The Apostol of Ivan Fyodorov and Pyotr Mstislavets, 1564

The Apostol of 1564 is the first precisely dated Russian printed book. It was issued at the Moscow Printing Yard on 1 March 1564 by Ivan Fyodorov (c. 1510–1583) and Pyotr Mstislavets. Its afterword tells how the “printing craft” began in Rus’.

The Apostol is a liturgical book containing the Acts and the Epistles of the Apostles. It was printed for the new churches in Moscow and in the annexed lands of the former Kazan Khanate. A special, easily legible typeface was made for the edition, and the book contains neither printing faults nor misprints.

The book is printed in two colours and decorated with an engraving of the Apostle Luke in a triumphal arch, 48 headpieces and 22 large initials; the headings are set in ornamental vyaz lettering. The arch is based on a woodcut by the German artist Erhard Schön from a Bible printed in Nuremberg in 1524, but the composition was substantially reworked in the Russian tradition, possibly by Fyodorov himself. Just over 60 surviving copies of the Apostol are known today, several of them in the Historical Museum.