Ivan Fyodorov (printer) - Biography

Biography

Neither his place nor his date of birth are known. It is assumed that he was born about 1510. In his afterword to the Lviv Apostle he named Moscow as "our home, our fatherland and our kin", which may indicate that he was born in Moscow. In 1935 a Russian historian of heraldry, Lukomsky, advanced the hypothesis that his printer's mark resembled the Szreniawa coat of arms of the Rahoza szlachta family, and that Fyodorov had a connection with that family either by descent or by adoption. No subsequent researchers have accepted that theory other than Nemirovsky (2002), who agreed only with the possibility of adoption but not with the theory pf Fyodorov being descended from the szlachta.

Fyodorov graduated from Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland in 1532 with a bachelor's degree.

In 1564–5 Fedorov accepted an appointment as a deacon in the church of Saint Nicolas (Gostunsky) in the Moscow Kremlin. Together with Pyotr Mstislavets he established the Moscow Print Yard and published a number of liturgical works in Church Slavonic using moveable type. This technical innovation created competition for the Muscovite scribes, who began to persecute Fyodorov and Mstislavets, finally forcing them to flee to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania after their printing workshop had been burned down (an alleged arson, as related by Giles Fletcher in 1591).

After their brief stay in Moscow they were received by the Great Lithuanian Hetman Hrehory Chodkiewicz at his estate in Zabłudów (northern Podlaskie), where they published Yevangeliye uchitel’noye (Didactic Gospel, 1569) (see Zabłudów Gospel) and Psaltir’ (Psalter, 1570).

He moved to Lviv in 1572 and resumed his work as a printer the following year at the Saint Onuphrius Monastery. (Fyodorov's tombstone in Lviv is inscribed with "renewed neglected printing".) In 1574 Fyodorov, with the help of his son and Hryn Ivanovych of Zabłudów published the second edition of the Apostolos (previously published by him in Moscow), with an autobiographical epilogue, and an Azbuka (Alphabet book).

In 1575 Fyodorov, now in the service of Prince Konstanty Wasyl Ostrogski, was placed in charge of the Derman Monastery; in 1577–9 he established the Ostrog Press, where, in 1581, he published the Ostrog Bible in Church Slavonic - the first full version of the Bible printed in moveable type, as well as a number of other books. Fyodorov returned to Lviv after a quarrel with Prince Konstantyn Ostrogski, but his attempt to reopen his printing shop was unsuccessful. His printing facilities became the property of the Lviv Dormition Brotherhood (later the Stauropegion Institute). The brotherhood used Fyodorov's original designs until the early 19th century.

In 1583 he visited Vienna and Kraków, where he showed the Emperor his latest inventions. He then returned to Lviv, where he died on December 16, 1583; he was buried there on the grounds of the Saint Onuphrius Monastery.