At the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda museum-reserve, summer holidays are in full swing. A new themed tour is very popular. It is held in the recently opened exhibition "At the Printing Yard", which recreates the work of the "shtanba" in the sloboda residence of Ivan the Terrible. It is known that under the supervision of Andronik Timofeev Nevezha four editions were published here: the Gospel, the Apostle, the Horologion (Book of Hours) and the Psalter.
The guides now tell about the process that accompanied the "birth" of a new book. Primarily to children and teenagers, for whom the history of bookmaking in the Middle Ages is fascinating but hard to understand. Therefore, to visualize a complex topic, didactic material — as they used to say at school — is essential.
The exhibition also contains items that everyone wants to examine more closely. First and foremost, these are the type sorts — metal letter-bars. The kids learn with interest that in Russia they were made exclusively of tin. But there was no domestic tin production in the country at that time, so on the printing yard they melted tin dishes and plates purchased abroad in furnaces and poured the metal into special molds for the type.
In addition, everyone is curious to hold a real cinnabar in their hands — the mineral used in the 16th century to make red paint.
"To immerse visitors in the atmosphere of the medieval shtanba we ordered replicas of the rarities kept here. This is the 'Sloboda Psalter', printed at the tsar's sloboda printing house in 1577. For making the replica we used handmade paper, wooden bindings, leather, clasps, etc. We also show the children a leaf from the same book with an image of King David to visually demonstrate the very important 16th-century process of drying a printed sheet. And today we have new items — the actual engraving of David from which the impressions were made, and a headpiece/ornament (these decorated the beginning of a text, a new chapter, etc.). And of course, here the children have a unique opportunity to take the role of an apprentice and work on a reduced replica of a medieval printing press,"
- said Maria Anashkina, head of the tours department of the Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda museum-reserve.
By the way, we remind you that, thanks to the support and sponsorship of Evgeny Sergeyevich Fedorov, director of OAO Kirzhachskaya Typography, visiting the new exhibition and the themed tour "At the Printing Yard" is free for all schoolchildren of the Vladimir region during the summer holidays. Daily bookings confirm that the promotion is among the top tourist offerings!
