The Genesis of Russian Grazhdanskii Shrift or Civil Type—Part I

Abstract

The development and adoption of grazhdanskii shrift or civil type by Peter I (1689-1725) is considered as a step with social and cultural implications for the late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Russia that go far beyond the impact of any innovation recorded in the general history of printing—save the introduction of printing with movable type. The paper offers a documented history of the creation of grazhdanskii shrift. In an attempt to identify possible models used by the designer of the new type contemporaneous engraved texts with characters of potential prefigurations are examined. Transitional types used by Western typographers in the Tsar’s service are identified and analyzed with the same purpose. Finally, the actual creation of the new type—the first modern typeface used in Russia—is traced starting with the search for an episode that may have triggered the idea in Peter I at the turn of the century to the imperial ukaz enforcing the use of grazhdanskii shrift in all lay works of printing.