The Search for the Lost Library of Ivan the Terrible

The thought of a lost library is a tantalizing one, as one can speculate and imagine the kind of knowledge it might provide to the person who finds it. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that there are those who have dedicated their entire lives to the search of such elusive libraries. One of these fabled lost libraries is that of the first Tsar of all the Russias, Ivan IV Vasilyevich, more commonly known as Ivan the Terrible.

Painting of Tsar Ivan the Terrible.  By Viktor Vasnetsov, 1897. Public Domain

The Library of Ivan the Terrible is said to have been started by his grandfather, Ivan III (the Great) of Russia. After the death of Ivan III’s first wife, Maria of Tver, in 1467, Pope Paul II suggested that Ivan III wed Sophia Paleologue, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor, in an attempt to bind Russia to the Holy See in Rome. In 1472, Ivan and Sophia were married, and a collection of old books were brought along with her to her new home in Moscow. It is said that these included the larger part of the Library of Constantinople saved from the Turks when the city fell in 1453, as well as some manuscripts from the ancient Library of Alexandria.