The monument to the first printer Fedorov, created in 1909, is another attraction of Moscow, to which hundreds of tourists and residents of the city go daily.
Ivan Fedorov
Ivan Fedorov was a native of the Russian Empire. Although he was born on the territory of modern Moscow, he spent almost his whole life on the lands of the Principality of Lithuania, as well as in Ukraine, in Lviv, which at that time was part of the Russian Voivodeship and the Commonwealth. For a long time, the legendary Ivan Fedorov, the first printer, worked at a Moscow publishing house, opened with the tsar’s money. A monument to him was originally built near this building.
Nevertheless, it is he who is considered the founder of typography. In the Russian kingdom of the period of Ivan the Fourth, he first published the religious work The Apostle. It was Fedorov who owned the first printing house in the history of the then state.
A scientist was born between 1510 and 1530. There is a version of his birth in the Vileika district of Minsk region.
Consequently, there are very few memories left of him today. Some researchers of the life of Fedorov believe that he received his education in Krakow, becoming a bachelor. The city university has a record about him.
Initially, he was going to devote himself entirely to serving God and was considered a deacon at the Kremlin Church of St. Nicholas Gostunsky.
Job change
The fact that Fedorov worked in the Printing yard of Ivan the Fourth did not preserve affirmative data. He is credited with publishing several anonymous brochures issued in Moscow.
Exactly one year, from 1563 to 1564, Fedorov worked with his assistant Peter Mstislavts on the book “The Apostle”. On this book, Ivan Fedorov first put his seal. The monument to him depicts the first page of the Apostle. A year later, the first printer publishes a new book - “The Watchmaker”.
Life in Lithuania and Ukraine
After the boyar attacks on the printing house, Fedorov and his partner were forced to flee to the Principality of Lithuania. There they settle down with Khodkevich, the Lithuanian hetman, and begin to work with him. Getman bought and opened a print shop for them.
The books “The Teaching Gospel” and “The Psalter with the Theologian” are published on the estate of Zabludov, where they are located. The second edition of The Apostle Fedorov is already printing in Lviv. For this book, he also wrote his editorial opening speech. At the personal invitation of the prince of Ostrog, he settled for several years in this city, where he publishes the world's first Bible in Church Slavonic. Managed to visit Vienna and Krakow. For a long time corresponded with prominent European luminaries of science.
He died in Lviv, where he was buried.
Printing
As a church servant of the lower class, Ivan Fedorov chose to print the most common religious texts at that time. He also published several books on grammar so that everyone could learn to write and read.
The first models for books were made almost according to modern standards. In the text on one page placed twenty-five lines. They are almost identical to the modern A4 format. The first printed book contains headers and footers, and even superscript and subscript links, which were fashionable in those times in Europe. They were adopted there by Ivan Fedorov. The monument to him depicts a scroll with similar letters.
Two colors were used during printing. Before publishing the book, I had to carefully read the text, correct errors, change some turns of speech. The first printer decorated each new chapter with original vignettes and a decorative font.
Machine
About this legendary instrument, for which Fedorov worked day and night, almost no data was preserved. After the death of the publisher, only a description of what was with him was left. The machine was made according to Italian technology. In addition to it were wooden parts. The letters were pressed against the paper with a plate screwed with a large copper screw. A letter frame was also found there. The machine weighed approximately 104 kilograms. It was easily used by Ivan Fedorov. The monument depicts this machine in an enlarged view.
Monument History
Funds to immortalize the great Ivan Fedorov began to be raised in 1870. The initiators of the gathering were representatives of the Archaeological Union of Moscow. Although the money was raised quickly enough, the question of who would work on the sculpture remained open.
The monument to Ivan Fedorov, where the first printer is standing at full height, was created in 1909. Money was collected for thirty-nine years. Prior to the construction of the monument, 29, 000 rubles were collected for it, an unprecedented amount at that time. The competition of architects and sculptors for the first time failed. The commission did not like any version of the proposed work.
After careful selection from the best artists of Russia and other countries, the sculptor Sergei Mikhailovich Volnukhin and the architect Ivan Pavlovich Mashkov were hired. The projects of the winners were evaluated by the historian Klyuchevsky and the painter Apollinarius Vasnetsov.
Description of the monument to Ivan Fedorov
Ivan Fedorov froze on the monument in his favorite pose while working. In one hand he has a printed board with a set of letters. In his other hand he holds the page he just made from the book “Apostle”. The sculpture was made of bronze.
The description of the monument to Ivan Fedorov will not be complete if you do not talk about his clothes. Although the publisher was a spiritual person, the sculptors depicted him in usual clothes for those times: a long caftan fastened with buttons, from under which you can see trousers tucked into boots.
The hair at the printers is tied with a ribbon so that they do not interfere during operation.
The pedestal is decorated with the arms of Fedorov in the form of a hand with a shield and initials. Above the letters is a small tip, like an arrow. Under the sculpture of the master there is a signature "St. Nicholas the Wonderworker of Gostunsky to Deacon Ivan Fedorov."
The sculptor could not ignore the book "Apostle" and placed the date of the beginning of its creation under the name of the book publisher.
Location
The place where the monument to Ivan Fedorov is installed was not chosen by chance. Next to it was once the Printing House, which was financed by Ivan the Terrible. There the book “Apostle” in the first edition went out of print. The yard was founded in 1553, and then Fedorov began to work there.
Under Peter the Great, it was in this place that the Vedomosti newspaper began to be published.
But if tourists ask where the monument to Ivan Fedorov is located, they will be called a completely different place. The reason for this was the transfer of the monument with a pedestal. In 1934, the streets of Moscow began to expand, the old buildings demolished. The Kitay-Gorod wall was gone, and it was decided to move the statue.
And in the 90s, the monument was transported to the Metropol Hotel. From the place of work of Fedorov, once a huge Printing Yard, there was only a small tower. There, in the former "right", Ivan Fedorov worked. The excursion at the monument is held on weekdays and weekends, and it ends with an examination of this tower.
In memory of Fedorov
The Moscow monument is not the only mention of this worthy person, clergyman and enlightener. In 1997, a museum was opened at the Potocki Palace in honor of Ivan Fedorov. It can be found out in more detail about the life of the creator of books, as well as how the printing process took place initially, which books they preferred to publish, and why at first they published only spiritual literature.
Near the museum "stands" in human growth, Ivan Fedorov - the first printer. The monument was made by sculptor Anatoly Galyan.
In 1998, an icon was consecrated in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, which depicts the creator of books with his machine. This relic is unique in that for the first time in the entire Orthodox history a drawing of a printing press appeared on it.
In 2009, Fedorov was canonized in the Old Believer Orthodox Church, christened him deacon John.
And in 2010, the name of Ivan Fedorov was awarded to the State Press University in Moscow, on the day he celebrated his eightieth birthday.
In Lviv, on one of the central squares, a five-meter sculpture rises - Ivan Fedorov dressed in a church cassock. The monument in Moscow is very different from it. The monument in Lviv was placed near the place where his printing house was located.
