Life of Patriarch Nikon, First Edition of 1784

This is the first printed edition of the life of Patriarch Nikon, founder of the New Jerusalem Monastery. The book was published in St Petersburg in 1784 at the Academy of Sciences at the expense of Osip Kozodavlev; its author, who called himself "a certain cleric who had been with him", was Ivan Shusherin.

Shusherin was Nikon's subdeacon and enjoyed his special favour. After the patriarch was deposed, he spent three years in prison and 10 years in confinement in Novgorod, and was released in 1682 at the request of Tsarevna Tatiana Mikhailovna. His work describes Nikon's life, the church services of the time and the daily life of monks.

The copy was rebound in the late 19th century: cardboard covered with brownish-red marbled paper, with a red leather spine bearing blind-ruled lines and the title "Life of Patriarch Nikon".