Manuscripts
Manuscripts

Manuscripts holdings is one of the world's richest collections of written landmarks of national and world culture from ancient Egyptian papyri to autographs of our contemporaries. The manuscripts held by the National Library of Russia comprise of over 1400 private archives and collections that today number more than 450 000 valuable items for all periods and countries.
Rare Books
Rare Books

The library's stock of rare books contains more than 70 000 volumes. An appreciable portion of those are incunabula (books printed before 1501): about 7 000 works. The library has no rival for its stock of early Russian printed books and Slavonic incunabula, it also holds a large amount of West European publications from the 16th and 17th century. The most remarkable among collections are Aldine editions of the 15th - 16th centuries and Elseviers produced by the celebrated 17th/century Dutch family firm. The Rare Books Department can boast Voltaire's Library, the unique monument of 18th century culture, that is one of some well surviving private libraries of that time.
Maps
Maps

The National Library's collection of printed maps and atlases is the second largest in the country, comprising more than 180,000 items printed in Russia and abroad from the sixteenth century to the present. It incudes maps, atlases, reproductions of manuscripts, globes, electronic cartographic publications.
Graphic Materials
Graphic Materials

The prints collections today number more than 1.26 million items. These include: albums, books, Ex Libris, photographs, posters, postcards, Russian and West European Prints
Photographs
Photographs

A unique photographic collection of the Prints Department is a true chronicle of the life of Russia since the second half of the 19th . It includes portraits from the 1850s, photographic views of cities and other places since the 1850s, photos on various subjects from the 1860s, photographic reproductions of works of art.
- Leningrad during World War II
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Books
Books

The exhibitions presents material from several collections:
Russian Books
Foreign Books
Russian Periodicals
Literature of Asian and African Countries
Literature of the Peoples the Russian Federation
"Plekhanov House".
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Main page > Rare Books > ABC Books, Primers > Primers of Ivan Fedorov

Exhibitions of the Rare Books Department

Ivan Fedorov's Primers
First Moscow ABC Books
Texbooks for Teaching Reading, Published in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Later Moscow ABC Books
Image Gallery

A. Voznesensky

16th-17th Century ABC Books, Grammars and Dictionaries

Ivan Fedorov's Primers

The first edition of a book in Cyrillic for teaching reading was published in 1561 in Tubingen at Primus Truber's printing press, where, at that time, the Protestants printed books in Glagolitic and Cyrillic fonts for the South Slavs for missionary purposes. Howerver, although, printers announced the issued books as ABC-darians, elementary texts occupied only a small part in them; the main place was given to the catechetical texts. It is interesting that exactly the same textbook in Glagolitic script was printed in the same place and in the same year.

The first Primer for the Eastern Slavs was published by Ivan Fedorov in 1574 in Lviv (No. 5).

Primer. Lviv, 1574. Fol. [1]<sub>5</sub>.<BR> Two copies of the book are known to have survived (stored in the libraries of England and USA). Reproduced from the facsimile edition: Ivan Fedorov. Primer / Preparation of the edition and postface by G.V. Karpuk. Moscow, 1574.

According to the printing pioneer, he himself, shortened traditional school texts "a little" and thus "abridged" the book (No. 6). During the rest of his life, Ivan Fedorov issued another two ABC books, but he did it already in Ostrog, a city in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. There, he reprinted the Primer of Lviv and substantially expanded it, adding to it the Legend on how St. Cyril the Philosopher compiled the Slavonic ABC - an essay demonstrating the merits of the Slavonic language, and its equality with the three biblical languages (No. 7). The ABC of Ostrog became the model for a number of later editions, including publications made by the Moscow printer Vasily Burtsov.

Another Ostrog publication undertakrn by Ivan Fedorov was very unusual; in 1578 he printed the primer for the Greek language learners (No. 8). In comparison with the Slavonic Primer, it was notably abridged edition; besides the Greek alphabet, it contained only the main prayers in Greek with its translation into Church Slavonic. The publisher's information bears one very important remark that explains the purpose for which the book was printed by Ivan Fedorov: he said that the need for the publication was caused by the establishment of a school for children in Ostrog.