subsequent creation of a number of domestic printing houses.
Russian book printing under Patriarch Job
A tangible impetus for the development of printing in Rus' was the establishment of the patriarchate in it. The first primate of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Job, who took the throne in 1589, from the first days began making efforts to provide the state with an adequate amount of spiritual literature. During his reign, the printing industry was managed by a master named Nevezha, who published fourteen different publications, in his own way. characteristic features very close to the “Apostle”, which was printed by Ivan Fedorov.
The history of book printing of a later period is associated with the names of such masters as O. I. Radishchevsky-Volyntsev and A. F. Pskovitin. Their printing house produced a lot of not only spiritual literature, but also educational books, in particular, manuals on studying grammar and mastering reading skills.
Subsequent development of printing in Russia
A sharp decline in the development of printing occurred at the beginning of the 17th century and was caused by events associated with the Polish-Lithuanian intervention and called the Time of Troubles. Some of the masters were forced to interrupt their work, and the rest died or left Russia. Mass book printing resumed only after the accession to the throne of the first sovereign from the House of Romanov, Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich.
Peter I did not remain indifferent to printing production. Having visited Amsterdam during his European voyage, he concluded an agreement with the Dutch merchant Jan Tessing, according to which he had the right to produce printed materials in Russian and bring them for sale to Arkhangelsk.
In addition, the sovereign ordered the production of a new civil font, which came into widespread use in 1708. Three years later, in St. Petersburg, which was preparing to become the capital of Russia, the largest printing house in the country was established, which later became the synodal one. From here, from the banks of the Neva, book printing spread throughout the country.
