Fedor Polikarpov-Orlov

Fedor Polikarpov-Orlov (Russian: Фёдор Поликарпович Поликарпов-Орлов; c. 1660 – 12 January 1731) was a Russian writer, translator, and printer.[1] He is most noted for his Slavonic Bukvar (Primer) that was widely used by Slavic-speakers (Poles, Ruthenians, Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Bulgars) both in Europe and throughout the Russian Empire. The historic significance of the 1701 Primer as a sample of book-printing trade lies in the fact that it was the first time in the history of Moscow book-printing that it was attempted to teach students the elements of not only one language but of three at the same time: Slavic, Greek and Latin.

Polikarpov-Orlov graduated from the Slavic Greek Latin Academy in his birthplace of Moscow[1] and later taught grammar, rhetoric, and poetic theory at the same academy. Between 1698 and 1722 he was first a proofreader at the Pechatnyi Dvor (Moscow Print Yard) and then he became the printshop director.[1] From 1726 to 1731 he was director of the Synodal Printing House in Moscow. Polikarpov-Orlov’s best-known work – Slavonic-Greek-Latin Primer (1701)[2] and the Slavonic-Greek-Latin Lexicon (1704) –[3] are the most important monuments of East Slavonic lexicography and history and sources of trilingual elementary education in Russia and Eastern Europe, especially among the Serbs in the 1700s.[4] His other works include Historical Information on the Moscow Academy (1726), an appendix to The Grammar Book of Meletius Smotrytsky (1721),[5] and the first essay on the history of Russian printing. He also helped edit the first Russian newspaper, Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti.[6] Among the best known works translated by Polikarpov-Orlov is the 1650 Geography of Bernhardus Varenius (Geographia Generalis).[7]