The Influence of Patriarch Nikon’s Church Reforms on the Development of the Moscow Printing Court

Abstract

On the basis of documents from the archive of the Book Printing Chancellery, this article examines the changes that occurred in the main typography of the Muscovite state between 1620 and 1675. Measures taken to optimise the process of printing led to this establishment becoming highly lucrative. Using a comparative analysis of the net cost of books and their sales price, we are able to pin point the surplus value of production between 1630 and the beginning of the 1650s. All this changed with Patriarch Nikon’s church reforms, which began with the correction of religious texts: this had a direct impact on the activities of the Printing Court. Analysis of the typography’s work after the reforms leads us to the conclusion that the changes interrupted the rapid development of the Moscow Printing Court and its transformation into a large and profitable enterprise. In the second half of the 17th century, the typography began to receive subsidies: by the beginning of the 18th century, it had entered a period of severe crisis which pushed it to the very brink.