Returning to the Legacy of Ivan Fyodorov

Abstract

This review considers a thematic issue of Canadian-American Slavic Studies devoted to the activity of the first Russian printer Ivan Fyodorov. This issue completes a joint project by University College London and the British Library on the history of early Cyrillic printing. It includes eleven articles written by researchers from Great Britain, Russia, and Ukraine. The reviewer briefly characterises each of the articles and hopes that the newly emerging interest in the first stages of Russian printing will generate interest in Russian book culture. Additionally, the reviewer points out that some of the authors put forward hypotheses referring to them as “new” and never mentioning that they have existed for many years or referring to their respective authors. The reviewer demonstrates that some of the hypotheses have already been refuted; also, the authors are not critical enough of circumstantial sources. This approach causes ungrounded hypotheses to appear.