Kalmyk Movable Types Made in Saint Petersburg

Introduction. In the 19th and early 20th centuries a considerable number of books, articles, brochures and commercial advertisements in the Kalmyk language were printed in Russia using the movable type of the font known as the “clear script”. This printing in Kalmyk took place in St. Petersburg, Kazan and Astrakhan. The aim of this article is to figure out the history of the creation of the Kalmyk movable type and its different modifications and fonts types. The article is based on the available printed books and documents kept in different scientific libraries of St. Petersburg such as Gorky Scientific Library of St. Petersburg State University; the Library of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National Library of Russia. Conclusion. The Kalmyk movable type was first used in 1814. It was made in St. Petersburg for printing Christian literature at the request of the Russian Bible Society. Two kinds of fonts types were produced for the Bible Society: the bigger and the smaller. The latter was used in the 1840s in Kazan for printing scholarly works on the Kalmyk language. Later two more kinds of Kalmyk font types were made in St. Petersburg bringing the total number of fonts to four.