The Russian Ornament Sourcebook: 10th‐16th Centuries

The beginning of book printing in Moscow in 1564 saw the decline in the ornamentation of Russian manuscripts, but from the late tenth century, with the arrival of Christianity, arts flourished in the Russian heartland of Kiev. Situated at the crossroads of Byzantine, Scandinavian and Balkan trade routes and political influences, the first Russian state was a prosperous federation of grand duchies and principalities. Churches and palaces were built and decorated with frescoes, and religious texts were translated and copied under the patronage of the Grand Princes. In the scriptoria of metropolitan or princely courts of Kiev, many magnificent manuscripts...