This website is part of The New York Public Library's Online Exhibition Archive. For current classes, programs, and exhibitions, please visit nypl.org.
Russia Engages the World, 1453-1825
1453 Through the Reign of Ivan the Terrible (1533-1584) The Time of Troubles to the First Romanovs (1598-1682) Peter the Great and His Legacy (1682-1762) The Age of Catherine the Great (1762-1801) The Reign of Emperor Alexander I (1801-1825)

                                     

Explore this Section:

Overview
History
Maps
Personalities
Themes
Translations
  Russia Events
Engagement Symbol The Building of the Kremlin, 1156–1516
Russia Symbol Ivan IV Takes a Wife, 1547
Engagement Symbol Taking of Kazan, 1552
Russia Symbol Printing of the First Book in Moscow, 1564
Russia Symbol Oprichnina, 1564
  World Events
World Symbol
 The Golden Horde, 1300s
World Symbol
 Ottoman Capture of Constantinople (Istanbul), 1453
Engagement Symbol The Establishment of the Safavid Dynasty, 1502
World Symbol
 The Protestant Reformation, 1517
Engagement Symbol The Jenkinson Mission to West Asia, 1558
Special Features


Russia's Globalization:
A Key

Events marked Russia Symbol are specific to Muscovy/Russia's internal development.
Those marked World Symbol are important world historical or cultural events.
Engagement Symbol indicates specific points of sociocultural or military engagement between Muscovy/Russia and foreign powers or individuals.




















 

 


 Russia Symbol    Printing of the First Book in Moscow, 1564

The first dated book printed in Moscow, the Apostol [Apostle], appeared in 1564, more than a century after Johann Gutenberg (ca. 1397–1468) began printing with moveable type. The book was printed by Ivan Fedorov (ca. 1510–1583). The Apostol was richly ornamented, with aesthetic borrowings from earlier European imprints.

Fedorov's success in Moscow was short-lived, however. In 1566, he ran afoul of church and secular authorities, and so he headed west, establishing presses in, successively, Zabludóv, Vilnius, Volyn, and Lviv.