The Influence of Early Protestant Book Printing on the Vilnius Orthodox Brotherhood’s Printing House: Evidence of Ornaments

Abstract

Until recently, the historiography of the Vilnius Orthodox Brotherhood Printing House (active 1595–1654 and 1693–1705) has been dominated by the belief that the decorative design of its printings was influenced exclusively by the book art of printers such as Francysk Skaryna, Ivan Fedorov, and other East Slavic Orthodox printing presses. Based on an analysis of printers’ ornaments, this paper presents new evidence that the Brotherhood Printing House frequently used original ornaments and precise copies borrowed from Vilnius printing workshops which produced Latin-script books. Among these borrowings, the majority are initials (both Roman type and Gothic) as well as vignettes associated with Protestant printers Jan Karcan, and Jokūbas Morkūnas. In addition, the Brotherhood Printing House incorporated Jan Karcan’s woodcut border for the coat of arms in its 1596 publication. Jokūbas Morkūnasʼs title-page border was also used by the Brotherhood to decorate large-format publications, such as the 1644 altar Gospel and 1646 prayer book Poluustav. Based on the evidence, it is plausible that Protestant printers could have personally printed books for the Brotherhood or collaborated during printing at the same press with its masters. Investigation of the decorative elements of early Vilnius printing houses has also, for the first time, highlighted the extensive circulation of cast printers’ ornaments across all city printing workshops. The earliest known printer to bring and employ castings in Vilnius was Daniel z Łęczycy. By the late 16th century, cast ornaments had become the most distinctive characteristic of the Vilnius book trade. Keywords: printers’ ornaments; cast ornaments; Vilnius Orthodox Brotherhood Printing House; Daniel z Łęczycy; Jan Karcan; Jokūbas Morkūnas; Mikołaj Radziwiłł the Orphan; Vilnius Jesuit Academy Printing House.