Types in this character existed at an early date, a _Psalter_ having been printed at Cracow in 1491, and reprinted at Montenegro in 1495. In 1512 the _Gospels_ were printed at Ugrovallachia, and again in 1552 at Belgrade, and in 1562 at Montenegro. There was, in 1553, a Sclavonic press established by the Czar Ivan Vasilievitch at Moscow, whence, in 1564, appeared the _Acts and Epistles_, a volume which has the distinction of being the first book printed in Russia. The type and material for this press are said to have been brought from Copenhagen. The first Russian printers were persecuted, but succeeded in producing several other works in Sclavonic type. In 1581 the first _Bible_ in that language was printed at Ostrog, and after that printing became more general. The second Moscow press, established in 1644, was famous for its excellent typography; the second edition of the _Bible_, in 1663, is a splendid performance. Sclavonic printing appears to have been but little practised out of Russia, yet we find matrices with Voskens of Amsterdam about 1690; from which, probably, the improved types introduced into the Moscow press in 1707 were cast.
The only Sclavonic fount in England was that given by Dr. Fell to Oxford, and this, Mores states, was replaced in 1695 by a fount of the more modern Russian character, purchased probably at Amsterdam. The _Oratio Dominica_ of 1700 gives a specimen of this fount, but renders the Hieronymian version in copperplate. Chamberlayne’s _Oratio Dominica_ at Amsterdam in 1715 does the same; but the Cyrillian type differs from that of Oxford. The press of the Propaganda showed founts both of Cyrillian and Hieronymian in 1753, and founts occur in nearly all the Polyglot specimens of the chief European foundries.
The MODERN SCLAVONIC, better known to us as RUSSIAN, is said to have appeared first in portions of the _Old Testament_, printed at Prague in 1517–19. Ten years later there was Russian type in Venice. A Russian press was established at Stockholm in 1625, by order of Gustavus Adolphus, and in 1696 there were matrices in Amsterdam, from which came the types used in Ludolph’s _Grammatica Russica_, printed at Oxford in that year, and whence also, it is said, the types were procured which furnished the first St. Petersburg press, established in 1711 by Peter the Great. At Amsterdam, also, a second attempt to translate and print the _Bible_ into Russian, begun about 1698, was frustrated by the loss of the MSS. and library of Ernest Gluck, the editor and translator, at the siege of Marienburg, in 1702. The presses at St. Petersburg increased, and it is probable that on the establishment of the press in connection with the Academy of Sciences, in 1727, Russian types were cast in that city. Breitkopf of Leipsic { 72} had matrices prior to 1787; Fournier, at Paris, in 1766, showed a specimen of a fount in his foundry; Marcel, in his _Oratio Dominica_, 1805, showed another; and Bodoni of Parma, in his _Manuale Tipografico_, 1818, had no less than twenty-one sizes.